Peter Hannaford is an Australian academic and university professor. He is Director of the Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, winner of the Walter Boas Medal in 1985. Hannaford studied at the University of Melbourne, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in 1961, his Master of Science in 1963, and his Doctor of Philosophy in 1968. In 1964 Hannaford was named physics tutor at Ormond College at the University of Melbourne. In 1967, he was named research scientist at the CSIRO, Division of Chemical Physics. From 1971-83, he was senior research scientist and later principal research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Chemical Physics. From 1972-73 he was a guest scientist at the University of Reading in the UK. From 1981-82, he was a Science Research Councilsenior research fellow at the University of Reading. In 1983, he was a senior principal research scientist at CSIRO, Division of Chemical Physics. In 1984, he was a William Evans Visiting Fellow at the University of Otago in New Zealand. In 1985, he was a Member of the Australian Academy of Science National Committee for Spectroscopy. In 1989 he was Royal Society Guest Research Fellow and Visiting Fellow at Christ Church College, University of Oxford, UK. From 1989-2001 he was chief research scientist at the CSIRO Division of Materials Science and Technology in Clayton, Victoria. From 1990-2000 he was Professorial Associate at the University of Melbourne. In 1991, he was an Australian Academy of Science-Royal Society Exchange Fellow in Oxford, England. In 1992, he was a guest scientist at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching. From 1993-2003, he was the chair of the National Committee for Spectroscopy of the Australian Academy of Science. In 1997, he was a professorial fellow at Swinburne University of Technology in Hawthorn, Victoria. In 1999, he was director of the Centre for Atom Optics and Ultrafast Spectroscopy, at Swinburne University. From 1999-2003 he was a guest scientist at the European Laboratory for Non-Linear Spectroscopy at the Università degli Studi di Firenze. In 2000, he was a guest professor at the University of Innsbruck. In 2002, he was a member of Commission C15 for the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. In 2003 he was named a university distinguished professor at Swinburne University of Technology. Hannaford is institutional director of the Australian Research CouncilCentre of Excellence for Quantum-Atom Optics at Swinburne University of Technology. While at CSIRO in the 1970s to the 1990s he pioneered new techniques in high resolution and time-resolved laser spectroscopy which have been important for characterisation of the spectroscopic properties of a wide range of atoms. He has published over 150 papers in scientific journals and books. His current projects include: BEC on a chip, magnetic lattices, quantum coherence, molecular BEC, high harmonic generation, ultrafast spectroscopy.
