Dr David R. Selviah studied at Trinity College, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK being awarded B.A. and M.A. degrees in physics and theoretical physics, specializing in mathematical modelling in 1980 and 1984 respectively and was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Engineering specializing in optical devices, interconnects, algorithms and systems in 2009. He served internships at the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Texas Instruments-Geophysical Service International, and CERN, Geneva.

He researched for 3 years at the Plessey industrial telecommunications and radar company main research laboratories, the Allen Clark Research Centre, Plessey (Caswell), Ltd., Northamptonshire, U.K. (now Oclaro). He designed, modelled, fabricated in a clean room and characterised novel RF surface acoustic wave, SAW, correlators and frequency filters for pattern recognition and signal processing in pulse compression radar and secure communication systems.

He researched for 3 years at the Department of Engineering Science and Christchurch, Oxford University, Oxford, UK designing, modelling, fabricating in a clean room and characterising RF linear chirp pulse compression surface acoustic wave, SAW, frequency filters based on a novel technology for pattern recognition and signal processing in pulse compression radar systems and oversaw the transfer of the technology to a manufacturing company spun out of Plessey (Caswell) research laboratories.

In 1987 he joined the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, UCL where he currently holds the position of Reader in Optical Devices, Interconnects, Algorithms and Systems. He leads the Optical Devices and Systems Research Laboratory which is recognised as delivering world leading outstanding research and is listed as a UK Technology Centre of Excellence. At UCL he has researched for over 25 years in the fields of optics, pattern recognition, adaptive signal processing, image processing and acoustics leading to over 200 publications, patents, book chapters, invited and plenary international conference presentations. Dr Selviah’s research is often carried out in successful consortia collaborations with other research teams, institutions and companies. He has formed several consortia, led the bids, secured multi-million pound funding and then led the consortium research.

Dr. Selviah is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Institute of Physics, the Optical Society of America, and the European Optical Society. He served as chairman and programme committee member for several IEEE optical conferences and workshops. Dr Selviah serves UK industry as technical expert at British Standards Institute, BSi, setting standards for optical fibre, optical connector and optical circuit boards. He also represents the UK as technical expert on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) standards committees on optical fibres, optical connectors and optical circuit boards.