Projects per year
Personal profile
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28 Last checked 23 June 2020
Biography
- Research Assistant UCL 1979-82
- Experimental Officer UCL 1982-88
- Director Optical Investments Ltd 1994-2015
- Associate Research Fellow UCL 1988-95
- Lecturer UCL 1995-97
- Reader in Optical Science UCL 1997-2008
- Royal Society Industry Fellow UCL 2003-07
- Principal Research Associate UCL 2008-09
- Professorial Research Associate UCL 2009-15
- Visiting Professor Huddersfield 2015-16
- Professor of Ultra Precision Surfaces, Huddersfield 2016 - present
- Honorary Senior Research Associate UCL 2016 - present
Major achievements:
- Development of cryogenic CCD cameras
- Developed novel Echelle Spectrograph and commissioned at the 3.9m AAT (Australia); design principles adopted for Utrecht Echelle Spectrograph on 4.2m William Herschel Telescope - Acted as consultant to Utrecht group.
- Commercialisation of research in computer controlled polishing
- Several Large Telescope design studies; Korean space camera tech. development
- Formative research in CNC polishing; Gemini High-Res spectrograph studies
- Developed High Res Optical Spectrograph and commissioned at 8m Gemini telescope (Chile)
- Successful delivery of new 1.8m mirror and auxiliary optics for Birr Telescope refurbishment.
- Bi-directional tech-transfer with Zeeko Ltd
- Established National Facility for Ultra Precision Surfaces at OpTIC Centre, N. Wales
- Successful technical proposal leading to securing of €5m E-ELT prototype mirror-segment contract
- Advanced polishing and metrology research and its exploitation
- Establishing new research programme under Huddersfield University
Research Expertise and Interests
- Research in manufacture and metrology of precision and ultra-precision surfaces for optics and other precision applications
- Research into process-automation and robotics, as applied to iterative rather than deterministic processes; leading towards the ultimate vision of a fully-autonomous manufacturing cell
- Research into optical instrumentation techniques in general and astronomical instrumentation in particular
Research Degree Supervision
Click Here to see all postgraduate research opportunities with Professor David Walker
Research Expertise and Interests
- Optics and Photonics
- Optics
- Instrumentation
- Applied Optics
- Interferometry
- Measurement and Metrology
- Metrology
- Optical Metrology
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Projects
- 4 Finished
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Developing an integrated system to enable a robot arm to speak with a Zeeko machine to automate currently manual operations.
1/09/13 → 31/03/17
Project: Research
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Feasibility of capturing crafts-based knowledge in an AI system to automate precision surface manufacturing
Walker, D., Petrovic, S., Longstaff, A., Pan, W., Parkinson, S., Wilson, K., Yu, G. & Li, H.
1/04/17 → 31/05/18
Project: Research
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Novel Mathematical Techniques for Advanced Tool-paths to Transform High-value Optical Fabrication (2)
1/05/16 → 1/12/16
Project: Research
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3.5 THz quantum-cascade laser emission from dual diagonal feedhorns
Ellison, B. N., Valavanis, A., Auriacombe, O., Gerber, D., Rawlings, T., Brewster, N., Oldfield, M. L., Han, Y., Li, L. H., Zafar, E., Linfield, E. H., Davies, A. G., Savini, G., Emes, M., Winter, B., Walker, D. & Saenz, E., 1 Nov 2019, In: International Journal of Microwave and Wireless Technologies. 11, 9, p. 909-917 9 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access3 Citations (Scopus) -
Advances in Optical Fabrication for Astronomy
Walker, D., Yu, G., Li, H., Myer, B. W., Beaucamp, A. T., Namba, Y. & Wu, L., 11 May 2019, In: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 485, 2, p. 2071–2082 12 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access5 Citations (Scopus) -
Combined processing chain for freeform optics based on atmospheric pressure plasma processing and bonnet polishing
Su, X., Ji, P., Liu, K., Walker, D., Yu, G., Li, H., Li, D. & Wang, B., 24 Jun 2019, In: Optics Express. 27, 13, p. 17979-17992 14 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access12 Citations (Scopus) -
Fully automating fine-optics manufacture - why so tough, and what are we doing?
Walker, D. D., McCluskey, T. L., Yu, G., Petrovic, S. & Li, H., 1 Dec 2019, In: Journal of the European Optical Society. 15, 1, 10 p., 24.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access -
Fundamental steps toward next-generation intelligent automatic process in a faster and cost-effective chain for processing optical surfaces
Wu, H. Y., Walker, D. & Yu, G., 22 Jul 2019, In: Optics Express. 27, 15, p. 21856-21871 16 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open Access2 Citations (Scopus)
Activities
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CNC Polishing and Metrology: From E-ELT Segments to Commercial Optics
David Walker (Speaker)
7 Jun 2016Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
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18th International Symposium on Advances in Abrasive Technology
David Walker (Organiser)
4 Oct 2015 → 7 Oct 2015Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organising a conference, workshop, ...
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Optical Manufacturing and Testing XI (Event)
David Walker (Programme Committee Member)
9 Aug 2015 → 11 Aug 2015Activity: Publication peer-review and editorial work types › Editorial work
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4th European Optical Society Conference on Manufacturing and Testing of Optical Components
David Walker (Member of programme committee)
22 Jun 2015Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organising a conference, workshop, ...
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2nd Far Infrared Space Interferometer Critical Assessment Workshop
David Walker (Organiser)
28 Jan 2015 → 29 Jan 2015Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Organising a conference, workshop, ...