Research Fellow
Dr. Mike Taverne
ELC101
mike.taverne@northumbria.ac.uk
EDUCATION
- Ph.D, Dept. of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Bristol, UK. January 2017: “Modelling and fabrication of nanophotonics devices”: Optimized cavities in 3D photonic crystals and demonstrated record low mode volumes.
- Master’s degree in subatomic physics and astroparticles, Louis Pasteur University, Strasbourg, France, 2008 (light-matter interactions, detection systems, elementary particles and fields, etc).
- Engineering degree, Télécom Physique Strasbourg (formerly known as Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Physique de Strasbourg/National School of Higher Education in Physics of Strasbourg), Strasbourg, France, 2007 (included courses on embedded systems and electronic CAD using VHDL)
CERTIFICATIONS AND TRAINING
- Certified Carpentries Instructor, The Carpentries (Data, Library and Software Carpentry), January 2025.
- Software tools and practices for open and reproducible research workshop, organised by the Software Sustainability Institute and funded by the UK Reproducibility Network, 1-4 April 2025.
- IBM Quantum Explorer 2023: Intermediate badge, IBM, March 2024 (verify).
RESEARCH AND WORK EXPERIENCES
- Research Fellow, School of Engineering, Physics and Mathematics, Northumbria University, 01/09/2021 – present
- Honorary Research Associate, School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering, University of Bristol, 01/09/2021 – present
- Research Associate, Dept. of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, University of Bristol, 01/01/2016 – 31/08/2021
- Software engineer (Development of mesh generation software for CFD applications, Engineering consultancy), enGits GmbH, Germany, 2009 to 2010. Core contributor to the open-source enGrid mesh generator (C++/Qt/VTK; over 1,000 commits) and helped manage the company’s main server.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
- Student project supervision, University of Northumbria, 2021 - present
- Practical sessions for the “Optical Communications System” module (KD7064) (practical optical experiments), University of Northumbria, March - April 2026
- Teaching and practical sessions for the “Digital Electronics and Communications” module (KD4009), involving signal processing using LabVIEW, University of Northumbria, November 2025 - March 2026
- Helper, “Introduction to Using the Shell in a HPC Context” and “ARCHER2 Introduction to HPC” courses (Carpentries Incubator lessons, EPCC), November 2024
- Practical sessions on Logisim for the “Digital Electronics and Communications” module, University of Northumbria, October - December 2024
- Seminars for the “Instrumentation Systems” section of the “Instrumentation and Control of Dynamical Systems” module, University of Northumbria, February 2022
- Lectures and practical sessions for the “Simulation: Photonic crystals and waveguides” section of the “Quantum Devices” module (simulation with MEEP, MPB and a Python TMM module), University of Northumbria, September - December 2021
- Quantum Device Engineering Guest Lecture on Photonic crystals, University of Bristol, March 2020
- Lumerical workshop in the Advanced Optoelectronic Devices unit of the Optical Communications and Signal Processing MSc, University of Bristol, March 2019
- Cross disciplinary teaching class: “Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Wavelength-scale Structures”, National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, July 2-6, 2018
- Classical algorithms workshop of the “Quantum in the summer” summer school, University of Bristol, July-August 2018 and 2019
AWARDS & HONOURS
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) 2024, Advance HE, UK.
- Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA) 2021, Advance HE, UK.
- PhD studentship was funded through EPSRC.
- Baccalauréat S (scientific section) with honours (mention “très bien”), Lycée Alexandre Dumas, Port-au-Prince, Haïti, 2001.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
My research interests lie primarily in the field of Quantum Optics, Nanophotonics, Nanomanufacturing techniques and computational photonics. I am an expert in nanofabrication (3D additive nanomanufacturing and focused ion beam etching), modelling (Finite-Difference Time-Domain, and plane-wave expansion methods) and characterisation (in-house built Fourier imaging spectroscopy). My area right now has focused on artificially structured electromagnetic materials for efficient control of light-matter interactions and the development of advanced optoelectronic devices for practical applications (e.g., sensing, light trapping, and solar energy harvesting, and quantum technology, etc.).