Two New FWO Junior Postdoc Fellowships for B‑PHOT Researchers

We are proud to announce that two of our colleagues, Dr. Sergei Mikhailov and Dr. Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari, have each been awarded a Junior Postdoctoral Fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). With 1038 applications and a success rate of just 16.1%, this year’s call was even more competitive than previous years.

Sergei Mikhailov’s work under the supervision of Prof. Francis Berghmans will focus on advancing optical fiber-based structural health monitoring through the development in time-expanded phase‑sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry and novel twisted microstructured optical fiber sensors. His work aims to push the boundaries of fiber‑based distributed measurements, enabling precise and fast multiparameter sensing with applications spanning aerospace, civil infrastructure, renewable energy, and beyond.

Mehrdad Lotfi Choobbari’s project will tackle one of today’s most pressing environmental challenges. After nearly five years of collaboration with Prof. Heidi Ottevaere on the development of water monitoring sensors, Mehrdad will now advance a groundbreaking multimodal sensor for the real-time detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in water. By combining Surface‑Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS), acoustic trapping, microfluidics, and machine learning, his project aims to deliver a highly sensitive and portable solution for detecting trace levels of these “forever chemicals”. As such, he will not only address urgent public health and environmental concerns but will also pave the way for monitoring a broader range of emerging contaminants.

We congratulate Sergei and Mehrdad on these outstanding achievements and look forward to the exciting developments their research will bring!