Tim Davis

Dr. Davis is a research scientist with over 40 years experience in pure and applied research. He obtained his Ph. 
D. in Experimental Gravitation physics from the University of Melbourne in 1987. He was employed by the 
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Australia for 29 years before 
leaving in 2015. During that time he worked across many fields of science including atmospheric research, 
materials science, x-ray science, computer vision, micro and nano technology and optics. He has a strong 
background in both experimental and theoretical physics, including mathematical principles, experiment design 
and applications. His skills include mathematical and numerical modelling, software development and computer 
simulation, electronics design and manufacture, the design and execution of physics-based experiments, data 
analysis and interpretation.
While at CSIRO, Dr. Davis has worked on many applied projects, such as machine vision systems for aircraft 
tracking, people tracking and for steel plate manufacture, x-ray detector systems for a CSIRO spin-out company 
and for in-house research, biosensor development for the detection of biowarfare agents and viruses, the growth 
of semiconductor materials for infrared imaging sensors, instruments for remote sensing and the design of high 
performance computing devices.
Dr. Davis has made major contributions to the field of plasmonics, including the development of nanoscale 
optical circuits based on localised surface plasmons, theoretical models of plasmon interactions for designing 
plasmonic devices and the invention and demonstration of plasmonic difference circuits and modulators.
Dr. Davis has held key roles in the Australian Institute of Physics (AIP), including secretary and chairman of the 
Victorian Branch of the AIP and for many years was convenor of the AIP Science Policy Committee. He 
redrafted the new policy document in 2001 that forms the basis of AIP Science Policy today. He has served on 
organising committees of international science conferences as well as chairing conference sessions. He has 
managed science projects involving a broad cross-section of scientific disciplines, such as chemistry, biology, 
surface science and electronics engineering.
He currently holds a position as Honorary Professor of Physics at the University of Melbourne where he 
collaborates on the development of meta surface devices for optical imaging applications. He regularly visits the 
University of Stuttgart and the University of Duisburg-Essen where he works with collaborators on fundamental 
experiments with surface plasmon polaritons. He has an excellent track record in research with papers published 
in Nature, Science, Physical Review Letters and Nano Letters. His lifetime citations of published works exceeds 
5600 with an H-index of 33 and an i10 index of 76.