About Us
The Optical Networks Group at UCL is a world-renowned research team led by Professor Polina Bayvel. Learn more about our current members, working with us and our alumni.
People
Work with us
Alumni
People
Learn more about our current team, including our academic staff and post-doctoral and PhD researchers as well as our visiting and honorary members.
Academic Staff
Professor Polina Bayvel - Head of the Optical Networks Group / Prof. of Optical Communications
Professor Polina Bayvel is the Head of the Optical Networks Group at UCL which she also set up in 1994. Her research interests are in the area of optical communications and include wavelength-routed optical networks, high-speed optical transmission, and the study and mitigation of fibre nonlinearities. She was one of the first to show the feasibility of using the wavelength domain for routing in optical networks, and designed wavelength-selective devices needed for their characterisation and implementation. More recently she has focused on the study of capacity limits in nonlinear optical networks and optical networks for the cloud. She has authored or co-authored more than 350 refereed journal and conference papers.
Polina Bayvel received her BSc (Eng) and PhD degrees in Electronic & Electrical Engineering from University of London, UK, in 1986 and 1990, respectively. In 1990, she was with the Fiber Optics Laboratory, General Physics Institute, Moscow (formerly USSR, now Russian Academy of Sciences), under the Royal Society Postdoctoral Exchange Fellowship. She was a Principal Systems Engineer with STC Submarine Systems Ltd, London, UK, and Nortel Networks (Harlow, UK, and Ottawa, ON, Canada), where she was involved in the design and planning of optical fibre transmission networks. During 1994-2004, she held a Royal Society University Research Fellowship at University College London (UCL), and in 2002, she was appointed to a Chair in Optical Communications and Networks.
Professor Bayvel is a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), Royal Academy of Engineering (FREng), Optical Society of America (FOSA), Institute of Electronic & Electrical Engineers (FIEEE), the UK Institute of Physics (IoP), and the Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET). She was the recipient of the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award (2007-2012), the 2013 IEEE Photonics Society Engineering Achievement Award, the 2014 Royal Society Clifford Patterson Prize Lecture and Medal, and in 2015 together with five members of her group, she received the Royal Academy of Engineering Colin Campbell Mitchell Award for 'pioneering contributions to optical communications technology'.
She was the PI of the UK EPSRC Programme Grant UNLOC (2012-2018), focused on unlocking - and maximising - the capacity of optical communications, and now leads the TRANSNET Programme Grant (2018-2024).
She was awarded CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2017 New Year's Honours List for services to engineering.
Dr Kari Aaron Clark - Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow
Dr Clark is currently a Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow with the Optical Networks Group (ONG) UCL, having been awarded a 5-year Research Fellowship with the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2022. His fellowship research is to explore methods of optical clock synchronisation to achieve sub-nanosecond clock synchronisation accuracy in 6G radio access networks. Further information about Dr Clark’s fellowship can be found here. His doctoral research focussed on using central optical clock synchronization and clock phase caching to achieve sub-nanosecond clock and data recovery times in optically switched data centre networks.
His research interests include:
- Optical clock distribution
- Optical fibre time-of-flight compensation
- Time synchronised radio access networks
- Synchronised data centre communications
- Clock phase caching
- Sub-nanosecond clock and data recovery
Awards and Funding:
- Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship (2022 to 2027)
- Overall Winner of the EPSRC Connection Nation Pioneers Competition 2018
- Bronze in Engineering at the STEM for BRITAIN 2019 competition held at UK parliament
Contact email: kari.clark.14@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Filipe M. Ferreira - UKRI Future Leaders Fellow
During this time, he worked as a Research Engineer for the optical networks Research & Technology division of Coriant (former Nokia Siemens Networks), leading activities on the EU-FP7 research project MODEGAP, including: few-mode fibres nonlinear modelling and profile design, advanced optical links design and simulation.
In 2015 he was awarded a Marie Curie Individual Fellowship to carry out research on space division multiplexing. During this fellowship, he investigated the linear and nonlinear coupling mechanisms in fibres for spatial division multiplexing, and the opportunities for digital back-propagation.
Filipe joined the Optical Networks Group at UCL as a Senior Research Fellow in October 2019 to work on the EPSRC TRANSNET project, working on the development of intelligent transceivers aimed at better approaching the nonlinear Shannon limit in typical optical fibre networks.
In October 2020 Filipe was awarded a UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship to develop new technologies capable of establishing thousands of parallel optical paths over a single optical fibre strand which will dramatically expand the capacity of the Internet. The project aims to produce a new photonic processor that merges photonic integrated circuits and machine learning so that large-scale spatial parallelism can be achieved within every optical fibre.
