Early Career Researchers Committee


The Early Career Researchers (ECRs) Committee was set up in October 2017 to increase the visibilty and engagement of younger members within the AILU community. We hope that, as the careers of ECRs develop through industry and academia, they will maintain contact with AILU and encourage the next generation of industrial laser users. There are benefits for the young researchers such as increased networking with other academic institutions, profile-raising and the addition of new skills to enhance their CVs.

How was it set up?
The initial focus of the ECR initiative was to produce a column of articles and features for the AILU's magazine, "The Laser User".  A start-up meeting was held in October 2017 giving researchers the chance to get to know each other, share their research interests and develop ideas for future issues of magazine. 
Prveen Bidare of Heriot-Watt University was voted as the committee Chair and organised the second committee meeting in early December 2017.

What's happening now?

The third committee meeting in June 2018 was  held in June 2018 during the Laser Precision Microfabrication Symposium at Heriot-Watt University, and the next one will be held late November 2018 at Cranfield Universuty.

The number of committee participants is increasing, and we welcomed 2 new members from industry - Saskia Childe from Thinklaser and Manuel Zavala-Arredondo of TWI.

Interested in joining?
The committee is open to anyone who fulfils the following criteria:

  • current Masters and PhD students 
  • researchers who are within 5 years of a completed postgraduate degree
  • those in th e early stages of their career in industry
  • others for whom supervisors/line managers would like to make a special case

If you are interested in joining please contact Prveen Bidare (pb3@hw.ac.uk) or Cath Rose (cath@ailu.org.uk).

Top Image:
Back row (l-r) Ioannis Bitharas, Heriot-Watt University; Armando Caballero, Cranfield University; Prveen Bidare, Heriot-Watt University; Michael Reilly, Heriot-Watt University; Xiaojun Shen, Coventry University; Yang Jiao, University of Cardiff; David Rico Sierra, University of Liverpool.

Front row (l-r) Nesma Aboulkhair, University of Nottingham; Goncalo Pardal, Cranfield University; Anton Serkov, University of Hull; Jean-Michel Romano, University of Birmingham; Chao Wei, University of Manchester.

Members not present: Rosie Horner (Liverpool John Moores University); Krste Pangovski (University of Cambridge); Arina Mohammed (University of Hull).

Bottom Image:
L-r: 
Arina Mohammed​, Goncalo Pardal​, Armando Caballero, Nesma Aboulkhair,  Prveen Bidare​, David Rico Sierra​, Jean-Michel Romano​


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