Fellow Miles Padgett holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He is fascinated by light, both classical and quantum. In 2001 he was elected to Fellowship of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and in 2014 the Royal Society, the UK's National Academy. In 2009, with Les Allen, he won the IoP Young Medal, in 2014 the RSE Kelvin Medal, in 2015 the Science of Light Prize and in 2017 the Max Born Award.

Most of Padgett’s research is based upon the shaping light beam, both their intensity and phase, showing that Maxwell’s Equations still hold surprises. Shaped light leads to orbital angular momentum, enabling optical spanners (wrenches) new approaches to imaging and sensing and even approaches to optical communication. Most recently he has focused on imaging, both classical and quantum using single pixels and single photons within compressed sensing, to pursue new imaging modalities.