Members of the research group
Prof Martin Booth
Professor of Engineering Science and Head of Group
Martin's research involves the theory and practice of dynamic optics for high-resolution optical systems. In particular, he has introduced adaptive optics for the compensation of aberrations in microscopes with application to the imaging of thick tissue in biological microscopy. He has also developed active optical methods for high precision laser nano-fabrication particularly for the manufacture of photonic devices. A major current focus is the development of optical methods for neuroscientific research.
Contact information and a brief CV can be found here.
Dr Patrick Salter
EPSRC Research Fellow
Patrick is developing dynamic optical techniques for high-speed precision laser fabrication. Specifically, this involves the implementation of aberration correction for focusing deep into materials and the parallelisation of the laser writing process. Read more here.
Dr Julian Fells
EPSRC Research Fellow
Julian is developing laser-fabricated optical fibre sensors for measuring parameters such as temperature, pressure and strain in extreme environments. Previously he spent 20 years in industrial research in GEC-Marconi, Nortel Networks, Splashpower and Stingray Geophysical.
Dr Syed Asad Hussain
Research Manager
Asad is a Research Manager in the group. He has a vast experience in developing lasers and using them for different applications. His current research interest includes shaping ultrashort pulses for microscopy and surgery.
Dr Jacopo Antonello
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Jacopo received his PhD on Optimisation-based Sensorless Adaptive Optics for Microscopy from the Technical University of Delft, the Netherlands. He is currently working on the theory and implementation of adaptive optics for super-resolution microscopes.
Dr Karen Hampson
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Karen's research experience is in adaptive optics and has worked previously in applications for ophthalmic imaging. Her current research involves the development and application of novel adaptive methods for microscopes and telescopes.
Dr Raphael Turcotte
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Raphael is based jointly in this group and with Prof. Nigel Emptage in the Department of Pharmacology. His research concerns the development of novel adaptive imaging techniques for applications in neuroscience.
Dr Matthew Wincott
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Matthew has research experience in optics, materials science and photovoltaics. He is now developing new inexpensive microscope technology for biological research and education in a collaborative project with University researchers in the Department of Biochemistry.
Dr Jingyu Wang
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Jingyu has worked extensively in the development of optical imaging systems, particularly in optical coherence tomography and adaptive optics. His research projects cover the development of adaptive optics for high resolution and super resolution microscopy.
Dr Ravi Shivaraman
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
I received my Ph.D. in Materials at University of California – Santa Barbara where I investigated the optical properties of Gallium-Nitride based devices. Subsequent post-doctoral work at John Hopkins University, Baltimore, involved the development of tomographic electron microscopy technique assisted by femtosecond laser ablation. My research at University of Oxford will focus on engineering materials properties using the femtosecond laser, with a current focus on surface structuring of diamond.
Dr Chris Chong
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Chris Chong is a postdoc working on developing multicolour STED microscopy system with adaptive optics and new brain imaging techniques. Prior to this, he worked at King’s College London on developing multiuser multiphoton FLIM microscope and also, at several multi-national companies on optical instrumentation development and semiconductor testing.
Dr Richard Lane
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Richard is working on new adaptive optics techniques for high resolution microscopy. Previously he has worked extensively with ultrafast pulse shaping, optical nano-antennas, and single molecule spectroscopy at ICFO Barcelona and the University of Manchester.
Dr Chao He
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Chao's research is in the area of adaptive optics for high resolution biological microscopy with specialisation in polarimetric imaging. He previously worked on a range of projects developing microscope technology. He graduated with his DPhil from the group in 2020.
Dr Martin Hailstone
Post-doctoral Research Scientist
Marta Krueger
Doctoral Research Student
Marta has joined the group in 2019 with a background in Diamond Science and Technology. Her current research focuses on laser processing inside the diamond and development of new sensing devices.
Danail Stoychev
Doctoral Research Student
Danny is a student on the Interdisciplinary Bioscience doctoral training programme. Starting in 2019, he is based jointly at Ilan Davis lab in the Biochemistry department. He is working on adding adaptive optics to a spinning-disk confocal microscope system, developed by his industrial partner -- Aurox.
John O'Neill
Doctoral Research Student
John is based jointly in the Soft Matter Photonics Group and the Dynamic Optics and Photonics Group and is working on research with the company Merck. His project is on direct laser writing of 3D polymeric materials in liquid crystal devices, looking towards applications in photonics.
Aurelien Barbotin
Doctoral Research Student
Aurelien joined as a student in the Oxford Nottingham Biomedical Imaging Doctoral Training Centre in 2016, before joining the group in 2017. His research involves the development of super-resolution microscopes for imaging in thick tissue specimens.
Benjamin Griffiths
Doctoral Research Student
Ben started in 2017 based jointly between the group and the Photonic Nanomaterials Group in the Department of Materials. He is undertaking research into the science and application of laser written colour centres in diamond.
Nicholas Hall
Doctoral Research Student
Nick joined as a student in the Oxford Nottingham Biomedical Imaging Doctoral Training Centre in 2016, before starting his doctoral research in 2017. He is based jointly in the group and in the Micron Oxford centre in Biochemistry. His research involves the development of super-resolution microscopes for imaging in thick tissue specimens.
Qi Hu
Doctoral Research Student
Qi started her doctoral study in 2017 and is undertaking research in new methods for adaptive optics in high resolution volumetric microscopy. She previous carried out undergraduate projects in the group on polarisation modulation and volume holography.
