Rate My Professor Jim Piper

James A. (Jim) Piper was a physicist who served as Professor of Physics and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Macquarie University. He completed a B.Sc. (Hons) in 1968 and a Ph.D. in atomic physics in 1971, both at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Following postdoctoral research on metal-vapour lasers at the University of Oxford, he joined Macquarie University in 1975, where he remained for 38 years until his retirement in 2013.

Piper established one of the first laser research centres in Australia and directed research programs on gas lasers, continuous wave metal ion lasers, cyclic pulsed metal vapour lasers, metal ion recombination lasers, high-power tunable dye lasers, diode-pumped solid-state lasers, mid-infrared solid-state laser materials, solid-state Raman lasers, and novel self-frequency-doubling laser materials. He authored or co-authored more than 200 international refereed journal articles and 100 conference proceedings, held 14 patents, supervised 40 higher degree research students to completion, and received nearly 3,000 citations. His leadership roles included Head of School, Dean of the Division of Information and Communication Sciences, and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) from 2003. He chaired the ARC Special Research Centre for Lasers and Applications from 1988, served on the Australian Research Council for 10 years, and chaired the International Quantum Electronics Conference in Sydney in 1996. Awards include the Pawsey Medal (1982), Walter Boas Medal (1984), Fellow of the Optical Society of America (1994), AOS Medal (1997), Carnegie Centenary Professorship (2004), an honorary Doctorate of Science from Heriot-Watt University (2006), and appointment as a Member of the Order of Australia (2014). He contributed to the introduction of the BTech degree in 1992 and the Master of Research program at Macquarie University.

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