CMMPE group members - CMMPE alumni

Dr. Christoph Bay

Christoph has a Dipl. Ing. (FH) in Electronics (2006) from Pforzheim University of Applied Sciences (Germany). During his undergraduate studies he specialised in communication electronics. He gained industrial experience while performing internships at DaimlerChrysler (Stuttgart, Germany), Bosch (Buehl, Germany) and Osram Opto Semiconductors (San Jose, USA and Penang, Malaysia). His CAPE-funded PhD was in the specific area of developing a holographic optical projection system, which can be used to expose a photoresist in a photolithographic processes.

Dr. Oliver Hadeler

Research Associate, EPEC Superconductivity Group,
Dept. of Engineering, University of Cambridge

Oliver received a Diploma degree in Physics from the University of Frankfurt, Germany and a PhD in Optoelectronics from the University of Southampton. For his PhD he conducted theoretical and experimental work on DFB fibre lasers for telecommunication and sensor applications. During his time at Southampton University he also worked on fibre optic sensors for the oil industry at Sensor Dynamics Ltd, Winchester. He then became a Reseach Associate at CMMPE working on liquid crystal devices for fibre optic telecommunication networks. He also worked on both the Chiralse and COSMOS liquid crystal lasers project, and is a fellow of New Hall. Oliver left CMMPE in August 2010, and is now working in the EPEC Superconductivity Research Group, Department of Engineering, Unvirsity of Cambridge.

Dr. Xuesong Hu

Xuesong entered Shandong University, P.R. China in 2001, majoring in Physics. In 2003, by following the 2+2 undergraduate study programme, he moved to Schuster Laboratory, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester. He received his BSc in Physics from both Shandong University and University of Manchester in 2005. After completing his BSc, he joined the Centre for Photonic Systems, at Cambridge, as a Ph.D student, where his research was focussed upon optical switching in telecommunication applications. In 2006 he joined CMMPE, under the supervision of Prof. H.J. Coles. His research was concerned with ferroelectric liquid crystals and their applications in telecommunications. Xuesong was also a member of Downing College, and left CMMPE in the summer of 2010.

Dr. Carrie Mowatt (née Gillespie)

Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)

Carrie has a PhD in ‘Dye doped liquid crystal lasers’ (2007) from Wolfson College, Cambridge and an MPhys in ‘Optoelectronics and laser engineering’ (2002) from Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. Her PhD studied the emission characteristics of liquid crystal lasers based upon both chiral nematic and blue phase I* materials doped with a range of laser dyes. She also has postdoctoral experience evaluating dichroic dyes for use in electroluminescent hybrid liquid crystal plastic displays. She has also worked on both the CHIRALASE and the COSMOS projects, developing liquid crystal lasers. Carrie is a Senior Member of Wolfson College. Carrie left CMMPE in March 2010 to pursue a career in academic publishing with the RSC.

Dr. Rick Chen

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) Ltd.

Rick graduated from the University of Auckland with a MEng in Electrical and Electronics Engineering (2005). His MEng studied power electronics, particularly in inductively-coupled power transfer systems. He carried out his PhD on 3-D holographic displays between 2006 and 2010. Rick is also a member of Darwin College. He left Cambridge in Spring 2010 to work for semiconductor manufacturing company TSMC in Tiawan.

Dr. Jon Freeman

Light Blue Optics

Jon did his first degree in Applied Physics at UCL almost ¼ century ago. Since then he has worked for GEC, Marconi, Marconi Avionics, GEC Avionics and BAE Systems (they are all actually the same place –they either changed the name or got taken over). His lab was in the dark depths (well yellow actually) of the holographics and optics dept, developing such products as HOEs (holographic optical elements), NVGs (night vision goggles), HUDs (head up displays) and HMDs (helmet mounted displays). BAE Systems funded Jon for 3 years to do a PhD in Fourier holography based video projection. Jon is also a member of Trinity Hall. Jon graduated in summer 2010, and has since left CMMPE to join Light Blue Optics, developing holographic projectors in the commercial sector.

Dr. Su Seok Choi

Su Seok has an MSci in Polymer Science in Chemical Engineering (1999) from south Korea. He has since worked in the research and development of TFT-LCDs for 7 years in a major TFT-LCD company (1999-2005). During this period, he studied ferroelectric (and antiferroelectric) switching, reflective and transflective LCDs, in-plane switching and new processes/technologies for TFT-LCD applications. He has experience in the fabrication process and design of TFT-LCDs. He studied for a PhD at CMMPE between 2006 and 2009 (graduating in early 2010), studying wavelength tuning in N*LCs.

