2019 PECASE - Franklyn Quinlan

For defying prevailing theory from the past 40 years to generate the world’s most stable electromagnetic signals spanning the radiofrequency, microwave and optical ranges, and to make a 10,000-fold improvement in the ability to measure those signals.

Dr. Franklyn Quinlan is recognized for creating new pulsed-laser systems that have allowed him and his team to generate the world’s most stable electromagnetic signals spanning the radiofrequency, microwave and optical ranges, and to make a 10,000-fold improvement in the ability to measure those signals. Many key technologies increasingly rely on tightly controlled electromagnetic signals with extremely small timing jitter. Timing jitter garbles high speed communications, blurs radar images, causes GPS location errors, and limits performance of atomic clocks. Requirements for ultrastable signals and measurements had outstripped the world’s ability to provide them–until Dr. Quinlan’s breakthroughs in RF/microwave generation. As a result, the world’s most stable microwave signals are now generated by techniques pioneered by Dr. Quinlan; these techniques are already being adopted by leading companies and research institutes. Dr. Quinlan was recognized by his peers for his seminal contributions with a 2015 Young Scientist of the Year Award.