Prof Ian White is currently Master of Jesus College, van Eck Professor of Engineering, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of Photonics Research at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He gained his BA and PhD degrees from the University of Cambridge, in 1980 and 1984. He was then appointed a Research Fellow and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Cambridge before becoming Professor of Physics at the University of Bath in 1990. In 1996 he moved to the University of Bristol as Professor of Optical Communications and became Head of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1998, before returning to the University of Cambridge in October 2001. In 2005 he became Head of the School of Technology and subsequently Chair, leaving the School of Technology to take up the position of Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Institutional Affairs in 2010.

Professor White's research interests include high-speed communication systems; transmission, routing and energy efficiency; optical datacommunications; optoelectronic interconnects; femtosecond laser diode sources; superradiance; RF over fibre systems; and RFID tag detection and location