Dr. Catherine Dobson

Catherine received an MSci in Natural Sciences - Experimental and Theoretical Physics (2003) from the University of Cambridge. In 2003 she joined the Institute of Biotechnology at Cambridge and studied for a PhD, examining the geometry of holographic biosensors for use in in vivo and in vitro applications. After completing her PhD in 2007, she worked as a research associate at Imperial College, London in a multidiscipliniary collaboration creating point-of-care medical biosensor arrays for use in a number of conditions. She worked with CMMPE between July 2008 and November 2009 on the COSMOS project.

Dr. Jing (James) Chen

Jing Chen (James) graduated with a 1st class BEng (hons) in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Nottingham University (2005), and then came to Cambridge to study for a PhD within the CMMPE group. His research interests include flexoelectro-optic response in chiral nematic liquid crystals, multi-colour switching of liquid crystals, polymer-stablized liquid crystals, tunable lasers, free-space optical communications, and next-generation LCOS technologies. James successfully received his doctorate and left CMMPE in the summer of 2009.

Dr. Poh Ling Neo

Poh Ling received her BEng degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. After spending two years in a variety of engineering-related disciplines, she then studied for her PhD at the University of Cambridge under the tutelage of Dr. T.D. Wilkinson. For her PhD work, she looked into the enhancement of transmission capacities in multimode fibres using holographic techniques. Her other research interests include laser modeling, multimode fibre system studies, optical MIMO, computer generated holography and optical correlators. Poh Ling returned to CMMPE as a Research Associate in October 2008, and then left for Hong Kong in July 2009.

Dr. Juergen Schmidtke

Research Associate, Biological and Soft Systems Group,
Department of Physics, University of Cambridge

Juergen obtained his diploma (1996) and doctorate (2000) in physics at the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. His diploma was on structure formation in crystallising polymer melts, his doctoral thesis on viscous & elastic properties of polymeric & low molar mass nematic liquid crystals. He stayed in Freiburg to investigate the photonic properties of cholesteric liquid crystals (spontaneous emission & laser emission in dye doped systems, photonic defect modes, cholesteric elastomers as mechanically tunable photonic band gap materials). This was a joint project of the polymer physics group (Prof. Gert Strobl) & the Institute for Macromolecular Chemistry (Prof. Heino Finkelmann). At CMMPE, he was employed on the CHIRALASE project, optimising the performance of cholesteric liquid crystal lasers. In June 2009 he moved to the BSS group in the Cavendish Labs (Dept. of Physics) to work on the COSMOS project.

Dr. Sonja Findeisen-Tandel

Sonja received a diploma degree (2003) and a PhD (2007) in Chemistry from the Martin-Luther University of Halle, Germany. Her doctoral thesis at the Institute of Physical Chemistry (Prof. W. Weissflog) was focussed on the field of liquid crystals. In addition to the synthesis, the main focal point was the characterisation of the liquid crystalline bent core mesogens by means of DSC, polarizing microscopy, X-ray measurements and electro optical investigations. Special attention was given to the influence of hydrogen bonding interactions on the mesophase behaviour of the mesogens. Following her PhD, Sonja worked as a research fellow at Halle University to investigate special electro-optical properties of crystalline mesophases of bent core mesogens. Sonja joined CMMPE in May 2008, and worked on the COSMOS project in synthesis and characterisation of materials leading to devices and lasing liquid crystals in general. She moved back to Germany in February 2009.

Colin Evans

Colin was awarded his masters degree in natural sciences, specialaizing in Physics, by the University of Cambridge in 2003. In 2004 he joined the group as a Ph.D student. His research is concerned with novel fluorescent dyes for use in liquid crystal systems. Colin was on a CASE studentship funded by the EPSRC and Merck NB-C. and was also a member of Churchill College.

Dr. Mikhail Pivnenko

Research Associate, Photonics & Sensors Group
Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge

Mikhail received his MSc in Engineering from Kharkov University (Ukraine) in 1986. Between 1986 and 1996 he was involved in theoretical research on electrodynamics of condensed media. After completing his doctoral studies on the Physics of liquid crystals in 2001, he joined the Liquid Crystal Group at the University of Southampton. Mikhail then became a Research Fellow at the Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics (CMMPE) at Cambridge, studying liquid crystals, including blue phase materials, and liquid crystal lasers. He left CMMPE in 2008 to work for the Photonic and Sensors Group, University of Cambridge.

