Presentation Type: Invited Speaker

Sonia Martin-Lopez received the Ph.D. degree from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in May 2006. The topic of her doctoral dissertation was on experimental and theoretical understanding of continuous wave pumped supercontinuum generation in optical fibers. She had a Predoctoral stay with the Nanophotonics and Metrology Laboratory, Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland. She has been involved as a Postdoctoral Researcher with the Applied Physics Institute and with the Optics Institute, Spanish Council as a Researcher for six years. She is currently an Associate Professor with the Photonics Engineering Group, University of Alcala, Alcala de Henares, Spain. She is the author or coauthor of more than 200 papers in international refereed journals and conference contributions. Her current research interests include nonlinear fiber optics and distributed optical fiber sensors.

Marco Pisco was born in Naples, Italy in 1977. He received a Master’s Degree in Information and
telecommunication engineering (110/110 magna cum laude) in 2003 from the University of Naples
Federico II, Italy. In 2007, he received an international Ph.D. Degree in Information Engineering at
the University of Sannio, Italy, jointly with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FER) at the
University of Zagreb. He is currently an Associate Professor at the Optoelectronic Division –
Engineering Department of the University of Sannio. His field of interest is in the area of
optoelectronics and photonics. Specifically, he addresses research and development of optical
sensors and devices for sensing applications. He is the author and co-author of several publications,
including books, international journals, national and international conferences and book chapters.
He is member of the editorial board of international journals (i.e. MDPI Sensors, Chemosensors).
He serves as member of the technical committee of international conferences such as “International
Conference on Sensors and Electronic Instrumental Advances” (SEIA), “International Conference
on Technological Advances of Sensors and Instrumentation” (ICTASI) and “European Workshop
on Optical Fibre Sensors” (EWOFS).

Zuyuan He received his Ph.D. degree in Advanced Interdisciplinary Engineering from the University of Tokyo, Japan, and became a Research Associate of the University of Tokyo in 1999.  In 2001, he joined CIENA Corporation, Linthicum, Maryland, USA, as a Lead Engineer heading the optical testing and optical process development group.  He returned to the University of Tokyo as a Lecturer in 2003, then became an Associate Professor in 2005 and a full Professor in 2010.  He is now a Chair Professor at the Department of Electronic Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China.  His current research interests include optical fiber sensors, specialty optical fibers, and optical interconnects.  He co-authored about 500 papers in peer-refereed journals and international conferences, and has been awarded 40 patents from China, Japan, USA, and UK, respectively.

Dr. He has served as technical program committee members in a variety of international conferences, such as CLEO, OFC, and OFS, and as the general chair of Asia Communications and Photonics Conference (ACP) 2014 and Asia-Pacific Optical Sensors Conference (APOS) 2016, respectively, and worked as an Associate Editor of IEEE/OSA Journal of Lightwave Technology in 2013-2019.

Miguel González-Herráez received the M.Eng. and D.Eng. degrees from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain, in 2000 and 2004, respectively. In October 2004, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Electronics, University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in June 2006. He is the author or coauthor of >120 papers in international refereed journals and >130 conference contributions and has given >20 invited/plenary talks at prestigious international conferences. His research interests cover the wide field of nonlinear interactions in optical fibers, with particular focus on distributed optical fiber sensing. Prof. González-Herráez has received several important recognitions to his research career, including the European Research Council Starting Grant, the “Miguel Catalan” prize for young scientists given by the Comunidad de Madrid and the “Agustin de Betancourt” prize of the Spanish Royal Academy of Engineering.

Paul R. Ohodnicki Jr. is currently an associate professor in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science department at University of Pittsburgh and the Engineering Science program director.  In addition, he serves as the Chief Technology Officer and co-founder of CorePower Magnetics, an early stage startup seeking to commercialize a portfolio of intellectual property developed during his time as an employee at the US Department of Energy.  Prior to his current roles, he was a materials scientist and technical portfolio lead in the Functional Materials Team of the Materials Engineering & Manufacturing Directorate of the National Energy Technology Laboratory. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2005 with a B.Phil. in engineering physics and a B.A. in economics and subsequently earned his M.S. (2006) and Ph.D. (2008) in materials science and engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.  Ohodnicki has published more than 150 technical publications and holds more than 15 patents, with more than 30 additional patents under review. He also is recipient of a number of awards and recognitions, including Federal Employee Rookie of the Year Award (2012), Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering (2016), and Advanced Manufacturing and Materials Innovation Category Award for the Carnegie Science Center (2012, 2017, 2019). In 2017, he was a nominee for the Samuel J. Heyman service to America Medal.

Dr. Daichi Wada is a Researcher in Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, where he has been since 2015. He received his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Tokyo in 2013. Following his PhD, he worked as Project Researcher and Project Assistant Professor in the University of Tokyo. In 2019-2020, he was a Visiting Research Fellow in University of Bristol.

His research involved fiber optics and its application to structural monitoring. He also focused on machine-learning-based aircraft control.

Dr. Tucker received his PhD in Materials Science from the University of Florida in 1983.

He retired from NASA in 2020, where he was actively involved in researching the effects of gravity on the crystallization behavior of heavy metal fluoride glasses. He also investigated the effects of an axial magnetic field on the crystallization of ZBLAN glass. He is presently a Senior Scientist at Idaho National Laboratory.