Professor Allan Snyder

Allan Snyder, born in the USA but an Australian resident since 1971, is an optical physicist and visual scientist whose work has been central to the telecommunications revolution. Until Snyder described how light could be transmitted along optical fibre, optical fibre technology was merely theoretical. Drawing on his research into insects' eyes, Snyder simplified the description of how light would move down the fibre, what dimension the fibre should be, and the conceptual aspects of optical fibre telecommunications. Millions of kilometres of fibre optic cable, constructed to Snyder's specifications, have since been laid around the world. The journal Nature characterised Snyder's research on optics as 'breaking a 19th century mindset'. For this work, he won the Marconi International Prize in New York in 2001 as well as the Clifford Paterson Prize in 2001, for ‘contributions which benefit mankind.’
Rarely seen without his hat, Snyder has contributed greatly to the fields of visual neurobiology, communications, and optical physics. His passion for non-linear science led him to the Centre for the Mind – a joint venture between the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, where he is examining the abilities of savants and hypothesises that everyone possesses these latent skills.