Alexander Davies

Alexander Giles Davies is Professor of Electronic and Photonic Engineering at the University of Leeds.

Education Davies was educated at the University of Bristol where he was awarded a first-class Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Physics in 1987. He obtained his PhD in Semiconductor Physics from the University of Cambridge in 1991, where he investigated the fractional quantum Hall effect under the guidance of Sir Michael Pepper.

Research Davies is known for his work on terahertz-frequency electronics and photonics. His early work focused on photoconductive techniques for the generation and coherent detection of pulsed terahertz radiation, which helped demonstrate the unique capabilities of terahertz imaging and spectroscopy compared with established analytical methods.

In 2002, Davies jointly coordinated a European consortium that demonstrated the long-sought terahertz frequency quantum cascade laser (QCL), an intra-band solid-state device. He was appointed to his chair at the University of Leeds in the same year.

Awards and honours Davies was awarded a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award in 2011. In 2014, he was awarded the Institute of Physics Michael Faraday Medal and Prize alongside Professor Edmund Linfield for their “outstanding and sustained contributions to the physics and technology of the far-infrared (terahertz) frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum”. In 2016, Davies was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and in 2026 he was elected Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales.