Prof. Mohammad Belal
Biography
I am an atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physicist with broad research experience in experimental soft condensed matter, optoelectronics, high-power fiber lasers, optical-atomic-molecular spectroscopy, coherent atomic control, and quantum technologies. At NOC, I apply this expertise to develop next-generation intelligent monitoring systems for complex environments, including oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes.
These distributed platforms operate in real time, autonomously collecting data, tracking and locating events, and even forecasting environmental changes. They also evaluate critical infrastructure such as energy and telecommunication cables, renewable turbines, and other civil structures. The intelligence of these systems comes from custom machine learning and AI algorithms, developed through cross-disciplinary collaboration to efficiently analyze large, multi-dimensional datasets. High-performance computing is used extensively, with plans to incorporate quantum computing to overcome challenges in processing extremely complex data.
My work combines physics, engineering, and data science to provide high-resolution, wide-area insights, transforming complex measurements into clear visualizations and actionable information. Ultimately, these efforts aim to understand, manage, and respond to changes in marine, maritime, glacial, and urban environments, helping to quantify and protect our planet’s critical natural and built systems.
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Projects
Ongoing PhD project:
- https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project23
- https://www.mindscdt.southampton.ac.uk/Project%2029
- Physical sciences PhD projects | The University of Edinburgh
Funded (ongoing and upcoming) projects:
- SBRI-2020 (PI): Submarine High-fidelity Active-monitoring of Renewable energy Cables (SHARC)
- Trans National Access' 2021-A (PI): Fibre-optic Intelligent Submarine High-fidelity Environmental Sensing (FISHES)
- Trans National Access' 2021-B(PI): Sea-floor High-fidelity Optic-fibre-based Renewables-infrastructure Sensing and Evaluation (SeaHORSE)
- Progeny-Phase1 2022 (PI): Next Generation Underwater Sensing
- PycnoGen 2022-2027 (EP/X025136/1; Co-I): Generation of the global ocean internal pycnocline in the ice-covered Southern Ocean
- Progeny-Phase2 2023 (Co-I): Next Generation Underwater Communications
- NSF-NERC 2024-2027 (NE/Z000408/1; UK-PI): Collaborative Research: Direct comparison of ocean temperature and velocity structure from in-situ measurements and distributed optical fiber sensing
- GSRF 2024 - 2026 (NE/Y003365/1; PI)& Wide-area low-cost sustainable ocean temperature and velocity structure extraction using distributed fibre optic sensing within legacy seafloor cables
- Emso-Eric 2024 - 2026 (PI): Submarine noise-Evaluation and Analytics using Low-cost Sustainable -sensing (SEALS)
- MoD/QQ 2024 (4 months; PI): Geospatial Acoustic Underwater Smart Sensing (GAUSS)
- Xlinks 2024 (PI): Monitoring system evaluation
- SOUNDSCALE 2025 - 2027 (MR/Z505845/1; Co-I): Sensing On Urban Noise: Distributed Sensing For Collaborative And Sustainable Cityscapes And Living Environments
- FULL-OCEAN-FIBRE 2025 - 2028 (ARIA: Forecasting Tipping Points)
Roles Provided
I lead research on designing and building intelligent, distributed monitoring systems that can operate in real time across diverse and complex environments, including oceans, glaciers, cities, and terrestrial landscapes. These systems autonomously collect data, track and locate events, and even help forecast changes, while also monitoring critical infrastructure like energy and telecommunication cables, renewable turbines, and other civil structures. The intelligence of these platforms comes from custom signal processing pipelines built in combination with machine learning and AI algorithms, allowing us to efficiently analyze large, complex, multi-parameter datasets. We use high-performance computing extensively and are exploring quantum compute to overcome challenges in processing extremely complex data.
Publications
Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.; Spingys, Carl P.; Lucas, Andrew J.; Dotto, Tiago S. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0565-6941; Wild, Christian T. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4586-1704; Tyler, Scott W.; Scambos, Ted A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4268-6322; Kratt, Christopher B.; Cappelli, Giuseppe ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-4489-9791; Williams, Ethan F.; Claret, Mariona; Glover, Hannah E.; Wengrove, Meagan E.; Smith, Madison M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2259-042X; Baker, Michael G.; Marra, Giuseppe; Tamussino, Max; Feng, Zitong; Lloyd, David; Taylor, Liam; Mazur, Mikael; Mangriotis, Maria-Daphne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-9149; Micallef, Aaron; Ward Neale, Jennifer; Godin, Oleg A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4599-2149; Alford, Matthew H.; Gregory, Emma P. M.; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878; Shiri, Hamid; Ruiz Angulo, Angel ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7292-3002; Gunn, Kathryn L.; Moat, Ben I. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8676-7779; Yeo, Isobel A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9306-3446; Loureiro, Afonso ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3762-586X; Silvano, Alessandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6441-1496; Hartog, Arthur; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158.
