This page is the starting point for what will hopefully be a somewhat interactive description of my research interests. My field of research may be broadly described as 'classical optics', which is the study of the wave nature of light. An overview of the wave nature of light may be found here, for those not familiar with the concept; this overview will provide some background in understanding the topics below.

My specific interests fall into four broad categories:

1. Inverse problems: This is the study of systems such as the spectacularly successful CAT scan (computed axial tomography). A description of my work can be found here.

2. Light interaction on the nanoscale: There is much recent interest in investigating the interaction of light with objects much smaller than the wavelength (typically objects with size comparable to a nanometer). A description of this work can be found here.

3. Coherence theory and propagation of partially coherent beams: It has been shown that beams with randomly fluctuating phase fronts have some advantages over their fully coherent counterparts, in such applications as propagation through turbulence and reduction of speckle effects. A description of this work can be found here.

4. Singular optics: At points where the intensity (brightness) of a wavefield is zero, the phase of the wavefield is undefined and said to be singular. Around these zero points, the field tends to 'circulate', and they are typically referred to as 'optical vortices'. Fields which contain optical vortices possess many interesting mathematical and physical properties. A discussion of my investigations into this topic can be found here.