John Dudley received his Ph.D. from the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and worked both at Auckland and the University of St Andrews in Scotland before being appointed Professor in France in 2000. He has led a number of national and international initiatives in both research and the public engagement of science. He is a Fellow of OSA, SPIE, IEEE, EOS and an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand Te Aparangi. He has received numerous awards, including the Robert E. Hopkins Leadership Award and R.W. Wood Prize from OSA.

Dudley’s research covers a wide range of topics in ultrafast and nonlinear optics. In addition to early work in source development, he pioneered the use of advanced measurement techniques to characterize complex pulse propagation in nonlinear fiber optics, and contributed especially to the development of a clear understanding of the physics of fiber supercontinuum generation. Other areas of interest include ultrafast self-similarity and the study of optical rogue waves and their oceanic counterparts.