John Edwin Midwinter

Professor John Edwin Midwinter OBE FRS FREng
Born	(1938-03-08)8 March 1938 Newbury, Berkshire, England
Died	13 November 2021(2021-11-13) (aged 83) Ipswich, Suffolk, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	KCL, UK
Known for	Optical Communications
Awards	IET Faraday Medal (1997) IET JJ Thomson Medal (1987) Clifford Paterson Medal (1983) FRS (1985) FREng (1984)
Scientific career
Fields	Optical communications
Institutions	University College London, UK IET, UK

John Edwin Midwinter (8 March 1938 – 13 November 2021) was a British electrical engineer and professor, who was President of the Institution of Electrical Engineers (now IET) from 2000 to 2001.

Education

He was educated at St Bartholomew's School, King's College London (BSc Physics, 1961) and the University of London (PhD, 1968).^[1]

Career

From the 1970s, John's research centred on optical fibre communications, and he led the speedy deployment of optical communications infrastructure in the UK while at British Telecom.^[2] He was subsequently the BT Professor of Optoelectronics at University College London from 1984 to 1991 and Pender Professor of Electronic Engineering from 1991 to 2004, and was Vice Provost from 1994 to 1999. He was subsequently made an Emeritus Professor there.^[3] He was also a member of the Parliamentary Office of Science & Technology Advisory Board.^[4] He was President of IEE (now IET) UK in 2000.^[5]

Awards

He was made an OBE and elected to Fellow ^[6] of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1984 and a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1985. He delivered the Clifford Paterson Lecture^[7] of the Royal Society in 1983 and was awarded the IEE JJ Thomson Medal ^[8] in 1987 and the Faraday Medal of the Institution of Electrical Engineers in 1997. He was awarded Honorary Doctorates ^[9] from Nottingham University in 2000, Loughborough University in 2001 & Queens University Belfast in 2004, UK. In 2000 he presented the Bernard Price Memorial Lecture. In 2002, he was awarded the IEEE Eric E. Sumner Award.^[10]

Personal life

Midwinter died on 13 November 2021, at the age of 83.^[11]

Books

• Zernike, F.; Midwinter, J.E. (2006) [1973]. Applied Nonlinear Optics. Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-48-645360-6.

• Midwinter, J.E. (1979). Optical fibers for transmission. Wiley. ISBN 978-0-47-160240-8.

References

1. ‘MIDWINTER, Prof. John Edwin’, Who's Who 2016, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2016
2. "Biography of John E Midwinter, The Royal Society".
3. "Lighting the way to a revolution". BBC News. Retrieved 15 March 2016.
4. "President's Inaugural Address, The IET, 2000".
5. "Past Presidents of IET, UK".
6. "List of Fellows, Royal Academy of Engineering UK".
7. "Royal Society Clifford Paterson Medal and Lecture".
8. "Recipients of IET JJ Thomson Medal, The IET UK".
9. "Degree Speech - Honorary Doctorate for Professor John E Midwinter".
10. "Recipients of IEEE Eric Sumner Award". Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Archived from the original on 12 January 2013.
11. Professor John Edwin Midwinter death notice