Advanced optical sensing and imaging through optical fibres for cancer detection. (Left to right) A hair-thin optical fibre with a metasurface reflector stack attached to its distal end; images of oesophageal tissue reconstructed through a 2 m-long, 500 μm-diameter fibre, using quantitative phase information to enhance contrast between healthy and tumour tissue; and a low-cost, miniaturised capsule endoscope designed to enable advanced imaging for screening and triage.
I am an Assistant Professor and UKRI Future Leaders Fellow in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge. I lead the Optical and Photonic Technologies for Intelligent Measurement (OPTIM) lab, where we develop advanced sensors, imaging systems and artificial-intelligence pipelines for healthcare and other challenging measurement environments.
Our research focuses particularly on hair-thin optical endoscopes and miniature photonic sensors that can detect disease in parts of the body that are difficult to reach using conventional technologies. We work across the full sensing pipeline: from optical materials, fibres and metasurfaces, through data acquisition and calibration, to computational reconstruction, machine learning and clinical interpretation.
A growing part of our work explores how artificial intelligence can make complex sensors more robust, informative and deployable. This includes neural networks for recovering dynamically changing optical-fibre transmission matrices, interpretable multi-task learning for biomedical images, and AI methods for transforming raw sensor measurements into quantitative and clinically useful information.
Achieving this requires a strongly interdisciplinary approach spanning digital holography, computational imaging, artificial intelligence, nanostructured optical metasurfaces, optical-system engineering and clinical studies.
Before joining Cambridge, I was an Assistant Professor and subsequently Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, where I established and grew my current research programme. Prior to that, I was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge, where I developed a fully holographic fibre endoscope and low-cost quantitative imaging techniques for improved early cancer detection.
I received my PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2013 for research in wireless and optical telecommunications. I am the author of more than 30 peer-reviewed journal publications spanning optical fibres, biomedical imaging, nanophotonics, sensor technologies and machine learning.
My technical expertise includes programming in MATLAB, Python, C/C++, CUDA and modern AI-assisted development tools (Codex); machine learning and statistical data analysis using frameworks including PyTorch, TensorFlow, Keras and Stan; and the design and construction of optical systems involving digital holography, spatial light modulators, fibre optics, metamaterials, free-space optics and optical modelling in Zemax.
Recent publicity:
George selected as one of ElectroOptics Magazine Photonics100 awardees
Major multidisciplinary grant awarded for combining snake-robot with ultrathin imaging for treating bile duct cancer
System for early diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers
Video interview for study on aerosol generation during endoscopy
Cancer Research UK Early Detection of Pancreatic Cancer Innovation Sandpit: Team ReTHOMS
UKRI Press Release about my Future Leaders Fellowship
University of Nottingham Press Release about my UKRI Future Leaders Fellowship
Article in the i about my fellowship
Interview with AZoOptics about my fibre imaging work