QLM’s wealth of experience, expertise and talent continues to expand following our successful seed round of funding with the arrival of Dr Andrew Weld, who has joined the team as the Head of Research & Development.

Dr Andrew Weld – Head of Research & Development

Andrew read Physics at Durham University, then obtained his PhD in optical sensing from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University. Andrew will work closely with our CTO, Dr Xiao Ai, and our Senior Scientist, Dr James Titchener, driving the continuous innovation in optical and photonics designs that has both underpinned QLM’s progress so far and remains crucial to its success in the future. He will also further formalise the strong links QLM enjoys with academic collaborators as part of the SPLICE project and other collaborative ventures.

Andrew joins the team with over 15 years experience with optical sensor products, and a strong understanding of scaling business from the laboratory bench to commercial success, taking optical sensors from theoretical concepts through to commercial products. He was previously Head of Optical Research and Development at Sintela, responsible for developing optical hardware for Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) in optical fibres.

Andrew said, “I feel very privileged to join the exceptional team at QLM on their quest to tackle greenhouse gas emissions. As carbon capture and storage technologies evolve, the need for monitoring sequestration facilities, along with natural gas extraction and transmission infrastructure becomes ever more significant. QLM’s optical sensing technique offers an elegant, sensitive and affordable solution. I’m excited to work with the team to drive this technology forwards even further.”