Jiahe Cui
Doctoral Research Student
Jiahe joined the group in 2018 and has a special interest in clinical applications of adaptive optics. Her current research involves developing new generation microscopes for tissue analysis during surgery.
Andrew Kirkpatrick
Doctoral Research Student
Andrew has a background in Condensed Matter physics from the University of London and the University of Warwick. Working jointly with Prof. Jason Smith at the Department of Materials, he is developing the ultra-fast laser writing technique for the generation of colour centres within diamond.
Recent members
Prof Austin Roorda
Austin is Professor of Optometry and Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and was a visiting academic in the group during his sabbatical in 2020.
Dr Jun Guan
Jun worked in the group for five year developing adaptive optical laser machining systems for fabrication of photonic devices, including three-dimensional waveguide circuits. This work was part of the NQIT Quantum Technology Hub based in Oxford.
Dr Ruisheng Lin
Ruisheng was a postdoc in the group working on two-photon microscopy.
Dr Carlas Smith
Carlas was a postdoc and Junior Research Fellow in the group. He moved to start his own research group in a faculty position at TU Delft.
Dr Yuanyuan Dai
Yuanyuan's research was focused on the application and control of adaptive optical elements in optical systems for microscopy and imaging systems. She completed her DPhil in 2019.
Dr Mick Phillips
Mick was based jointly in this research group and in the Micron Oxford centre in Biochemistry. His work was part of an international consortium developing the next generation of super-resolution microscopes. He left the group to start new career in industry.
Thomas was a visiting Masters student from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg (Germany). He worked on laser machining systems to improve the fabrication process of femtosecond laser written quantum circuits.
Debayan Saha
Deb was a visiting student and is based at the Max Planck Institute of Cell Biology and Genetics, Dresden, Germany where he is pursuing his PhD in Physics and continuing collaboration with the group.
Dr Mantas Zurauskas
Mantas left the group in 2019 and was working on various applications of adaptive optics including sensorless adaptive optics for structure illumination microscopy.
Dr Quintin Davis
Quintin was a post doctoral research in the group. He worked on development of microscope as well as mathematical treatment of images.
Dr Debora Andrade
Debora was a post doctoral research assistant in the group working on super-resolution microscopy, in collaboration with Cambridge and Yale Universities.
Dr Bei Li
Bei was a senior research associate in the group working on a range of microscope technology projects. He left in 2017 to become a group leader in the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics in China.
Xiang Liu
Xiang was a doctoral research student in the group working on microscope applications in laser writing of materials.
Dr Bing Dong
Bing is a faculty member from the School of Optoelectronics at the Beijing Institute of Technology. During his research visit to Oxford he applied his expertise in adaptive optics and wavefront sensing to applications in microscopy.
Dr Weibo Wang
Weibo is a Lecturer based at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China and spent a research sabbatical at Oxford. His research experience is in optical measurement systems and he worked on new techniques for microscopic measurement.
Arnaud Courvoisier
Arnaud undertook a placement in Oxford for his Masters degree at the Institute d'Optique in Paris. He worked on the development of laser written waveguides in diamond.
Dr Bangshan Sun
Bangshan investigated advanced adaptive optical methods for the fabrication and characterisation of novel photonics structures in diamond. He graduated with a DPhil in January 2016 and undertook a placement on secondment as a research assistant at the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany.
Dr Brian Patton
Brian was a post doctoral researcher and then a Royal Society University Research Fellow in the group, based in the Centre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour. He moved to take up a lectureship in Strathclyde University in 2016.
Dr Leilei Huang
Leilei was a doctoral student working on the fabrication and characterisation of new laser written waveguide devices for applications in communications and quantum optics. She was also a member of the Optical Communications research group. She graduated in January 2016.
Piotr Zdankowski
Piotr was a visiting student on secondment from the University of Dundee. His project involved the implementation of adaptive optical stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscopes.
Dr Iris Choi
Iris was a post-doc in the group working with research groups and industrial partners to realise the potential of technologies developed by the photonics communities in the University of Oxford. She then took up a post as technology associate in the NQIT quantum technology hub.
Robert Vrees
Robert was a visiting student who completed a six month research placement during 2014. His research, which formed part of his Master's degree at Delft University of Technology, involved the application of Control Engineering techniques to improve the performance of super-resolution microscopes.
Dr Maria Frade Rodriguez
Maria received her PhD in optics from the University of Oviedo, Spain and first joined the Dynamic Optics Group on a research placement. She was working on super-resolution nanoscopy in cooperation with researchers in the CNCB, Biochemistry and the Institute of Molecular Medicine.
Dr Fiona Kenny
Fiona was post doctoral researcher involved in the development of dynamic optical methods for opto-genetic control and imaging of neural activity in Drosophila fruit flies. She was working in collaboration with biological researchers to apply the new technology to neuroscientific problems.
Thomas Choi
Thomas was a Masters student in the group. His project involved the development of optical methods for photo-activation and imaging in optogenetic applications.
Azmeen Rahman
Azmeen's recent thesis covered investigating the use of direct wave front sensing for application in high-resolution scanning laser microscopes.
Dr Richard Simmonds
Richard's doctoral work involves the development of novel techniques for adaptive optical microscopy and laser fabrication. He graduated in November 2012.
