Aston Institute of Photonic Technologies

AiPT combines world-class research with cohort-based postgraduate education, translating scientific breakthroughs from the laboratory into real-world impacts. Our network includes over 100 industrial collaborators, from SMEs to major corporations like BT, Airbus, IBM, Infinera, Thales, BAE Systems, Nokia Bell Labs and many others. We have a vibrant team of researchers guided by world-renowned academics with extensive industry expertise.

Our activities extend beyond the laboratory through various outreach efforts, ensuring our research impact is reflected in public awareness and policy making. With collaborations spanning more than 80 major photonics centres worldwide, AiPT has earned international acclaim for research that brings tangible benefits to science, the economy, and society.

AiPT at Aston Research Explorer

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Fellowship (express of interest)

Aston Institute of Photonics Technologies (AiPT) invite ambitious, independently minded, career-driven early career researchers to submit their interest to apply for:

• Marie S Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowship - Call opens on 8 May 2025
• Vice-Chancellor's Innovation Fellowships - Call opens in March/April 2025

Projects should align with the AiPT scientific themes described (https://www.aston.ac.uk/research/eps/aipt). Please do not contact potential hosts before submitting your proposal. The AiPT team will arrange the matchmaking. You must read the guidance documents related to these schemes to ensure that you are eligible, please follow the links provided above.
Please submit the following to photonics@aston.ac.uk

• One file containing a brief project summary and your academic CV.

Potential topics for collaboration

AiPT Deputy Director, Prof David Webb

• A current hot topic in photonics research is developing technology to enable long-distance optical fibre communications links to function as distributed sensors.
• Applications include earthquake detection, structural health monitoring and identification of physical threats to the communication cables.
• The topic brings together a range of fields: optical communications, distributed fibre sensing, digital signal processing and machine learning.

AiPT Deputy Director, Professor Andrew Ellis is looking for candidates willing to submit a proposal to work on:

• Mode-multiplexed free space optical transmission systems for both turbulence resilience and high-capacity performance, or more broadly on DSP techniques from free space optical systems
• Sub photon per bit intersatellite communication systems using a variety of novel transmitters, optical amplifiers and receivers, or more broadly on high-performance laser communications links
• On novel transmitters and receivers for resilience and energy-efficient free space optical communications, or more broadly on novel amplifier free high power optical transceivers
• On ultra-low-cost, cooler-less coherent detection for a variety of optical communications applications, with length scales ranging from room to planet-sized.

AiPT Director, Prof. Sergei Turitsyn is looking for candidates interested in: O

• Optical computing
• Neuromorphic computing theory
• Applications of AI/ML in photonics
• Nonlinear photonics and lasers

Prof Igor Meglinski, Professor in Quantum Biophotonics & Biomedical Engineering, is looking for candidates to work on

• “Mode-multiplexed free space optical transmission systems for both turbulence resilience and high-capacity performance”.

Dr Sonia Boscolo is looking for candidates to submit a proposal for the MSCA-PF on the topics

• “Fibre resonators for sensing; multimode fibre laser sources”
• “ML-enabled design of optical devices and photonic systems”.

Dr Daniel Hill is looking for candidates willing to submit a proposal to work on the development of machine-learning enhanced spectroscopy technologies within a microfluidics format for high-through multimodal analysis of micro and nanoplastics within complex matrices in collaboration with an international company.

Dr Daniel Hill looking for candidates willing to submit a proposal to work:

• The development of state of the art point of site lab-on-a-chip immunodetection technologies through the realisation of novel polymer based optical biosensors.