Contact email: f.ferreira@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Robert Killey - Professor in Optical Communications
Robert Killey received his BEng degree in Electronic and Communications Engineering from the University of Bristol in 1992 and an MSc in Microwaves and Optoelectronics from UCL in 1994. He received a DPhil degree from the University of Oxford in 1998. His doctoral work was on InGaAsP Fabry–Perot optical modulators and their applications in soliton communications.
He has been a member of the academic staff at UCL since 2000 and is currently a co-investigator on the EPSRC TRANSNET project; a multidisciplinary research programme investigating intelligent resource allocation in dynamic optical networks
Dr Killey is an Associate Editor of the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology and the IEEE Photonics journal, and has served on the Technical Programme Committees of OFC and ECOC. He was a recipient of the 2015 Royal Academy of Engineering 2015 Colin Campbell Award and is a Senior Member of the IEEE.
Current research interests:
- Modelling and experimental investigations of the effects of fibre nonlinearity on high bit-rate WDM data transmission
- Simplified direct detection and coherent optical transceivers
- The applications of digital signal processing for transmission impairment mitigation in high capacity optical communication systems
Contact email: rkilley@ee.ucl.ac.uk
Dr Zhixin Liu - Associate Professor in Optical Communications and Networks
His research areas are optical signal processing and its applications in communication systems and scientific equipment. He has pioneered new techniques for high precision data conversion and low-latency data communications that have led to several world-first demonstrations. Dr Liu has co-authored more than 100 papers in international peer-reviewed journals and conferences, with several high-profile papers in Nature Electronics, Nature Communications, eight invited papers to the IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology as well as top-ranked publications in leading optical communication conferences (OFC and ECOC), including seven post-deadline papers.
Dr Liu is regularly invited to speak at leading international conferences and serves on the technical programme committees of CLEO-PR, OECC and ACP. He also holds two patents, with one licenced to a leading industrial manufacturer. Dr Liu has been a PI on more than ten grants from Industry and Research Councils, totalling over £1.7M. He is also a co-investigator on the £6.1m EPSRC Programme grant TRANSNET.
Contact email: zhixin.liu@ucl.ac.uk
His research interests include:
- High-performance frequency comb
- Coherent signal processing
- Low-latency, low-power consumption transceivers for data centre interconnects
- Integrated photonic circuits for communication systems
Current projects:
- Accurate Time and radio signal distribution through Optical access networks to enable sub-Metre positioning accuracy (ATOM)
- Overcoming Resolution and Bandwidth limIT in radio-frequency Signal digitisation (ORBITS)
- Advanced Signal Generation And Detection System For Next-generation
- PhotoDAC: Photonically-synthesized Digital-to-Analogue Conversion
- TRANSNET : Transforming networks - building an intelligent optical infrastructure
Past projects:
- Development of a pre-commercialisation frequency comb prototype for cloud data centre networks and metro telecom systems
- Photonic-assisted Real-time Oscilloscope
- Optically-switched Data Centre Networks Using Thermal-insensitive Hollow-Core Fibre
- Optically-assisted Fourier analysis
- UNLOC: UNLocking the Capacity of Optical Communications
Students:
- Zichuan Zhou
- Jake Paterson
- Alexander Bennett
Research Fellows:
- Amany Kassem
- Mu-Chieh Lo
- Temitope Odedeyi
- Ronit Sohanpal
Dr Alfonso Ruocco - Lecturer in Optical Communications and Networks
He was subsequently appointed as a Postdoctoral Associate within the Research Laboratory of Electronics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he investigated novel CMOS-compatible integrated photonics systems for metrology and communication systems. Following this, Alfonso held the position of Research Associate and Senior Research Associate within the Electrical Engineering Department at the University of Cambridge, where he investigated novel hybrid nanomaterials/CMOS-compatible photonic platforms for communication systems and ultrafast photonics.
Alfonso’s current research interests include integrated photonic systems implemented on high index contrast platforms, photonic transceivers, ultrafast and quantum photonics.
Contact email: a.ruocco@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Georgios Zervas - Professor of Optical Networked Systems, EPSRC Fellow
Between 2012-16 he was appointed Lecturer and Senior Lecturer at the University of Bristol where he led the research activities on optical networked systems with an emphasis on optical switching, flexible and space division multiplexed networking, programmable electronic and optical hardware as well as data centre systems. He also held the position of Visiting Associate Professor at Keio University, Tokyo. He is the recipient of the prestigious 5-year Fellowship from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) within Information and Communications Technology in the U.K.
He is the author and co-author of over 275 international peer-reviewed journal and conference papers including numerous prestigious post-deadline papers at ECOC/OFC as well as best paper awards. He has also given over 40 invited talks at several international conferences. His research interests lie in the fields of optical networked systems for data centres, high-performance computing and telecoms with a particular focus on optical switched interconnects, topologies, control, architectures and compute and network co-design.
