Critical Technologies Accelerator

Dr Christopher Leburn: Programme Manager & Development Manager

Christopher combines an entrepreneurial spirit with a strong scientific background.  He is the co-founder and former CEO of a Scottish laser manufacturing spin-out. As Programme Manager, Christopher provides leadership across the CTA team and is also driving the strategic development for delivery and future sustainability of the CTA programme beyond the initial pilot phase.

Mr Bill Wright: Project Manager

Bill is the Technical Project Manager for the Critical Technologies Accelerator, responsible for all aspects of the technical and project management from kick-off to project reporting.

He is a Graduate in Applied Chemistry from the University of Strathclyde and is Lean-Six Sigma Black Belt certified and has many years of experience in semiconductor chip manufacture, covering commodity products, microprocessors and microcontrollers, memory manufacture and high-power semiconductor devices.

Mrs Evelyn Toma: Director of Strategy for the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre

Evelyn leads the strategic development of the JWNC, a core UK facility which is an important asset within the Scottish Critical Technologies Supercluster. This facility is one of the largest and most exciting open access academic clean rooms in the UK.

Dr Robert Graham

Robert has a research focus on Superconducting applications and cryogenic systems. Prior to joining the CTA Robert carried out research with both the Quantum Sensors group and Quantum circuits group at the university of Glasgow where, using the University’s large cluster of cryogenic systems, he focused on projects including Single photon detectors, semiconductor systems for cryogenic operation and Superconducting Quantum computing.

Dr Andrew Greer

Andrew specialises in nanoscale lithography and coatings. He has built international award-winning nanofabrication tools and holds the world record for the smallest features produced with a 3D Printer! Andrew has generated significant PR for the JWNC, when he produced ‘The World’s Smallest Coin’ using electron-beam lithography on a piece of diamond. He has also served as a special edition editor for the journal Coatings and is a founding member of the UK Bio-Effective Surface Treatment Think-tank. Aditionally, he is passionate about utilising nanotechnology to enhance products for ethical industries and is active in the commercialisation of nanotechnology as the director of a tech-transfer start-up with six-figure investment.

Dr Elena Kniazeva

Elena Kniazeva focuses on design and fabrication of semiconductor devices (DFB laser diodes, waveguides).   Her bachelor’s degree was in optical technologies and materials and her master's degree was in light-guided photonics (fibre optics), where she developed a fibre bending sensor based on tilted Fibre Bragg gratings working in reflection mode. Recently she has been awarded a double PhD degree from University of Montpellier and University of Bari. During this work she studied effect of upper cladding layer thicknesses variations for semiconductor DFB laser diodes on their performances. Implementing results of the study, she later successfully developed and manufactured first ever GaSb-based DFBs with grating on the top of the laser ridge in near-IR spectral range. Part of her research was also dedicated to development of compact and light weighed QEPAS sensors for detection of toxic gases in atmosphere.

Dr Zhibo Li

Zhibo’s research focuses on optoelectronics, photonic integrated circuits (PICs), nonlinear photonics, novel photonic materials. This includes from single device design to system level integration, as well as micro/nano fabrication and charactersation techniques. He has extensive experience in academic research and industrial production environments, covering design, fabrication and charactersation of InP and GaAs based semiconductor lasers, III-V and LiNbO3 modulators, Si/SiNx photonics and their integrations for telecom, sensing and quantum applications.

Dr Adam McKenzie

Adam’s research interests focus on MOVPE growth and characterisation of III-V semiconductors for photonics applications. His main expertise is in epitaxial regrowth and electron microscopy analysis of nanostructured lasers, such as DFBs and PCSELs. Prior to joining CTA, Adam had 7+ year’s experience working within the photonics industry where he led successful collaborative R&D and knowledge exchange projects.

Dr Iliyana Samardzhieva

Working as a Process Engineer, Iliyana is looking at the fabrication and characterization of low-loss light transmission photonic and optoelectronic devices within the evolving technical capabilities of the CTA platform. Previously, Iliyana was involved in a project at the North West Centre for Advanced Manufacturing (NWCAM) supercluster, working at the forefront of nanomanufacturing at the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC). The project focused on developing high-performance biosensors based on plasmon optical and chiroptical nanostructures as a platform for low-cost, label-free, multiplexed biosensing at the nexus of nanotechnology and healthcare.

Dr Valentino Seferai

Valentino is a design and fabrication engineer in the CTA, specializing in superconducting quantum circuits. He has extensive expertise in fabricating microwave circuit elements, including superconducting coplanar resonators and Josephson junctions, which are crucial for quantum computing applications. Utilizing the state-of-the-art in-house fabrication facilities at the James Watt Nanofabrication Centre (JWNC), he has advanced his research and development projects significantly. Additionally, Dr. Seferai has experience in measuring and characterizing superconducting circuits, both in DC and RF measurements, using a dilution refrigerator capable of reaching temperatures as low as 30 mK.

Dr Ben Smith

Ben’s research interests lie in electron microscopy for materials science applications. Specifically, he is interested in utilising Transmission Electron Microscopy and Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS) to analyse epitaxial growth used in the fabrication of lasers. Before working with the CTA, he carried out research with the Materials and Condensed Matter Physics Group at the University of Glasgow. Using Glasgow’s cutting edge electron microscopy suite he has studied the structure of half-Heuslers which have promising thermoelectric applications.

Dr Xiao Sun

Sun’s research focuses on the innovative design and nanofabrication of InP/GaAs photonic integrated circuit devices. His primary interest lies in the nanofabrication of semiconductor lasers and photonic crystals using III-V group materials. Before joining the CTA, he earned his Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 2024, where he spent three years working at the James Watt Nanofabrication Center (JWNC).

Dr Yupei Wang

Yupei is a skilful and adaptable professional optical design and model engineer. She currently  specializes in the design of III-V semiconductor surface grating couplers, Photonic Crystal Surface Emitting Lasers (PCSELs), and graphene metasurfaces, coupled with proficiency in utilizing Ansys Lumerical, Photon Design tools, and COMSOL Multiphysics. She has experience with cluster computing to run very large-scale simulations on high performance computers via Ansys Lumerical FDTD and COMSOL Multiphysics.

Before working with the CTA, Yipei carried out research with the Photonics Group at University College London (UCL). A proven track record of successfully contributing to cutting-edge projects in the field of topological photonics, with a focus on enhancing device performance and functionality, which was applied to an active all-optical switch, efficient mode coupler, and gas molecular sensor.

Dr Jue Wang

Jue Wang received his PhD degree in Electronics & Electrical Engineering from the University of Glasgow in 2014.

Before joining the CTA, Jue led the research activities in many projects such as EPSRC and European Horizon 2020. Jue’s expertise lie in Microwave/mm-wave circuits, especially, ultra-high frequency transmitter design, fabrication, and characterization for next generation high speed communication systems.

Currently Jue’s research focus is on developing compact high efficiency Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) systems based on semiconductor laser technology.