In our ever-accelerating modern life photonics as a science has come into its own. Essentially it is the transmission of information via light, generally through the use of lasers. Dr Rebecca Wilson of QinetiQ, Britain's largest independent science and technology company, works at the leading edge of this technology.

Her training at both Birmingham and Heriot-Watt Universities, which are in the top flight of UK institutions in the field of electro-optics, made her an obvious candidate for QinetiQ. At the young age of thirty-one she was made Technical Leader of Optical Signal Processing and Photonics. In addition to the highly important defence applications for this technology, most of her work also has significant potential commercial applications in pattern recognition and anti-counterfeiting.

Her qualities have also been recognised outside QinetiQ. Her specialist skills mean that she is a popular speaker at major national and international conferences, at venues such as the Physical Laboratory, the Institute of Physics, and at a prestigious Rank Prize Funds symposium. She has produced twelve classified reports, published two papers in refereed journals, together with forty-four invention reports and a filed patent application.

Rebecca is active in encouraging young women thinking of entering the profession. This has included visiting local schools through WISE-UP schemes and speaking at workshops such as the 'Women in Physics' event held at Heriot-Watt University. Rebecca is described as one of the most capable scientists in QinetiQ. She was the winner of a Cosmopolitan/House of Fraser 1998 Women of Achievement Award.