Tim’s research interests focus on understanding light propagation in optical fibres. 

Tim is best known for pioneering research on photonic crystal fibres, with a current focus on fibres with hollow cores. He has also made key contributions to the development of photonic devices based on tapered fibres, including the photonic lantern. His research is driven by curiosity, and also by applications in telecommunication, astronomical instrumentation and healthcare technology. He is inventor or co-inventor of 25 granted US and European patents, was elected Fellow of the Optical Society of America in 2007, and was jointly awarded the 2018 Rank Prize for Optoelectronics.

Tim is the MicroTex Hub’s Theme Lead on Optical Fibre Technology, and he manages its research activities at the University of Bath.

Duncan leads research activity on applications of high-power lasers, with a focus on both manufacturing and medical devices.

Duncan has been at Heriot-Watt University since 1991, following his PhD studies at the University of Southampton. He leads research activity in applications of high-power lasers, particularly in manufacturing, with additional work on optical sensing, and also on surgical applications of lasers. He is currently leading a suite of projects funded by EPSRC, Scottish Enterprise and industry. His manufacturing research encompasses micro-welding, surface modification, surface patterning, engraving, and micro-machining, covering a range of applications areas from electric vehicle batteries to miniature medical devices. He is Director of the £12M, 5-university Medical Device Manufacturing Centre www.mdmc.ac.uk. In addition to his research interests Duncan has held may leadership roles in the university and is currently Assistant Vice Principal for Research and Impact.

A keen cyclist, he normally commutes by bike to work and is often out cycling in the local countryside at weekends.

As Head of the School of Engineering at the University of Edinburgh, Guangzhao spearheads cutting-edge research that bridges engineering and medicine, unlocking groundbreaking possibilities in drug delivery and nanoscale material applications.

Guangzhao is a leading innovator in nanotechnology and materials engineering, shaping the future of nanomedicine and advanced sensor systems. Her pioneering research focuses on two transformative areas, electrocrystallization & nanosensors and nanotechnology & neuroscience.

Previously, Professor Mao led as Head of the School of Chemical Engineering at UNSW Sydney, where she continues as an Adjunct Professor. Her global influence is reflected in many prestigious accolades, including Fulbright Senior Scholarship, Visiting Professorship at the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), and Career Award from the U.S. National Science Foundation. With an impressive track record of driving scientific innovation, Professor Mao continues to push the boundaries of chemical & materials engineering, shaping the next generation of engineering solutions with real-world impact.

Lynn’s research interests are at the interface of physics, engineering, and the biomedical life sciences with a particular interest in optical trapping.

Lynn works within Heriot Watt University’s Institute of Biological Chemistry, Biophysics and Bioengineering, in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences. Her main interest is concerned with optical trapping and manipulation (a topic linked to the Nobel Prize in Physics of 2018) used to investigate physical properties of biological systems and enable a variety of experiments at the microscale.

 In general, Lynn is interested in the interaction between light and microscopic matter for applications ranging from soft matter systems to fundamental cell biology to clinical applications. She is also interested in using nanoparticles as probes and biosensors in biological samples, developing and using microfluidic systems to enable new experiments, and in spectroscopic studies of cells and tissue samples.

Lynn’s Biophotonics research group has previously developed optofluidic devices and optical tweezers hardware and software for improved isolation, sorting, culture & screening of marine microbes for biodiscovery, used by collaborators in the UK and overseas to isolate cells at culture collection sites. Lynn was co-investigator on an MRC Discovery Award ‘Genomics & Microfluidics: Taking Cell Biology into the Era of Big Data’ applying optofluidic technologies to single cell analysis and is currently co-investigator on the project U-care: exploiting UV laser sources to address the global healthcare challenge of anti-microbial resistance.

Lynn’s expertise in integrating optical components with microfluidics, and performing manipulation, spectroscopy and sensing within microfluidic channels will be used in the MicroTex Partnership hub where the technologies to enable crucial experimental medicine in patients will be advanced to more rapidly treat infection and inflammation.

