Davis, Christopher

Biography

 Christopher C. Davis is Minta Martin Professor of Engineering and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park. He received the B.A. degree (with Honors) in Natural Sciences from the University of Cambridge in 1965, the M.A. degree from the University of Cambridge in 1970, and the Ph.D. degree in Physics from the University of Manchester in 1970. From 1973-1975 he was an Instructor/Research Associate at Cornell University, and from 1982-83 was a Senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He has been a recipient of the following Honors and Awards:  University of Maryland Distinguished Scholar-Teacher, 1989-90; Fellow of the Institute of Physics, 1989; AT&T/ASEE Award for Excellence in Engineering Education,1990; Fellow of the IEEE, 1993; Invention of the Year Award in Information Technology, University of Maryland, 2000; Poole and Kent Teaching Award for Senior Faculty, 2012. Professor Davis is the author of the widely used text “Lasers and Electro-Optics,” published by Cambridge University Press, and co-author with Jack Moore and Mike Coplan of the best selling text “Building Scientific Apparatus,” recently published in its 4th edition by Cambridge University Press. He is also author or co-author of 14 chapters in books, 215 refereed journal articles and over 295 conference papers, and is the holder of twelve awarded and several pending patents. He is Conference co-Chair of the SPIE Free Space Laser Communications Conference, and is a frequent invited lecturer both nationally and internationally. He has served as a scientific consultant to several US Government agencies and industry. He is a member of the IEEE Committee SCC-34 SC2, which deals with RF exposure from wireless devices.

Research Interest

Free space optical and directional RF communication systems, atmospheric turbulence, advanced surveillance systems, plasmonics, chemical and biological sensors, interferometry, optical systems, bioelectromagnetics, RF dosimetry. Currently active research includes optical and RF directional wireless, real-time advanced surveillance systems with “event” detection, the optical properties of nanostructures where surface plasmons can be excited, laser interferometry, dielectrometry, fiber sensors and biosensors