Academic promotions for two ONG members

Dr Zhixin Liu received his PhD in Information Engineering from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012. Upon graduation, he received the Hong Kong Creative Fund and co-founded a technology start-up. In 2013, he joined the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton and became a Senior Research Fellow in 2015. In 2016, Zhixin joined the Optical Networks Group at UCL as a Lecturer.  

Zhixin’s research focuses on investigating devices and subsystems for enabling larger data transmission capacities with a simultaneous reduction in power consumption and system complexity. His research interests include:

• optical transceivers for short and medium reach optical communication
• optical-assisted signal processing
• integrated photonic systems

Zhixin is a co-investigator on the TRANSNET Programme and is principal investigator on several other projects including PhotoDAC and Photonic-assisted Real-time Oscilloscope, funded by EPSRC and the Royal Society, respectively. Earlier this year he also received an EPSRC Impact Accelerator Award to develop a frequency comb prototype that will radically enhance the scalability of data centres. 

Dr George Zervas received his PhD in optical networks from the University of Essex in 2009. He then held the positions of Research Associate and subsequently Research Fellow as a member of the High-Performance Networks group at the University of Essex. He was appointed Lecturer in 2011. In 2012, George moved to the University of Bristol where he was a Lecturer and then Senior Lecturer before joining the Optical Networks Group at UCL in 2016. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2018.

George’s research focuses on making next-generation data centres more scalable and sustainable by replacing electronic networks with optical fibre systems. His research interests include:

• optical network technologies and control
• data centres (cloud) and high-performance computing
• Reconfigurable computing and programmable hardware
• Optics and networks for AI/ML and AI/ML for optics and networks

George is a co-investigator on the TRANSNET Programme and was recently awarded a five-year EPSRC Fellowship to design and build powerful, more efficient and greener data centres of the future.