Jim develops optical fibres and endoscopic medical devices.

Jim is a Reader at the University of Bath, where his research focus is on developing new optical fibres particularly for use in healthcare. He has always been motivated by translation and impact and now spends the majority of his time working for the spinout company, Prothea Technologies, where he is a founder and CTO.

Ian Underwood is an award-winning researcher, innovator and entrepreneur. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and the Royal Society of Edinburgh.

Ian co-founded MicroEmissive Displays in 1998 and PureLIFI in 2012 and has supported the formation or growth of many more start-up/spin-out companies. He is a mentor at the Enterprise Hub of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

From research roots in visual displays and photonics, his research interests have expanded in two directions – technologically into miniature sensors deployed across a range of applications and generically towards broader and deeper inter-disciplinarity in topics and themes. 

He has become a proponent of inter-disciplinary doctoral research training, initially as Assistant Director of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Integrative Sensing and Measurement (CDT-ISM, 2014 to 2022) and, since 2021, as Director of the pioneering ACRC Academy within the Advanced Care Research Centre, funded by Legal and General plc. 

Michael’s research is focused on biomaterials, biomedical engineering, biophysics, and the application of nanomaterials in biology and medicine.

Michael is based in the School of Engineering at The University of Edinburgh and within his areas of interest, he has been working on physical (microneedle & nanoneedle arrays) and chemical (nanomaterials) for drug delivery and sensing, as well as microfluidic devices for biomedical applications.

He has published >130 papers in peer-reviewed journals including Nature Communications, Advanced Materials, Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Advanced Functional Materials, Small, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, Nano Letters, ACS Nano, Biomaterials, Journal of Controlled Release, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and Chemical Society Reviews. These publications generated an h-index of 59 and >9000 citations. Additionally, Michael has 3 book chapters and 12 granted patents & 15 patent applications in drug delivery technologies in major countries and regions, mostly in the USA and Europe. His research output has attracted broad media coverage including TV, newspapers, internet websites, journal cover, and journal cover stories. Michael has been repeatedly listed among the World’s Top 2% Scientists for Career Impact, as well as among the Best Materials Science Scientists in Research.com.

Michael’s research has been supported by grants from MRC (nanomedicine), ESRC (sing-cell analysis), EPSRC (Phase 0 clinical trial tool development), industry (hydrogel, nanomedicine, antibacterial coatings), Cancer Research UK (biosensor), the Royal Society (microfluidic nanomedicine synthesis), and the Royal Society of Edinburgh (nanomedicine, biosensor). 

For scientific community service, Michael serves as a reviewer for many fields’ top journals such as Science Robotics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Advanced Materials, Small, Advanced Healthcare Materials, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Nano, Nano Letters, ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, Journal of Controlled Release, Biomaterials, Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, and grant proposals from different research councils in the UK (e.g., EPSRC, BBSRC, MRC, CRUK, and Royal Society) and a number of other countries. He is also an associate editor of IET Nanobiotechnology and an editorial board member of Sensors, Bioengineering, and Journal of Functional Biomaterials.

Mohsen’s Surgical and Interventional Robotics Group develop therapeutic and diagnostic robotic instruments for a wide range of medical applications

Mohsen is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow and Reader in Robotics at the School of Informatics, University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on continuum robotics with primary application in surgical and interventional robotics, areas that are transforming healthcare by enabling more precise and minimally invasive procedures.

Collaborating closely with scientists, researchers, biologists, and engineers, Mohsen works to enhance current treatment and diagnostic methods. In partnership with end-users and clinical collaborators, his team identify the best devices and theoretical approaches to address specific clinical problems. This often involves developing new robot designs, advanced sensors, innovative mechatronic components, and novel algorithms. Mohsen’s group aims to improve surgical accuracy by combining image guidance with advanced control strategies. The group’s main research topics include continuum robotics, surgical robotics and image-guided therapies, computer vision and medical image processing, mechanics-based modelling and simulation, and applications of control theory in robotics.

