Dan Walls Centre

Professor Dan Walls (1942-1999)
Professor Dan Walls (1942-1999)

Dan Walls Centre for Pure and Applied Optics

The Dan Walls Centre for Pure and Applied Optics honours the late Professor Dan Walls for the pioneering quantum optics research and long-reaching vision that earned him abundant international acclaim.

The Dan Walls Centre serves the University of Auckland, its partners, and its stakeholders through innovative fundamental and applied research over a broad range of optics-related topics. The research efforts of the new Centre are currently organized around the three themes of Quantum Optics, led by Howard Carmichael who holds the Dan Walls Chair in Theoretical Physics, Applied Optics led by John Harvey, and Biophotonics led by Cather Simpson.

For more information on the Dan Walls Centre click here.


Director, Professor John Harvey (Department of Physics)

Professor John Harvey, Director
John Harvey, Director
Professor Harvey is the founding director of the Dan Walls Centre, and is leader of the Applied Optics Theme.  He is also the founder and Chief Technical Officer for Southern Photonics, Ltd., an Auckland-based photonics company.

For more information about Professor Harvey, click here.

For more information about Southern Photonics, Ltd., click here.

Associate Director, Professor Howard Carmichael (Department of Physics)

Howard Carmichael, Associate Director
Howard Carmichael, Associate Director
Professor Carmichael is a founding co-director of the Dan Walls Centre, and is the leader of the Quantum Optics Research theme.

For more information about Professor Carmichael, click here.

For more information about Quantum Optics Theory, click here.

Associate Director, Dr. Cather Simpson (Departments of Chemistry and Physics)

Cather Simpson, Associate Director
Cather Simpson, Associate Director
Dr. Simpson is a founding co-director of the Dan Walls Centre, and the leader of the Biophotonics theme.  She is also the Director of The Photon Factory, a multiuser pulsed laser facility with many different types of ultrafast time-resolved spectroscopy stations and micro-to-nanofabrication capabilities.

For more information about Dr. Simpson, click here.

For more information about The Photon Factory, click here.