2026
Distributed optical fibre sensing in physical oceanography: emergence and future prospects.
Ocean Science, 22 (2).
1129-1167.
10.5194/os-22-1129-2026
2026
Article
Rojas Hernandez, Pablo G. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0002-7340-9061; Pidishety, Shankar ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1791-1236; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Nilsson, Johan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1691-7959.
2025
Millijoule-level ultra-large core ytterbium-doped pulsed fiber amplifier operating at 980 nm.
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 37 (22).
1277-1280.
10.1109/LPT.2025.3592838
2025
Article
Harmon, Nicholas ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0731-768X; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Mangriotis, Maria-Daphne ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1765-9149; Spingys, Carl ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6220-3047; Rychert, Catherine A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5071-793X.
2025
Distributed acoustic sensing along a shallow water energy cable.
IEEE Journal of Oceanic Engineering.
1-10.
10.1109/JOE.2024.3523363
2025
Article
Smith, Jack Lee; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lythgoe, Karen; Spingys, Carl; Neale, Jennifer Ward; Embriaco, Davide; Curtis, Andrew.
2025
Azimuthal sensitivity and spatio-temporal decimation of data from distributed acoustic sensing on submarine cables for offshore earthquake early warning systems.
Scientific Reports, 16 (1).
10.1038/s41598-025-29234-5
2025
Article
Drylerakis, Konstantinos Theofilos; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Mestre, Rafael; Norman, Timothy J.; Evers, Christine.
2024
Source detection and tracking for underwater distributed acoustic sensing.
IEEE Xplore.
1292-1296.
10.23919/EUSIPCO63174.2024.10715378
2024
Article
Spingys, Carl P.; Garabato, Alberto C. Naveira; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158.
2024
Optical fibre sensing of turbulent-frequency motions in the oceanic environment.
Scientific Reports, 14 (1).
10.1038/s41598-024-70720-z
2024
Article
Spingys, Carl P.; Naveira Garabato, Alberto C.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158.
2024
Distributed optical fibre sensing for high space‐time resolution ocean velocity observations: A case study From a macrotidal channel.
Earth and Space Science, 11 (5).
10.1029/2023EA003315
2024
Article
Bayrakci, Gaye; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878.
2023
Noisy Oceans: Monitoring Seismic and Acoustic Signals in the Marine Environment.
American Geophysical Union, 288pp.
(Geophysical Monograph Series).
2023
Book
Atherton, Chris; Pals, Auke; Jestin, Camille; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Strollo, Angello; Tilmann, Frederik.
2022
White Paper. Subsea telecoms cables: A driver for scientific research.
Zenodo, 14pp.
2022
Monograph
Rojas Hernandez, Pablo G.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Baker, Colin; Pidishety, Shankar; Feng, Yutong; Friebele, E. Joseph; Shaw, L. Brandon; Rhonehouse, Daniel; Sanghera, Jasbinder; Nilsson, Johan.
2020
Efficient extraction of high pulse energy from partly quenched highly Er3+-doped fiber amplifiers.
Optics Express, 28 (12).
17124-17142.
10.1364/OE.385426
2020
Article
Saywell, Jack Cameron; Carey, Max; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Kuprov, Ilya; Freegarde, Tim.
2020
Optimal control of Raman pulse sequences for atom interferometry.
Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics, 53 (8).
10, pp.
10.1088/1361-6455/ab6df6
2020
Article
Carey, Max; Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Tim.
2019
Velocimetry of cold atoms by matter-wave interferometry.
Physical Review A, 99 (2).
10.1103/PhysRevA.99.023631
2019
Article
Pidishety, Shankar; Barua, Pranabesh; Shardlow, Peter C.; Hernandez, Pablo G. Rojas; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Feng, Yutong; Thipparapu, Naresh Kumar; Sahu, Jayanta K.; Nilsson, Johan.
2019
Short-wavelength, near-diffraction-limited beam, 792 nm cladding pumped efficient thulium-doped fiber laser in a power-scalable fiber design.
In: 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC), Munich, Germany, 23-27 June 2019.
1.
2019
Conference item
Carey, Max; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Himsworth, Matthew; Bateman, James; Freegarde, Tim.
2018
Matterwave interferometric velocimetry of cold Rb atoms.
Journal of Modern Optics, 65 (5-6).
657-666.
10.1080/09500340.2017.1397222
2018
Article
Rojas Hernández, Pablo G.; Baker, Colin; Pidishety, Shankar; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Feng, Yutong; Friebele, E. Joseph; Burdett, Ashley; Rhonehouse, Daniel; Shaw, L. Brandon; Sanghera, Jasbinder; Nilsson, Johan.
