Wireless Communications Challenges and Choices

The Appleton Lecture was established in 1965 to commemorate the life and work of Sir Edward Appleton, a widely honoured physicist and Nobel Prize winner who is mainly noted for research into the upper atmosphere. In 1924 Sir Edward was able to demonstrate the existence of the electrified reflecting layer in the upper atmosphere. The existence of this layer had been postulated by A E Kennelly and Oliver Heaviside. The existence of a second layer was also demonstrated, and this is often referred to as the Appleton Layer. Along with Douglas Hartree he established the magneto-ionic theory of the ionosphere. Appleton also made contributions to the development of radar and studied the radio properties of sun spots. The majority of his papers are held at Edinburgh University Library. Texas University Library holds his letters to Sir O W Richardson, while his correspondence with Viscount Cherwell 1940 - 1955 is held by Nuffield College, Oxford. The Medical Research Council also holds miscellaneous correspondence.

Michael Walker is the Group Research and Development Director for the Vodafone Group. He is a professor in the University of London, holding the part-time Vodafone Chair in Telecommunications at Royal Holloway, and a visiting Professor in the University of Surrey. Frances Cairncross is Rector (ie, head) of Exeter College, Oxford. Previously, she was on the staff of The Economist, most recently as management editor. She is also chair of Britain’s Economic and Social Research Council, immediate past President of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (2005-06), a non-executive director of Stramongate Ltd, and a regular presenter of BBC Radio Four’s “Analysis” programme. Her latest book, “The Company of the Future”, was published in 2002 by Harvard Business School Press. In March 2003 she won the Institute of Internal Auditors’ annual award for business and management journalism. She is also the author of “The Death of Distance”, a study of the economic and social effects of the global communications revolution, first published in 1997 and re-published in a completely new edition in 2001. In 2004-05, she held the honorary post of High Sheriff of Greater London, and in 2006 she became an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.