Research Areas

Meet the Team

Academic and Research Staff

• Professor Sergei Turitsyn (AiPT Director, 50th Anniversary Professor in Photonics, Head of Nonlinear Photonics and Fibre Lasers Group)
• Professor Nick Doran (Professor in Photonics, Founder of Photonics Research Group)
• Professor Andrew Ellis (50th Anniversary Professor of Optical Communications, AIPT Deputy Director, Head of Optical Communications Group)
• Professor Richard Hogg (Professor of Photonics, AIPT Deputy Director)
• Professor Edik Rafailov (Professor, Head of the Optoelectronics and Biomedical Photonics Research Group)
• Professor Kate Sugden (Professor in Photonics, EPS College Deputy Dean, Interim Head of Engineering and Innovation School)
• Professor Misha Sumetsky (Professor in Photonics, Head of Nanoscale Photonics Group)
• Professor David Webb (50th Anniversary Professor of Photonics, Head of Optical Sensing Group, Director of Aston Institute for Urban Technologies and the Environment (ASTUTE)
• Professor Lin Zhang (Emeritus Professor)
• Mr Yousuf Moiz Ali (Research Fellow, Marie Skladowska Curie Early Career Researcher)
• Dr Maria Bastamova (Research Associate)
• Dr Natalia Bazieva (Research Fellow)
• Dr David Benton (Senior Research Fellow)
• Dr Zijun Bian (Research Associate)
• Dr Aisha Bibi (Research Associate)
• Dr Sonia Boscolo (Research Fellow in Photonic and Optical Communication Technologies)
• Dr Manuel Crespo (Research Fellow)
• Dr Christopher Collins (Research Associate)
• Dr Kim Daehyun Kim (Research Associate)
• Dr Steven Daniels (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
• Dr Alexandr Donodin (Research Associate)
• Miss Dania Ebrahim (Biomedical Engineer - KTP Associate)
• Dr Viktor Dremin (Research Associate)
• Dr Vladislav Dvoyrin (Senior Research Fellow)
• Dr Diana Galiakhmetova (Research Associate)
• Dr Gabriella Gardosi (Research Assistant)
• Dr Vladimir Gordienko (EPSRC Research Fellow)
• Dr Daniel Hill (Senior Research Fellow)
• Dr Hani Kbashi (Research Fellow)
• Mr Rana Ahmad Bilal Khalid (Research Fellow, Marie Skladowska Curie Early Career Researcher)
• Dr Yiming Li (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
• Dr Petro Lutsyk (Lecturer)
• Dr Egor Manuylovich (Research Associate)
• Dr Richard Nock (Lecturer in Electronic Engineering and Systems)
• Dr Shabnam Noor (Research Associate)
• Dr Vladimir Osipov (Research Fellow)
• Mohammed Patel (Research Assistant)
• Dr Auro Perego (Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellow)
• Dr Ian Phillips (Teaching Fellow)
• Dr Yaroslav Prylepskiy (Senior Research Fellow)
• Mr Alberto Rodríguez Cuevas (Post Doctoral Research Associate)
• Dr Alex Rozhin (Reader in Nanoscience Technology Research)
• Dr Sergey Sergeyev (Associate Professor)
• Ms Isha Sharma (Research Associate)
• Dr Xuewen Shu (Research Fellow)
• Dr Sergei Sokolovsky (Senior Research Fellow)
• Miss Sasipim Srivallapanondh (Early Stage Researcher on the EU ITN project MENTOR)
• Dr Dmitrii Stoliarov (Research Associate)
• Dr Stylianos Sygletos (Associate Professor)
• Dr Mingming Tan (Postdoctoral Research Associate)
• Dr Amit Yadav (Research Fellow)
• Dr Kaiming Zhou (Senior Research Fellow, Head of AIPT Industrial Outreach Laboratory, Head of Laser Material Processing Group)

Postgraduate Research Students

• Ms Arooj (Research Student, Early Career Researcher)
• Ms Safiya Jasim Ali Dabwan (Research Student)
• Ms Maria Bastamova (Research Student)
• Ms Alice Duque Belfort De Oliveira (Research Student)
• Mr Stepan Bogdanov (Research Student)
• Mr Nelson Castro Salgado (Research Student)
• Mr Jatindra Fartiyal (Research Student)
• Mr Geraldo Gomes (Research Student)
• Ms Debjani Goswami (Research Student)
• Mr Rana Ahmad Bilal Khalid (Research Student)
• Mr Long Hoang Nguyen (Research Student)
• Mr Shekhar Mnit (Research Student)
• Ms Nawal Mohamed (Research Student)
• Ms Munira Mustafa (Research Student)
• Mr James Stewart Walley Huges (Research Student)
• Mr Lukman Hakim Kamarudin (Research Student)
• Mr Vladyslav Kolbasin (Research Student)
• Ms Dini Pratiwi (Research Student) 
• Ms Negar Shaabani Shishavan (Research Student)
• Mr Minji Shi (Research Student)
• Mr Atif Syed Iqrar (Research Student)
• Mr Wesley Davison Braga Melo (Research Student)

Professional/Technical/Administrative Staff

• Ms Tatiana Kilina (Senior Project Manager)
• Ms Nataliia Manuilovich (Project Manager)
• Ms Swaroopa Mucheli-sudhakar (Technician)
• Eric Prins (Project Administator)
• Ms Christiane Doering Saad (Strategic Project Implementation Manager)
• Komal Sharma (Project Administrator)
• Dr Kirill Tokmakov (Technician)
• Ms Karola Woods (Project Manager)

Visiting Researchers

• Dr Mike Anderson (Visiting Industrial Fellow)
• Dr Thomas Allsop (Visiting Research Fellow)
• Prof Wladek Forysiak (Visiting Professor)
• Dr Pedro Freire (Visiting Professorial Fellow)
• Dr Vitaly Mikhailov (Visiting Professorial Fellow)
• Dr Ricardo Da Silve (Visiting Research Fellow)

Case Studies