2018
High-energy pulse amplification in partly quenched highly Er3+-doped fiber.
[Poster]
In: Advanced Solid State Lasers 2018, Boston, Massachusetts, 4–8 November 2018.
AM6A.16.
2018
Conference item
Cameron Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Kuprov, Ilya; Freegarde, Timothy.
2018
Optimal pulses for enhanced interferometer sensitivity and contrast.
[Poster]
In: Frontiers in Matter Wave Optics, Crete, Greece, 17 - 21 Sep 2018.
(Unpublished)
2018
Conference item
Carey, Max; Cameron Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Timothy.
2018
Cold atom velocimetry with a matterwave interferometer.
[Poster]
In: Frontiers in Matter Wave Optics, Crete, Greece, 17 - 21 Sep 2018.
(Unpublished)
2018
Conference item
Carey, Max; Saywell, Jack; Elcock, David; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, Tim.
2018
Velocimetry of cold atoms by matterwave interferometry.
In: Quantum Optics 2018, Obergurgl, Austria, 25 Feb - 03 March 2018.
(Unpublished)
2018
Conference item
Hartog, Arthur H.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Clare, Michael A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878.
2018
Advances in Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing for Monitoring Marine Infrastructure, Measuring the Deep Ocean, and Quantifying the Risks Posed by Seafloor Hazards.
Marine Technology Society Journal, 52 (5).
58-73.
2018
Article
Clare, M.A. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1448-3878; Vardy, M.E.; Cartigny, M.J.B.; Talling, P.J.; Himsworth, M.D.; Dix, J.K.; Harris, J.M.; Whitehouse, R.J.S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158.
2017
Direct monitoring of active geohazards: emerging geophysical tools for deep-water assessments.
Near Surface Geophysics, 15 (4).
427-444.
10.3997/1873-0604.2017033
2017
Article
Carey, M.; Elcock, D.; Saywell, J.; Jones, S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Freegarde, T..
2017
Velocimetry, cooling and rotation sensing by cold-atom matterwave interferometry.
In: Quantum Information and Measurement (QIM) 2017, Paris, France, 5–7 April 2017.
QT5C.2.
2017
Conference item
Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Xu, L.; Horak, P.; Shen, L.; Feng, X.; Ettabib, M.; Richardson, D. J.; Petropoulos, P.; Price, J. H. V..
2015
Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in suspended core tellurite microstructured optical fibers.
Optics Letters, 40 (10).
2237.
10.1364/OL.40.002237
2015
Article
Ettabib, M. A.; Xu, L.; Bogris, A.; Kapsalis, A.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lorent, E.; Labeye, P.; Nicoletti, S.; Hammani, K.; Syvridis, D.; Price, J. H. V.; Richardson, D. J.; Petropoulos, P..
2015
Telecom to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a Silicon Germanium Waveguide.
In: Optical Fiber Communication Conference 2015, Los Angeles, California, 22–26 March 2015.
Tu2C.5.
2015
Conference item
Ettabib, Mohamed A.; Xu, Lin; Bogris, Adonis; Kapsalis, Alexandros; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Lorent, Emerick; Labeye, Pierre; Nicoletti, Sergio; Hammani, Kamal; Syvridis, Dimitris; Shepherd, David P.; Price, Jonathan H. V.; Richardson, David J.; Petropoulos, Periklis.
2015
Broadband telecom to mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a dispersion-engineered silicon germanium waveguide.
Optics Letters, 40 (17).
4118.
10.1364/OL.40.004118
2015
Article
Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Petrovich, Marco; Wheeler, Natalie; Wooler, John; Masoudi, Ali; Poletti, Francesco; Alam, Shaiful; Richardson, David; Newson, Trevor.
2014
First demonstration of a 2- μm OTDR and its use in photonic bandgap CO2 sensing fiber.
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 26 (9).
889-892.
10.1109/LPT.2014.2309496
2014
Article
Jung, Y.; Shardlow, P. C.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Li, Z.; Heidt, A. M.; Daniel, J. M. O.; Jain, D.; Sahu, J. K.; Clarkson, W. A.; Corbett, B.; O’Callaghan, J.; Alam, S. U.; Richardson, D. J..
2014
First demonstration of a 2μm few-mode TDFA for mode division multiplexing.
Optics Express, 22 (9).
10544.
10.1364/OE.22.010544
2014
Article
Murugan, Ganapathy S.; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Grivas, Christos; Ding, Ming; Wilkinson, James S.; Brambilla, Gilberto.
2014
An optical fiber optofluidic particle aspirator.
Applied Physics Letters, 105 (10).
101103.
10.1063/1.4895576
2014
Article
Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Sahu, J.K.; Alam, S.U.; Richardson, D.J.; Newson, T.P..
2013
Demonstration of a 2um-OTDR.
