Allan Dawson Boardman was a British physicist, known for his work on

surface plasmons Surface plasmons (SPs) are coherent delocalized electron oscillations that exist at the interface between any two materials where the real part of the dielectric function changes sign across the interface (e.g. a metal-dielectric interface, such a ...

and guided wave optics, especially

nonlinear wave In mathematics and science, a nonlinear system is a system in which the change of the output is not proportional to the change of the input. Nonlinear problems are of interest to engineers, biologists, physicists, mathematicians, and many other ...

soliton In mathematics and physics, a soliton or solitary wave is a self-reinforcing wave packet that maintains its shape while it propagates at a constant velocity. Solitons are caused by a cancellation of nonlinear and dispersive effects in the medium ...

s, magneto-optics and negative refracting

metamaterial A metamaterial (from the Greek word μετά ''meta'', meaning "beyond" or "after", and the Latin word ''materia'', meaning "matter" or "material") is any material engineered to have a property that is not found in naturally occurring materials. ...

s. He was a theorist and numerical analyst in these areas, especially magneto-optics and metamaterials. In 2006 he was made a fellow of the

Optical Society of America Optica (formerly known as The Optical Society (OSA) and before that as the Optical Society of America) is a professional society of individuals and companies with an interest in optics and photonics. It publishes journals and organizes conference ...

for his contributions in these fields and for "exemplary leadership and service to the optics community". Boardman made substantial contributions to his university, leading the School of Sciences. Latterly, he was a Professorial Research Fellow at the

University of Salford , caption = Coat of ArmsUniversity of Salford , mottoeng = "Let us seek higher things" , established = 1850 - Pendleton Mechanics Institute 1896 – Royal Technical Institute, Salford 1967 – gained ...

. He held a Doctor of Science degree from the

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate university, collegiate public university, public research university in Durham, England, Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charte ...

. He was a Fellow of the UK

Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...

and a Fellow of the UK Institute of Mathematics and its Applications. He was the conference chair for the major UK photonics meeting called Photon10. He was a Fellow of the

SPIE SPIE (formerly the Society of Photographic Instrumentation Engineers, later the Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers) is an international not-for-profit professional society for optics and photonics technology, founded in 1955. It ...

and co-chair of the

Photonic Metamaterials conference series to be held in San Diego in 2014.Plasmonics: Metallic Nanostructures and Their Optical Properties XII conference details
/ref> He had also organized other conferences, including being a director of a number of pivotal NATO Advanced Study Institutes. He was the chair of the Optics and Photonics Division of the UK

and the vice-president of the United Kingdom Consortium for Optics and Photonics (UKCPO). He had served as a board member of the Quantum Electronics and Optics Division of the

European Physical Society The European Physical Society (EPS) is a non-profit organisation whose purpose is to promote physics and physicists in Europe through methods such as physics outreach. Formally established in 1968, its membership includes the national physical so ...

. He was the UK voice on the new European strategy program called OPERA ptics and Photonics in the European Research Area2015. Boardman was honoured with a special session in his name at the 3rd International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Crystals and Plasmonics (Meta '12) in Paris in 2012. He presented nearly 300 conference papers and had been editor for several books, such as 'Soliton-driven Photonics' https://www.amazon.com/Soliton-driven-Photonics-Nato-Science-II/dp/0792371313/ . Boardman died on 24 November 2018.

Selected publications

*A. D. Boardman (editor and contributor on surface plasmons), "Electromagnetic Surface Modes", John Wiley (1982). * * * * *

References

External links

Physics Department
at the University of Salford.
Faculty page
University of Salford
Journal of the Optical Society of America B: Editorial board

In memory of Professor Allan Boardman
University of Salford news item. {{DEFAULTSORT:Boardman, Allan British physicists Academics of the University of Salford Fellows of the Institute of Physics Fellows of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications 1937 births 2018 deaths Alumni of King's College, Newcastle Scientists from Northumberland