CEng, Fellow of IET, Senior Member of IEEE: Received his BSc (Hons) degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the Manchester Metropolitan University in 1981, and his MSc and PhD in Optical Communications from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), in 1984 and 1987, respectively with Scholarships from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, UK. From 1986-87 worked as a Demonstrator at UMIST and from 1987 to 1988 was a Post-doctoral Research Fellow at the City University, London. In 1988 joined Sheffield Hallam University as a Lecturer, becoming a Reader in 1995 and a Professor in Optical Communications in 1997. He was the Group Leader for Communication Engineering and DSP, and also head of Optical Communications Research Group until 2004. In 2004 moved to the University of Northumbria at Newcastle as an Associate Dean for Research in the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences. He also heads the Northumbria Communications Research Laboratories within the School. He was a visiting professor at the Ankara University, Turkey and Hong-Kong Polytechnic University, and is currently a visiting Professor at the Technological University of Malaysia. He is the Editor-in-Chief of The Mediterranean Journals of Computers and Networks, and Electronics and Communications. Published over 400 papers. From 2004-06 he was the IEEE UK/IR Communications Chapter Secretary, the Vice-Chairman (2004-2008), the Chairman (2008-2011), and Chairman of the IET Northumbria Network (Oct 2011-).
