The Adams-Sweeting Lecture series was created in honour of two of the University of Surrey’s most prestigious academics – Distinguished Professor of Physics, Alf Adams and distinguished Professor of Space Engineering, Sir Martin Sweeting.

The lecture series sees experts, innovators and scientists deliver fascinating talks on pioneering developments in their area of expertise. From curious school students to ever-curious seniors, the series is inclusive for all with a keen interest in science or a curiosity in the topic area.

Professor Alf Adams

Emeritus Professor of Physics, Alf Adams is a well-known British physicist who invented the strained layer quantum-well laser, considered to be one of the top ten greatest UK scientific breakthroughs of all time. Professor Adams joined the University of Surrey in 1967. In 1986, he and his team proposed that the electronic band structure of quantum-well lasers could be significantly improved by deliberately growing the active layer in a state of strain. The resulting strained layer quantum-well laser is used in billions of optoelectronic applications, including optical fibre communications, medicine, pollution monitoring and in CDs, DVDs and supermarket checkouts. In recognition of this pioneering work, Adams was awarded the IOP’s Duddel Medal and Prize in 1995, elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1996, and received the Rank Prize for Optoelectronics in 2014. The Alf Adams Lecture Series was established in 2012 to showcase the University of Surrey’s ground-breaking research. Professor Adams gave the inaugural lecture, held at The Royal Society. 

Professor Sir Martin Sweeting

Distinguished Chair of Space Engineering, Professor Sir Martin Sweeting is renowned worldwide as a pioneer of modern small satellites – a concept originally dismissed in the 1980’s but which has since fundamentally changed the economics of space and led to a small satellite industry worth some US$25Bn worldwide. Sir Martin designed and built UoSAT-1, the world’s first advanced ‘microsatellite’ at the University of Surrey in the early 80s and in 1985 he founded the University spin-off company, Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL). SSTL has now 400 employees with an annual turnover of £70 million and has launched 70 small satellites for 22 countries – including
building 34 navigation payloads for the European Galileo constellation. In recognition of his pioneering work on cost effective spacecraft engineering, Sir Martin received an OBE in 1996, was knighted in 2002 and is a fellow of the Royal Society, the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Institute of Physics. Amongst many awards, he has received the prestigious von Karman Award from CalTech/JPL in the USA. In 2016 he was identified as one of the UK’s
20 most influential engineers and in 2017 listed as one of the 500 most influential people in the UK. Sir Martin is Chair of the Surrey Space Centre
and Director of the UK national interuniversity hub for space robotics and
autonomous systems ( Fair-Space).