Professor Gordon Love

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in July 2023, where I am Head of one of the largest Schools in the University. Our research involves AI, Distributed Systems, Scientific Computing, Visualization & Graphics, Computer Vision, and Theory, and we have a strong cross cutting theme in Biology, Medicine, and Health. We have an excellent top-10 REF result with a very strong impact profile.  We currently have around 1,600 students in total with a thriving undergraduate programme , a number of MSc programmes in Computer Science, two CDTs, a programme at Southwest Jiatong University in China, and an online distance learning programme on AI

My home is in the fantastic Sir William Henry Bragg Building which Computer Science shares with Physics & Astronomy, and the Bragg Centre for Materials Research. My  current research sits nicely betwen Computer Science, Engineering and Physics, where we work on a large collabroative project with Merck on applications of liquid crystal optics in AR and VR. 

The Bragg Building at the University of Leeds

I decided I wanted to become an academic at the age of about 16 when I was inspired by a work experience placement I did at Leeds University in the then Department of Colour Chemistry. I barely knew what a University was but the idea of research, education and generally “finding things out” captured my imagination. 

I went on to study Physics at Durham University where I was awarded my Bachelor’s and PhD degrees. I attempted to leave Durham twice – first as a Royal Society International Fellow at the Raman Research Institute in Bangalore, India, and secondly as a Postdoc at the University of New Mexico and the USAF Phillips Laboratory in Albuquerque, USA. I then joined the faculty at Durham for 26 years, and worked in both the School of Engineering and the Department of Physics, before moving to Computer Science. I took on a number of leadership roles, including being Deputy Exec Dean – with the portfolio of undergraduate teaching – and I was the founding Head of the re-eastablished Department of Computer Science for five years. I grew the Department from around 18 staff to over 50 with a corresponding increase in student numbers  and programmes. I overaw a move into a newly constructed building, and  led a number of philanthtopically funded projects on Student Enterprize and Women in Tech.  I  undertook a number of pan-University Senate led projects, and I chaired the University’s TRAC Oversight Group.   In 2022-2023 I had a year’s research leave before  my move to Leeds.

Responsibilities

• Head of School of Computer Science
• Within the University I sit on the IT Steering Group and the Library Strategic Advisory Board
• Externally I am a member of the OfS TRAC Development Group

Research interests

My research involves optics, imaging, and displays. My background is in physics although currently my work is extremely interdisciplinary and I sit in a space which is a mixture of being a computer scientist, engineer, physicist, and even psychologist.

A common theme to my work has been adaptive and adaptable optics with a specific focus on liquid crystal devices and lenses. My early work was aimed at astronomy, space science and large telescopes, before I diversified into biosciences and more recently vision science and virtual reality.

I have worked with colleagues in engineering, physics, computer science, psychology, maths, biosciences and even geography. My work has been returned to three different REF panels over my career - physics, engineering, and most recently computer science.

My latest work involves the optics of the eye - I am interested in the mechanisms behind how the eye focuses light which has important ramifications for VR displays and I work with colleagues in the Computational Science and Engineering Theme and the Soft Matter Group in Physics.

Examples of my top papers include:

• Wave-front correction and production of Zernike modes with a liquid-crystal spatial light modulator  was an early paper which really has influenced the field of using liquid crystal devices, not as displays, but as optical elements. This paper currently has over 500 citations  and appears in a listing of “Editor’s Picks” selecting key papers at the 50th Anniversary of the Journal.

• Why do animal eyes have pupils of different shapes?   The paper caused significant media interest – with articles appearing in the Guardian, Washington Post, New York Times and other national papers, as well as on a large number of websites; and an Altmetrics score (which measures wider impact) that ranks it no 10 of all papers ever published by Durham University (as of 10/24).  I also wrote an associated piece for “The Conversation”: Revealed: why animals’ pupils come in different shapes and sizes which currently has over 211,000 downloads (as of 10/24).

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Fox, wolf, sheep and cuttlefish. . Jim Champion (sheep); R'lyeh (wolf); Michele Lamberti (fox); William Warby (cuttlefish), CC BY-SA

• ChromaBlur: Rendering Chromatic Eye Aberration Improves Accommodation and Realism. showed how rendering colour correctly in 3D graphics is important for realism and also for actually driving accommodation (focus) in the eye. 

Recent papers include

•  Focusing on mixed narrow band stimuli: Implications for mechanisms of accommodation and displays   is a collaboration between Leeds, Durham, & Newcastle Universities and the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Germany. We were interested in how the eye focuses on different colours to compensate for chromatic aberration in the eye which is important for displays.
• Exploring atmospheric optical turbulence: observations across zenith angles  and Atmospheric optical urbulence analysis in London’s financial district describe onging work with the Space Research Centre in Durham on measuring and correcting for atmospheric turbulence in a ground-space communications system.

Professional memberships

• Fellow of the Institute of Physics
• Member of Optica
• Fellow of the HEA

Student education

I have taught a whole range of undergraduate courses in my career involving optics, electronics, optics and mechanics.   Here’s a list of the former PhD students for whom I’ve been the primary/main supervisor – and I have been second supervisor for a further 5 PhD students.

I have been a PhD Examiner at the following Universties: Cambridge (5 times); Oxford (4 times); Imperial College (3 times); UCL (twice);Sheffield; Kent; Nottingham; Glasgow; St. Andrews,;Heriot Watt; IIT India, TU Delft, The Netherlands; TU Denmark; & Edith Cowan Australia.  I have been an external examiner at Imperial College for the MSc Course in Optics and at the University of York for their undergraduate programme in Physics and Astronomy.