UCL Optical Tweezers Group: People

Phil Jones

Group leader and professor of physics.  Phil studied at Cambridge University (Peterhouse) for a BA in Natural Sciences, Imperial College for an MSc in Applied Optics, and Oxford University (Magdalen College) for a DPhil in Atomic & Laser Physics, before joining the AMOPP group at UCL.  From 2014-17 he was the joint head of the Biological Physics group.

Onofrio is director of the NanoSoft Lab at the IPCF-CNR, Messina, on the island of Sicily.  He has a long-standing collaboration with the group, previously funded by the Royal Society, and still makes frequent visits.

Prof Jixiong Pu is Professor of Physics and Dean of the College of Information Science and Engineering at Huaqiao University, China.  He was awarded a visiting scholarship to come to UCL from 25 July - 08 September 2013.  His research interests include the generation of partially coherent light beams and their focusing and propagation, vortex beams, tight focusing of stochastic electromagnetic beams, applications of surface plasmon polaritons (SPP), and optical manipulation.

Originally from Cyprus, Marios studied physics at York University, Toronto, followed by an MSc in Optoelectronics at Heriot-Watt and St Andrews Universities.  He is working on optical trapping and binding of microparticles with nanofibres.  In 2013 Marios was awarded a JSPS Fellowship to work with Dr Sile Nic Chormaic at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST).  From there he joined  the Single Molecule Manipulation and Imaging group of Dr Marco Capitanio in LENS, Florence, and is now back at the University of Cyprus.

Susan studied at St Andrews University gaining a First Class MPhys degree in physics while working in the group of Prof Kishan Dholakia.  She was awarded a Graduate School Research Scholarship to study for a PhD at UCL and is working on optical nanofibre trapping and binding of microparticles and optical tweezers.  In 2008 Susan won the NPL award for Best Physics Student (judged by the IoP) at the National SET awards for her work on white light diffraction and trapping at St Andrews.  Susan defended her PhD thesis on Applications of cylindrical vector beams to optical micromanipulation in February 2013, for which she was awarded the Carey Foster Prize for the best PhD thesis in AMOPP Physics at UCL, then was a postdoc in the group of Prof Satoshi Kawata in the Laboratory for Scientific Instrumentation and Engineering (LaSIE) at the University of Osaka, Japan until September 2014, then returned to Prof Dholakia's group in St Andrews as a postdoc.  Susan now works as a Research and Knowledge Exchange Associate at Strathclyde University.

Norman studied Economics & Physics at Rostock University, Germany, and came to UCL to study for an MSc in Physics in 2008-09.  He completed his MSc project on optical trapping with optical vortex beams in the Optical Tweezers Group, and is now studying for a PhD in Economics at LMU, Munich.

Nick completed a BSc project on computer generated holography in 2008-09.  He graduated with a First Class degree and worked for Deloitte for a year before starting an MSc in Automotive Engineering at City University.  He now works for HSBC.  You can find Nick's own website here.

Shaady completed a BSc project on computer generated holography in 2008-09, graduating with a First Class degree.  He now works for EFG-Hermes Asset Managemet in UAE.  You can find Shaady's own website here

Alex studied for an MSci in Physics at UCL, and was awarded a Nuffield Foundation Undergraduate Research Bursary to work in the Optical Tweezers Group during the summer of 2009.  He obtained his PhD with Tim Freegarde in the Quantum Control Group at Southampton University, and in 2014 joined Eric Hudson's Quantum Interactions group in UCLA as a postdoc.  Alex now work for base4 in Cambridge.

Mikako graduated from Imperial College in 2007 and completed her MSc project in the Optical Tweezers Group in 2008. She is now studying for a PhD at Queen's University, Belfast.

Max graduated from Edinburgh University in 2007 with a degree in chemistry, and came to UCL to study for a PhD on the CoMPLEx interdisciplinary programme.  He worked in the Optical Tweezers group for his MRes summer project and has gone to the Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering Centre in the Division of Surgical and Interventional Science (UCL) for his PhD.

Muddassar was an undergraduate student at UCL.  He obtained a Nuffield Foundation research bursary to work in the Optical Tweezers group for the summer of 2008, and graduated with a BSc in Physics in 2009.  In 2011-12 Muddassar studied for an MSc in Photon Science at the University of Manchester Photon Science Institute.  He then obtained a PhD in the Quantum Nanophysics & Matter Wave Interferometry Group at Southampton University, with Prof. Hendrik Ulbricht, where he is now a postdoc.

Formerly at JP Morgan, and now working at Cheyne Capital, Alex studyied for a Physics BSc part-time at UCL, graduaing in 2009.  He did a summer project with the group modelling optical vortex beams in 2007, and went on to study for a PhD on electron-molecule collisions with Dr Jimena Gorfinkiel at the Open University.

Japheth worked on a 4C00 (MSci) Physics project on holographic optical tweezers in 2007 - 2008, and graduated with a First Class degree.  He obtained a PhD in 2013 working in the UCL Atmospheric Physics Laboratory, then worked as a postdoc at Imperial College.  Japheth is now an ESA Research Fellow based in Madrid.

Sarah graduated from the Technical University of Graz, Austria, then came to UCL to study for an MSc (2006-07).  For her project she calibrated an optical tweezers and investigated their use for biological force measurements.  She passed her MSc with distinction and then completed a PhD at the Centre for Cold Matter in the Physics Department at Imperial College.  She is currently a research associate in the Applied Quantum Physics Group of Prof. Arno Rauschenbeutel at the Vienna University of Technology.

John completed a 3C00 project on optical tweezing of microbubbles in 2006 (with Steffen Hilgemann). After leaving UCL he became a strategy consultant at L.E.K. and is now a strategy manager for Intercontinental Hotels Group.

Steffen completed a 3C00 project on optical tweezing of microbubbles in 2006 (with John Wright), then obtained an MSc from the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College.  After graduating he worked for the hedge fund Synergy Global Capital, and now works in asset management at Catalina Holdings.

Seye did a 3C00 project on computer generated holography in 2005-06, and then was selected for the Mountbatten Internship Programme, New York City.  He now works as a Market & Credit Risk analyst for Deutsche Bank .

Mathew did a 3C00 project on optical tweezers in 2004-05.  He followed this with an MPhil in Micro- and Nanotechnology Enterprise at Cambridge University, and a PhD at the London Centre for Nanotechnology / Davy-Faraday Research Laboratory with Prof Quentin Pankhurst. After obtaining his PhD Mathew worked as a research fellow at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.  He is now a business consultant for IBM UK.

Ben Babington-Browne  

Ben did his 3C00 project on optical tweezers in 2004-05, then went on to RMA Sandhurst for officer training and joined 22 Engineer Regiment.  Ben served in Iraq where he achieved the rank of Captain, and in Afghanistan until 2009.  Lasting tribute to Ben Babington-Browne.