PhD student Tongtong Xie has been named one of the two winners of the 2026 MDPI Photonics Travel Award.
The annual award recognises promising early-career researchers in optics and photonics and supports PhD students and postdoctoral researchers to present their latest work at international conferences. Tongtong received the award in support of her participation in SPIE Photonics Europe 2026, held in Strasbourg, France, in April 2026.
At the conference, Tongtong presented her paper titled “High-Resolution Fiber-Optic Sensing Based on Self-Mode-Locked Optoelectronic Oscillator”. The work explores a high-resolution fibre-optic sensing approach based on a self-mode-locked optoelectronic oscillator, contributing to the development of advanced optical sensing techniques for precise and high-speed measurement applications.
SPIE Photonics Europe is one of the major international conferences in optics and photonics, bringing together researchers working across areas including optical imaging, sensing, metrology, lasers, quantum technologies, biophotonics and photonic materials. Tongtong’s participation provided an excellent opportunity to share the group’s latest research with the wider international photonics community and to engage with researchers working at the forefront of optical sensing technologies.
This achievement reflects the quality and international visibility of Tongtong’s PhD research, and highlights the continued strength of our group’s work in microwave photonics, optoelectronic systems and fibre-optic sensing.
Congratulations to Tongtong on this well-deserved recognition.