David T. Hon

Dr. David T. Hon (born 1941) is a Hong Kong-born American physicist, inventor and entrepreneur. He is best known as the inventor and founder of Dahon folding bicycles. Dahon has since grown to become the world’s largest manufacturer and marketer of folding bikes with Hon still CEO to this day.

Born 1941, Hon hails from a poor family from Hong Kong. From the age of 13 through to 18 he worked part-time as an illustrator for his parents’ clothing workshop. He received a scholarship to attend, and graduated from, the prestigious Anglican-run Diocesan Boys' School in 1959 and the family moved to the U.S. soon afterwards.

Hon graduated from UC, Berkeley in 1964, with a BA in Physics and at UCLA’s Physics Department, obtained the highest score in the Ph.D. candidacy exam in 1967. Whilst still a doctoral candidate he taught as Assistant Professor of Physics at Cal Poly State U in San Luis Obispo, and, later, as Sr. Lecturer at USC. He went on to complete his thesis as an NSF and NASA scholar at USC where he received his Ph.D. in Physics in 1971.

Hon’s career in physics truly started when he took up employment at Hughes Aircraft Company, Los Angeles, one of the world’s leading aerospace corporations. His work focused in particular on the research and development of tactical lasers. In his early years he became known for his work on high power laser frequency doubling, quickly reaching the level of Section Head and Senior Physicist. He became a coauthor in the internationally used Laser Handbook (North Holland Press, 1979).

In 1977 Hon was drafted into the highly regarded Hughes Research Labs in Malibu. With greater freedom in research choices, this facility is where he began to focus on the pursuit of lasers for nuclear fusion. By 1980 he had discovered and published a novel technique to efficiently compress high-power laser pulses (to attain over ten times the peak powers) by using SBS from a tapered optical fiber. This work has since inspired hundreds of related research projects right up to the present day. The technique is now widespread in laser nuclear fusion, and ground or space-born defense lasers, as well as in other areas of science and engineering where high, peak-power or high quality laser beams are desired. Hon’s work at Hughes brought about some of the first of his many patents: e.g. US Patents 4,344,042, 4,178,561, 4,019,159 and 4,010,397.

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