George has been involved in several current and past EC and EPSRC and industrial funded projects as principal and co-investigator. He has been a Technical Programme Committee member on international conferences such as OFC, ICC, Globecom, ONDM and ACP. He is an associate editor of IEEE Networking Letters and has been serving as guest associate editor on IEEE JOCN. Dr Zervas has been involved in the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Open Grid Forum (OGF) standardisation fora. George is also a member of the EPSRC Peer Review Associate College and has served as an expert reviewer in other non-UK national funding bodies.
George is currently an EPSRC Fellow (OptoCloud) and co-investigator on the TRANSNET programme grant. His research has been funded and supported by industry partners including Microsoft, Huber+Suhner Polatis, British Telecom, Sumitomo Electric, II-VI, Xilinx and Micron.
For more information please visit my personal website.
Contact email: g.zervas@ucl.ac.uk
Dr Eric Sillekens - Royal Academy of Engineering Senior Research Fellow
Eric completed his BSc and MSc in Electrical Engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology in 2012 and 2015, respectively, before earning his PhD at University College London (UCL) in 2020, where he focused on advanced coded modulation for optical fibre communication. Previously, he contributed to the TRANSNET Programme at UCL, designing modulation formats that balance fibre nonlinearity and shaping gain. His ongoing research aims to push the limits of capacity and energy efficiency in next-generation optical communication systems.
Contact email: e.sillekens@ucl.ac.uk
Post Doctoral Researchers and Research Staff
Dr Fabio Barbosa
Dr Zun Htay
PhD Students
Sam Lennard
Giovanni Sticca (visiting from Politecnico di Milano)
Work with us
We have 5 fully-funded PhD studentships available. Find out more here and or get in touch about general enquiries below.
We invite you to apply for fully funded studentships available for 2024/25, in the Optical Networks Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University College London (UCL).
Why this research is important: Optical communications systems and networks underpin the global communications infrastructure and the Internet, and are increasingly being used inside data centres. We look at understanding what is needed to support the increasing broadband data demands of a modern, global society. Through the study of future optical fibre network architectures and transmission physics our research will enable new applications, essential to our digital lives of today.
Who you will be working with: You will be based in the Optical Networks Group led by Professor Polina Bayvel and your work will be integrated in the ongoing research programmes. These aim to maximise optical fibre network capacity, though a combination of new research in nonlinear physics, information theory, space division multiplexing, machine learning and digital signal processing. The ONG collaborates closely with leading industry and research groups around the world with many coming to use our state-of-the art optical fibre transmission and network test-bed. We have a long track record of training very successful PhD graduate who have gone on to win multiple prizes and awards and are currently working in industry and academia world-wide.
What you will be doing: You will be looking into how to transform optical networks to be adaptive and intelligent and to provide further capacity scaling. This requires the understanding of all linear and nonlinear phenomena related to the propagation of multiwavelength optical signals in various media, including different types of fibres and free-space. We investigate maximising optical fibre network capacity, using new wavelength bands and fibres, and research in nonlinear optics, information theory, space division multiplexing, machine learning and digital signal processing.
Who we are looking for: We are currently looking for academically outstanding applicants, in high-speed, ultrawideband and space multiplexing optical fibre transmission systems, including fibre nonlinearities and their mitigation.
Funding: All studentships are fully funded by UCL EPSRC DTP (Doctoral Training Partnership) for 4 years. They provide:
- 4 years fees (Home rate) (International students will receive a UCL award to cover the home/international fee difference)
- Maintenance stipend at the UCL EPSRC DTP enhanced rate (ie £1,000 above the UKRI London-weighted rate; this was £21,622 in 2023/24, and rises each year)
- Research Training Support Grant (RTSG) of £4,800. This is to cover additional costs of training eg courses, project costs, conferences, travel
Students will be registered for 4 years and are expected to submit their thesis within the 4 year funded period. The project should be designed and supervised to facilitate this.
For part time students, the stipend and duration will be adjusted pro-rata (e.g. a 50% FTE student will receive 50% of stipend for up to 8 years).
How to Apply: Prospective students will need to apply directly on this page quoting the project ID 2228cd1301. This page also contains further information on student eligibility, application process, and much more. Successful candidates will also need to complete an application via the UCL admissions portal.
General Enquiries
Along with our advertised positions, we are always happy to hear from post-doctoral researchers and PhD students interested in working with us. We are looking for team members with aptitude and interest in hands-on experimental work in the areas of high-speed optical fibre transmission systems, digital signal processing and machine learning for optical communications. Applicants should have an excellent academic record with a first degree in electronic and electrical engineering, physics or a related discipline and demonstrate enthusiasm and ability for research work.
Please contact Professor Polina Bayvel in the first instance: p.bayvel@ucl.ac.uk
Alumni
Many outstanding students and research fellows have passed through the Optical Networks Group (and come back again!) since it was founded in 1994.