Beth’s research aims to develop pathways to diagnose, treat, and reduce the burden of microbial keratitis.

Beth was awarded her PhD in Molecular Microbiology from the University of Nottingham and subsequently joined the EPSRC IRC Proteus project and Translational Healthcare Technologies group at the University of Edinburgh, where she led infection model development and the validation of optical SmartProbes and imaging devices for clinical translation in pulmonology. In 2017 Beth started investigating how such technologies could be adapted for point-of-care diagnosis of infection, considering technological, user and health system requirements in low-resource settings, with a particular focus on microbial keratitis (corneal ulcer). Beth concurrently undertook an MSc in Global Health and Public Policy at the University of Edinburgh to augment these endeavours.

Beth began her UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship in 2022. Her ultimate goal is to develop pathways to diagnose, treat and reduce the burden of microbial keratitis, with a particular focus within India, and working with project partner the Aravind Eye Care System. 

Pablo’s current research is utilising ultrafast laser microfabrication to develop and translate a multifunctional catheter to exploit experimental medicine in the distal lung.

After studying Telecommunications Engineering at the University of Cantabria (Spain), Pablo then completed his PhD thesis in September 2023 at the Photonics Engineering Group. His PhD was primarily concerned with the ultrafast laser microfabrication of optofluidic devices for sensing and imaging applications, as well as the discovery of a femtosecond laser regime that causes polarisation-independent etching.

Pablo’s current fellowship will develop and translate a multifunctional catheter to exploit experimental medicine in the distal lung. To achieve this, ultrafast lasers are used on superelastic materials to create a catheter with mm-scale dimensions capable of accessing peripheral regions of the lung. Special fibres and various imaging techniques are also employed to ensure accurate guidance of the device.

In his free time, Pablo enjoys various sports, but especially cycling and ultra trail running.

Michael’s research team works to exploit time resolved single photon technologies and optical fibre sensors for clinical/biomedical photonics and other real world applications.

Michael is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences at Heriot-Watt University, having previously spent time at the Universities of Nottingham, Cambridge, and Glasgow. He has strong links to clinical research at the University of Edinburgh.

Coming from a background in single photon detection, Michael has a desire to apply advanced technologies to healthcare challenges. He has extensive experience in photonic technologies such as enhanced optical fibre endoscopy/sensing and time resolved photon counting imaging/spectroscopy. He has a particular focus on translating technology out of the lab. He is pursuing this with ongoing funding from EPSRC, MRC, and Scottish Enterprise in topics ranging across photodynamic therapy, women’s health, photon transit through tissue, and widefield clinical imaging systems. Michael is currently translating time resolved imaging systems to first in human studies with the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, and is advancing this technology commercially.

Outside of work Michael cycles, fixes old motorbikes, rides them when they are working, and enjoys exploring the Scottish hills.

Marc’s team studies dynamic activatable fluorophores for real-time imaging of key molecular events in inflammation.

Marc‘s team has pioneered the design of smart chemical fluorophores for high-resolution optical imaging in live cells, tissues and humans (>150 papers), and built an ambitious research programme linking physical and biomedical sciences through competitive funding (over £10M as PI (>£40M as co-I), including prestigious European ERC Consolidator and EIC Transition grants). Marc is co-inventor of 12 patents, PI for 9 licensed technologies and several collaborative projects with industry and Pharma, and has contributed to founding two spin-out companies on therapeutics and diagnostics. Marc has a strong record of mentoring and training the next generation of translational scientists, with several alumni holding independent positions in academia and industry. He has won numerous awards and distinctions, with some of the latest being the Bader Prize by The Royal Society of Chemistry in 2023 and elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 2024, the Scottish national academy. Marc currently heads the The University of Edinburgh Institute for Regeneration and Repair Chemistry Hub at the College of Medicine as one of the first global hubs for collaborative non-siloed chemical research to catalyse innovation in medical sciences and accelerate translational outputs.