The QLM team expanded this month with the arrival of two new members in the technical and commercial sectors.

Dr Alexander Dunning, Head of Engineering

Dr Alex Dunning joins QLM as Head of Engineering, to lead systems design and new product introduction. A systems engineer with a background in quantum and optical physics, Alex has been heavily involved with QLM’s gas sensing technology since the beginning of the SPRINGS project in 2018.

Alex earned a PhD in Optical, Atomic & Molecular Physics from the University of Southampton in 2014. He followed up with a post-doc at UCLA, and has spent the past 5 years in industry R&D roles, mastering and advancing leading-edge technology with a focus on optical physics and engineering.

Alex said, “I love developing this technology – it challenges us to bring together precision photonics, elegant optomechanical designs, streamlined software, and powerful industrial hardware into a product serving a worthy cause.”

Dr Doug Millington-Smith joins the commercial team as Applications Manager, responsible for customer engagement, application prospecting and long-term business growth. Doug returns to Bristol after seventeen years away, having earned his degree in chemistry at the university in 2003, before obtaining a PhD in chemistry at the University of Bath. Doug has been operating at the technical-commercial interface for seven years in and around Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire.

Dr Doug Millington-Smith, Applications Manager

Doug said, “The role of the applications manager is to be an expert on the equipment to the point that you can intrinsically see if and how it can be applied to a customer’s unique combination of circumstances. It is to be able to act as an interface between customer needs and technical knowhow, speaking the relevant language of both and translating between the two so they do not have to.”

Doug will also be handling marketing and communications for QLM’s team, as they grow towards the full commercial offering over the course of the project.