Most of our alumni are listed below, but if you were a member of our group and your name and contact details are not on the list, please get in touch with Professor Polina Bayvel and let us know where you are now.
- Alex Alvarado, now with Eindhoven University of Technology
- Paris Andreades, now with ORCA Computing
- Shamil Appathurai, now with Mobitel, Sri Lanka
- Stefano Baroni, now with CSC, USA
- Alejandra Beghelli, now with BT
- Carsten Behrens, now with Deutsche Telekom, Germany
- Yannis Benlachtar, now with Vaslytics, UK
- Joshua Benjamin
- Alessandro Bianciotto, now with Coriant, Germany
- Heribert Brust
- Henrique Buglia, now with Infinera, USA
- Vittorio Cannas, now with SpacEarth Technology and Leoni Corporate Advisors, Italy
- Hou-Man Chin, now with Technical University of Denmark
- Evgeny Churin
- Callum Deakin, now with Nokia Bell Labs
- Andrea Del Duce, now with Quantis International, Switzerland
- Michael Dueser, now with Deutsche Telekom, Germany
- Hubert Dzieciol
- Saifuddin Faruk, now with University of Cambridge, UK
- Robert Friskney, now with Ciena, UK
- Paolo Gambini, now with Wellness & Wireless, Italy
- Giancarlo Gavioli, now with Nokia, Italy
- Thomas Gerard, now with Infinera
- Michael Horn
- Maria Ionesco, now with Xtera, UK
- David Ives, now with University of Cambridge, UK
- Igor Khrushchev, now with Aston University, UK
- Sean Kilmurray
- Irina Kostko, now with Bereskin & Parr, Canada
- Eugene Kozlovski, now with Swiss Management Center, UK
- Boris Karanov, now with Eindhoven University of Technology
- Anouk Van Laer, now with ARM, UK
- Roger Lao, now with Deloitte Consulting, London, UK
- Olga Lavrova, now with University of New Mexico, USA
- Leslie Laycock, now with BAE Systems
- Lidia Galdino, now with Corning Incorporated, UK
- Ruijie Luo, now with Meta, USA
- Kumail Kermalli
- Sergei Makovey, now with Corning Inc, UK
- Jose Manuel Delgado Mendinueta, now with NICT, Japan
- Robin Matzner, now at Oriole Networks, UK
- Vitaly Mikhailov, now with OFS, USA
- Ignacio de Miguel, now with University of Valladolid, Spain
- David Millar, now with Infinera
- Rudolfo di Muro, now with Ericsson, Sweden
- Alec Myers
- Naohide Nagatsu, now with NTT, Japan
- Antonio Napoli, now with Coriant, Germany
- Robert Packham, now with Infinera, UK
- Ben Parker, now with Lot Oriel UK
- Christopher Parsonson, now with Solve Intelligence, UK
- Milen Paskov, now with Meta, UK
- Thorsten Pfister, now with SICK, Germany
- Josep Prat, now with Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya, Spain
- Ben Puttnam, now with NICT Japan
- Derek Rothnie, now with EE, UK
- Martin Sabry
- Marti Sales, now with University of Cambridge, UK
- Masaki Sato, now with NEC Corporation, Japan
- Seb Savory, now with University of Cambridge, UK
- Ralph Schlenk, now with Bell Labs, Nokia, Germany
- Robert Schober, now with Univ. of British Columbia, Canada
- Daniel Semrau
- Zacharaya Shabka, now with Inferlink Corporation, USA
- Maxim Shatalov, now with OOO Lell, Russia
- Dr Mykyta Shevchenko
- Kai Shi, now at Microsoft Research Lab, Cambridge
- Vladimir Smitnitskii
- Alex Stavdas, now with the University of Peloponnese, Greece
- Hans Joerg Thiele, now with ADVA, Germany
- Ramanan Thiruneelakandan, now at Nissan Technical Centre, UK
- Benn Thomsen, now at Microsoft Research Lab, Cambridge
- Fedor Timofeev, now with WT&T, Canada
- Veronika Tsatourian, now with Heriot-Watt University, UK
- Michael Uhl, now with McKinsey, USA
- Anastasiia Vasylchenkova, now with Nature, UK
- Robert Waegemans, now with Ciena, Canada
- Philip Watts, now with ARM, UK
- Christian Webber, now with Technical University of Berlin
- Xianhe Yangzhang
- Hui Yuan, now with Huawei, China
- Wenting Yi, now with Acacia/Cisco, USA
- Wolfgang Zeiler
Alumni Testimonials
If you are a former ONG member, we would love to hear from you!
Our alumni are the heart of our vibrant community. We would love to spotlight your achievements to not only inspire but to show the impact that our growing community have had across the world.
All you need to do is complete a short form, which you can access here.
For further information on the form, please contact Professor Polina Bayvel.
