Photonics research in Europe is thriving, with numerous groups across different countries connecting together and each contributing a unique strand of expertise that advances knowledge and understanding across the field. But it has not always been this way, and Hugo Thienpont, director of photonics research at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, worries that fresh challenges may yet threaten this golden age of collaboration and progress.

Like now, back in 2003, photonics research in Europe was a competitive business. Such competition can spur on research groups to achieve more than their rivals, but it does not always foster a working environment that maximizes the potential of the whole field. Groups vie with each other to be the first to publish, potentially wasting valuable money and energy in the process.

Thienpont proposed a bold plan to establish a network that would help photonics researchers to work together – sharing best practices and expensive equipment while making sure that each group focuses on what they do best, something that has become known as “smart specialization”. But restructuring the research landscape across a continent was no modest undertaking, particularly for a young professor. “It was very, very bold to make that move,” says Thienpont. “I had a vision and an approach that I think a lot of people liked, so they gave me the opportunity to collaborate with them to make it happen.”

The result was the Network of Excellence on Micro-optics (NEMO), which received €6.4m from the European Commission, and ran from 2004 to 2010 with 30 member groups from 13 countries. More recently, Thienpont has become co-ordinator of ACTPHAST 4.0 – the one-stop-shop incubator for photonics innovation focusing on the needs of SMEs.

Teamwork makes the dream work

The same love and aptitude for working with people has helped Thienpont to build the small research group he set up in 1990 once he had finished his PhD into a globally acclaimed photonics centre with around 60 researchers and staff. Crucial to his success has been a strong strategic vision, along with plenty of perseverance and passion, but he clearly values working with his team. “What really matters I think is the joy of working with people on a daily basis,” he says. “You improve your own skills and those of others by collaborating.”

Photonics research at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel focuses on microlasers; graphene as a nonlinear optical material; optical devices for medical applications; optical fibre sensors for measuring temperature, pressure and strain; and free-form optics – a lens technology that abandons the traditional spherical shape to avoid optical aberrations. Despite significant metrology and fabrication challenges, Thienpont describes free-form optics as “the next revolution in optical lenses”.

The real challenge lies in the interdisciplinary aspects for photonics

Hugo Thienpont

He also has quite clear ideas about what is needed to revolutionize the photonics sector as a whole. “The real challenge lies in the interdisciplinary aspects for photonics,” he says. He refers to the so-called “key enabling technologies” (KETs) that have been identified by the European Commission as drivers of society and economy, along with the “cross-KETs” where these technologies work together, and where he believes photonics can play a crucial role. “We need to revolutionize photonics not only as a key enabling technology, but also to link it up to all the other key enabling technologies like advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, nanotechnology, nanoelectronics and new materials to create biophotonics, nanophotonics, lasers in manufacturing and optical materials.”

This faith in the potential impact of interdisciplinary photonics research persuaded Thienpont to accept the role of editor-in-chief of IOP Publishing’s recently launched Journal of Physics: Photonics. “When asked about this new journal for photonics, I said I will accept this with great pleasure but on one condition – that we make it the first truly interdisciplinary journal for photonics. Because that’s the future.”

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Thienpont concedes that truly interdisciplinary work is not easy – not least because different disciplines use their own scientific language, but also because students are generally not educated to think beyond their own subject. In many ways the more specialized a field becomes, the greater the challenge for work that crosses more than one area of expertise. “It’s so easy to fall back on what you know best and not open your mind to what others know best to see whether we can do things together,” he says. “So we’re going to really work hard in making interdisciplinarity the key feature of the Journal of Physics: Photonics.”

To live long and prosper with photonics

Thienpont speaks about photonics with tangible passion and zeal, an excitement that was first kindled by a childhood obsession with science fiction, in particular Star Trek. “In those days, lasers were gimmicks – fascinating, but only used in science fiction,” he says. “I wanted to turn that science fiction into reality.”

He lists many different technologies that appeared in Star Trek 40 years ago that have since become a reality, such as tractor beams, laser cutters, and special flat-panel displays. He is also quick to point out how many of the researchers he speaks to at conferences were “Trekkies” too, so perhaps it’s no coincidence that Star Trek has proved such an accurate forecast for new technologies.

But Thienpont has real concerns that the next generation of photonics researchers are not fired with the same enthusiasm. “Think about exoplanets, everything that happens with elementary particles, all the fantastic things that optics and photonics can do in the medical world, all the breakthroughs that are bettering cancer research – it’s just so disruptive, so positively engaging,” he says. “But I don’t think that the majority of young people are impressed. We’re currently creating a society that is built on knowledge and innovation, but I think that we are not going to have the workforce to sustain it in the near future.”

These concerns have made Thienpont committed to nurturing the talents of young scientists, and together with his colleagues he has put in place an internationally recognized Master’s programme in photonics at Vrije Universiteit and Ghent University in Brussels. As vice-rector of the Vrije Universiteit, he has also been tasked with boosting collaboration with industry. He considers promoting the economic and societal value of research as key to this role, and has worked closely with big industry players including Barco, Agfa-Gevaert, Commscope, Punch Graphix and Umicore, accruing 21 patents to his name.

Thienpont clearly has plenty to fill his time. While no two days are the same, he can often be found giving keynote talks, working on panels to restructure the research and innovation ecosystem of Europe, or working on new finance and support mechanisms. His advice for the photonics trailblazers of the future is to pursue their career with passion, perseverance and patience, but above all to embrace opportunities to work with other people. “I think every day is worth living, and living for research means teaming up with others,” says Thienpont. “For me research comes second – the first thing is working together with people.”