Rodney Loudon has been both Chairman and Dean at the University of Essex as Professor. He has also worked at BT, RRE, Bell Telephone Laboratories, and RCA, and he has been a consultant to these organizations over several years, contributing to applied as well as fundamental research. His 1964 paper on the Raman effect was one of the 100 most cited papers in all areas of physical science between 1960 and 1969. He has published more than 190 papers and 3 books.

His early work focused on excitons, photons, and magnons, and his more recent work deals with surface excitations and optical amplification, attenuation, and detection. Loudon is a Fellow of the Society and recipient of the 1992 Max Born Award.