Terahertz Pioneer: Maurice F. Kimmitt - "A Person Who Makes Things Work"

Abstract

In 1954, a young man who had just graduated with a degree in English Literature from Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland, decided to go into the clergy. However, his identical twin brother, Maurice, who came out with a B.A. degree in Physics in the same year, decided he could best continue his boyhood interests in crystal radio sets by joining the Radar Research Establishment (RRE), which was set up during World War II as the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE), in Malvern, U.K., not far from Stratford-upon-Avon. A few years later, after a 1957 visit by Queen Elizabeth II, it was rechristened as the Royal Radar Establishment. Thus began a career in infrared physics and devices that has spanned nearly 60 years. In the course of that time, Maurice FitzGerald Kimmitt has interacted with researchers on three continents and influenced many fields of THz science, from direct detectors, to high power laser-based sources, to diagnostic and measurement instruments.

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