Profiles

Boon S. Ooi (FNAI, FIEEE, FAPS, FOSA, FSPIE, FInstP) is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at KAUST. He previously held faculty positions at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore) from 1996 to 2000 and Lehigh University (Pennsylvania, USA) from 2003 to 2009. From 2012 to 2020, he served as the Director of the KACST-Technology Innovation Center at KAUST.

Professor Ooi has trained more than 40 Ph.D. students and 17 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have secured prestigious fellowships and awards from organizations like the UK Royal Academy, Marie Curie, Humboldt, IEEE, OSA, and SPIE. He holds 45 issued US patents and 21 international patents, many of which have been licensed to leading optics and photonics companies, driving commercialization success.

He has received numerous accolades, including the 2024 Sang Soo Lee Award (Optica/OSA and OSK), the 2023 Khalifa International Award (UAE), and multiple paper awards. Professor Ooi is currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of IEEE Photonics Technology Letters and has previously held editorial roles with Optics Express and IEEE Photonics Journal.

Beyond his academic achievements, Professor Ooi is actively engaged in professional service, having served on key committees such as the IEEE Fellow Committee and the SPIE Fellow Selection Committee. He chaired the IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecture Selection Committee in 2024.

Professor Ooi’s research focuses on high-speed optoelectronics, optical wireless communications, and distributed fiber optic sensors.

ISLAM ASHRY received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Alexandria, Alexandria, Egypt, in 2003 and 2007, respectively, and the Ph.D. degree from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), Blacksburg, VA, USA, in 2012. He is currently a Senior Research Scientist with the Photonics Laboratory, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia. His research interests include optical sensors, fiber-optic sensors, optical communication, machine learning. He is a Senior Member of the National Academy if Inventors (NAI), a Senior Member of IEEE, a Senior Member of IEEE Photonics Society, and a member of SPIE.

Optical sensors; Fiber-optic sensors; Optical communication; Machine learning 

Tien Khee Ng (Fellow of IET and InstP) is a principal research scientist and a laboratory-operation-manager of the Photonics Laboratory at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), Saudi Arabia. He co-established the Photonics Laboratory (2009-) and KACST Technology Innovation Center on Solid-State Lighting at KAUST (2013-2021), and currently focuses on molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown group-III-oxides photonics/electronics and quantum-devices. He was a research fellow and a member-of-technical-staff at Nanyang Technological University and Tinggi Technologies (Singapore), respectively, developing group-III-arsenide, -phosphide, -antimonide and - nitride semiconductor nanostructures and optoelectronic devices. He was an associate editor of digital Encyclopedia of Applied Physics (July 2018–June 2023).

Semiconductor photonics, Multistack membrane semiconductor; Quantum photonic integrated circuits; Optoelectronic devices for optical wireless communication

Professional Profile

●       03/2023 - 09/2023, Research Intern, Stellantis & IMT Atlantique

●       05/2022-09/2022, R&D Intern, Invisensing

●       06/2021-08/2021, Research Intern, Institut Photovoltaïque d’Île-de-France

Education

● 01/2024 – Present, Ph.D. student in Photonics Lab, CEMSE Division, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Thuwal, Saudi Arabia.

● 09/2022 – 12/2023, Second Master’s degree in Optical Networks and Photonics Systems, Université Paris-Saclay & Institut Polytechnique de Paris, Palaiseau, France.

●09/2020 – 12/2023, Engineering degree of Theoretical and Applied Optics, Institut d'Optique Graduate School - Université Paris-Saclay, Palaiseau, France.

●09/2017 – 06/2021, Bachelor of Science and Engineering in Photoelectric Information Science, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.

• Fiber Optic Sensing
• Optoeletronics
• Photonics

Talha Ariff was awarded his BEng/MEng degree in Biomedical Engineering from City, University of London in 2022, where he focused on optoelectronic devices for use in medical and chemical sensing.
He is now a Ph.D. student in the Photonics Lab at KAUST, researching further applications for optoelectronic sensors in desert agriculture and undersea communication cables.

Marine Ecology & Desert agriculture, Sensors, Photonics & Optoelectronics