In: 39th European Conference and Exhibition on Optical Communication (ECOC 2013), London, UK, 22-26 September 2013.
176-178.
2013
Conference item
Jain, S.; May-Smith, T. C.; Dhar, A.; Webb, A. S.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Richardson, D. J.; Sahu, J. K.; Payne, D. N..
2013
Erbium-doped multi-element fiber amplifiers for space-division multiplexing operations.
Optics Letters, 38 (4).
582.
10.1364/OL.38.000582
2013
Article
Masoudi, A; Belal, M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, T P.
2013
A distributed optical fibre dynamic strain sensor based on phase-OTDR.
Measurement Science and Technology, 24 (8).
085204.
10.1088/0957-0233/24/8/085204
2013
Article
Masoudi, Ali; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, Trevor P..
2013
Distributed dynamic large strain optical fiber sensor based on the detection of spontaneous Brillouin scattering.
Optics Letters, 38 (17).
3312.
10.1364/OL.38.003312
2013
Article
Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, T. P..
2012
Experimental examination of the variation of the spontaneous Brillouin power and frequency coefficients under the combined influence of temperature and strain.
Journal of Lightwave Technology, 30 (8).
1250-1255.
10.1109/JLT.2011.2169393
2012
Article
Hermida-Merino, D.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Greenland, B.W.; Woodward, P.; Slark, A.T.; Davis, F.J.; Mitchell, G.R.; Hamley, I.W.; Hayes, W..
2012
Electrospun supramolecular polymer fibres.
European Polymer Journal, 48 (7).
1249-1255.
10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2012.04.015
2012
Article
Ismaeel, Rand; Lee, Timothy; Ding, Ming; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Brambilla, Gilberto.
2012
Optical microfiber passive components.
Laser & Photonics Reviews, 7 (3).
350-384.
10.1002/lpor.201200024
2012
Article
Zhang, Xueliang; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Chen, G. Y.; Song, Zhangqi; Brambilla, G.; Newson, T. P..
2012
Compact optical microfiber phase modulator.
Optics Letters, 37 (3).
320.
10.1364/OL.37.000320
2012
Article
Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, T. P..
2011
A 5 cm spatial resolution temperature compensated distributed strain sensor evaluated using a temperature controlled strain rig.
Optics Letters, 36 (24).
4728.
10.1364/OL.36.004728
2011
Article
Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, Trevor P..
2011
Experimental examination of the variation of the spontaneous Brillouin power and frequency shift under the combined influence of temperature and strain.
In: 21st International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS21), 2011, Ottawa, Canada, 15-19 May 2011.
775326.
2011
Conference item
Brambilla, G.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Jung, Y.; Song, Z.; Xu, F.; Newson, T.; Richardson, D..
2011
Optical fibre microwire sensors.
In: 21st International Conference on Optical Fibre Sensors (OFS21), 2011, Ottawa, Canada, 15-19 May 2011.
77530C.
2011
Conference item
Pal, Bishnu P.; Ding, Ming; Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Chen, George; Al-Azawi, Rand; Lee, Timothy; Jung, Yongmin; Wang, Pengfei; Zhang, Xueliang; Song, Zhanqgi; Xu, Fei; Lorenzi, Roberto; Newson, Trevor; Brambilla, Gilberto.
2011
Optical microfiber passive devices and sensors.
In: SPIE/OSA/IEEE Asia Communications and Photonics 2011, Shanghai, China, 13-16 November 2011.
83070Y.
2011
Conference item
Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Song, Z.; Jung, Y.; Brambilla, G.; Newson, T. P..
2010
Optical fiber microwire current sensor.
Optics Letters, 35 (18).
3045.
10.1364/OL.35.003045
2010
Article
Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Newson, Trevor P.
2010
Enhanced Performance of a Temperature-Compensated Submeter Spatial Resolution Distributed Strain Sensor.
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 22 (23).
1705-1707.
10.1109/LPT.2010.2082515
2010
Article
Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Song, Zhang-qi; Jung, Yongming; Brambilla, Gilberto; Newson, Trevor.
2010
An interferometric current sensor based on optical fiber micro wires.
Optics Express, 18 (19).
19951.
10.1364/OE.18.019951
2010
Article
Belal, Mohammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Cho, Yuh Tat; Ibsen, Morten; Newson, Trevor P.
2009
A temperature-compensated high spatial resolution distributed strain sensor.
Measurement Science and Technology, 21 (1).
015204.
10.1088/0957-0233/21/1/015204
2009
Article
Mitchell, G.R.; Belal, M. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5175-3158; Davis, F.J.; Elliott, D.E.; Kariduraganavar, M.; Mohan, S.D.; Olley, R.H.; Sen, Sujat.
2008
Defining structure in electrospun polymer fibres.
Advanced Materials Research, 55-57.
33-36.
10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.55-57.33
2008
Article