Special Foundation Lecture: a personal view

I (try to) review some of my work in theoretical quantum optics done over some 45 years. Highlights include discovery of `optical solitons' as solutions to the nonlinear Maxwell-Bloch (MB) systems of equations as reported at the 1st National QE Conference, also at Owens Park, Manchester, in 1973. Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in magnetic traps at temperatures T similar to 10(9) K achieved in 1995 is described by forms of the quantum nonlinear Schrodinger (NLS) equation closely related to the quantized MB equations. It may be possible to see quantum soliton solutions of the quantum attractive NLS equation in one-dimensional (d = 1) magnetic traps holding the Bose condensed metal vapour Li-7. More generally such d = 1 quantum solitons may be significant to modern long-distance optical fibre communication, and perhaps to `quantum information'.