Dr. Bryan McLaughlin

Senior R&D Engineering: Electromagnetics, RF & Biological Systems
Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, USA.

Bryan has an MPhil in Electrical Engineering from Cambridge University and a BSC from Oklahoma State University. He completed his PhD at CMMPE in 2008. His research involved the develoopment of near-infrared fibre probes and dielectric relaxation spectroscopy sensors to quantitatively characterize the electrical and optical properties of liver tissue with respect to the amount of disease in the tissue. Towards this aim, he has developed a precision dielectric spectroscopy system and constructed miniature needle probes that can measure materials from 50MHz to 40GHz. He has also constructed fibre optic probes for diffuse reflectance measurements and uses monte-carlo simulations to resolve the absorption and scattering coefficients of materials under test. Bryan has previously worked for IBM Almaden and the Sandia Corporation and was funded by the British Marshall scholarship and the National Science Foundation. Bryan was also a member of King's College. He now works at the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and is working on antenna design, wireless sensors, acoustic telemetry, geolocation, and EEG electrode design.

Dr. Alison Morris (née Ford)

Research Technnologist,
Xaar, Cambridge, UK.

Alison received a Masters in Physics from Southampton University in 2001. She then joined CMMPE in 2002 as a PhD student at Wolfson College, after working at Sharp Labs Europe, to work on liquid crystal lasers. During this time Alison studied the emission properties of chiral nematic, chiral smectic, and blue phase lasers, and carried out an in-depth study into the performance characteristics for different bimesogenic liquid crystal lasers. She also successfully demonstrated wide temperature range blue phase liquid crystal lasers. Following graduation, Alison then worked as a postdoctoral research associate at CMMPE for one year on the CAPE partner project CHIRALASE. Alison now is a Research Technologist at Xaar, Cambridge, where she works on ink-jet technologies.

Dr. Yong-il Cho

Principal Research Scientist
LG Chemicals, South Korea

Yong-il Cho joined Prof. Coles at the the Southampton Liquid Crystal Institute in 2000 as a PhD student and subsequently moved to Cambridge when CMMPE was formed in 2002. He joined the group from LG Chemicals in South Korea to conduct research on slippery surfaces for TN and STN displays as well as the flexoelectro-optic effect. After graduating from Cambridge, Yong-il then returned to South Korea in 2005, and is currently at the Head Office of LG Chemicals, where he now is Principal Research Scientist.

Dr. Ben Broughton

Senior Researcher
Sharp Laboratories of Europe (SLE), Oxford, UK.

Ben graduated from Southampton University in 2001 with a first class Masters degree in Physics. He then joined CMMPE in 2002 as a PhD research student, studying polarisation controllers for telecommunication applications using liquid crystals. During this time Ben created a fast-switching polarization controller based upon the flexoelectro-optic effect in chiral nematic liquid crystals. After completing his PhD in 2005, he left CMMPE to work at Sharp Laboratories Europe where he is currently a Senior Research Fellow. At present, Ben is currently carrying out pioneering work on privacy screens in the liquid crystal group at Sharp.

Dr. Jon Willmott

Land Instruments, Dronfield, Derbyshire

Jon graduated from Southampton University with a Masters in Physics degree before joining Prof. Harry Coles' research group in 1999, at the Southampton Liquid Crystal Institute. For his PhD thesis Jon studied the nonlinear optical properties of chiral nematic liquid crystals including second harmonic generation and liquid crystal lasers. After completing his PhD, Jon joined Prof. Coles at the newly established CMMPE as a Postdoctoral Research Associate working on high birefringence liquid crystals. In 2004 Jon left CMMPE to join Land Instruments, based in Derbyshire, as a Research Fellow.

Dr. Matt Clarke

Rutherford Appleton Laboratory

Matt graduated from Southampton University with a Masters in Physics degree before joining Prof. Harry Coles' research group in 1998, at the Southampton Liquid Crystal Institute. He studied new bimesogenic materials for the flexoelectro-optic effect as part of his PhD thesis which subsequently led to the development of high tilt angle mixtures. He later continued with Prof. Coles as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the newly formed CMMPE based at Cambridge University. Matt left CMMPE in 2004 to become the Software Engineer for the ISIS Neutron Facility at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire.