Miles John Padgett OBE FRS FRSE FInstP (born 1 June 1963^[1][2]) is a Royal Society Research Professor of Optics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Glasgow.^[7] He has held the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy since 2011^{[5][8][9][10]} and served as Vice Principal for research at Glasgow from 2014 to 2020.^{[11][12][13][14][15]}

Padgett was educated at the University of Manchester, the University of York, the University of St Andrews, and Trinity College, Cambridge,^[2] where he was awarded a PhD in 1988.

Working with Les Allen, Padgett conducted pioneering work on optical angular momentum,^[3] for which they were awarded 2009 the Young Medal.^[4] The research group he leads is best known for its work on the fundamental properties of light's angular momentum, including optical tweezers and optical spanners,^[16] the use of orbital angular momentum states to extend the alphabet of optical communication (with both classical and quantum light), and demonstrations of an angular form of the EPR paradox.^[17] Padgett's research has been published in leading peer-reviewed scientific journals including Science,^{[18][19][20][21][22]} Nature,^[23][24] Physical Review Letters,^[3] and Optics Express^[9] and Progress in Optics.^[10] Padgett's research has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).^[25]

Padgett currently^[when?] resides in Glasgow with his wife Heather Reid^[1][31][32] and their daughter, Jenna.