UNLOC provides researchers with the skills to succeed

21 November, 2016

An important aspect of all EPSRC programme grants is that of career development. Recently, UNLOC has had particular success in providing its researchers with the skills to progress. UNLOC provides early career researchers with the chance to lead state-of-the art projects in a collaborative environment, giving them the mentoring and experience needed to excel and develop skills and independence.

A spree of prestigious fellowships

In 2016, three of our UNLOC postdoctoral researchers received prestigious postdoctoral research fellowships.

Dr Alex Alvarado and Dr Robert Maher were both awarded Royal Society University Research Fellowships at UCL's Optical Networks Group. Researchers awarded these fellowships are outstanding scientists with the potential to be leaders in their field. The Royal Society offers only about 35 of these fellowships each year in the UK. It is unprecedented that two researchers from the same lab should be successful in the same year and is a testament to the UNLOC’s ability to attract the best researchers worldwide and provide them with the mentoring and opportunities to succeed.

In parallel, both Dr Alvarado and Dr Maher were offered positions which took their careers in another direction, and created difficult choices! Eventually, Dr Maher decided to try industry, moving to an R&D position at global optical networking solutions company, Infinera (in California). Dr Alvarado has become an Assistant Professor in the Digital Signal Processing Group, at Eindhoven University of Technology in The Netherlands.

Dr Domaniҫ Lavery received a Royal Academy of Engineering Research Fellowship in April 2016. The Royal Academy of Engineering offers only 7 such fellowships each year in the UK. Dr Lavery progresses to a Lecturer position with the start of his fellowship in December 2016.

Dr Milen Paskov has also progressed in the industry and took up a USA-based R&D position at TE SubCom in August 2016, developing next-generation optical-fibre communication systems.