Rate My Professor Martin Ams

Dr. Martin Ams is a Research Fellow in the School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences at Macquarie University, where he is affiliated with the MQ Photonics Research Centre. He earned his Ph.D. in optical laser physics from Macquarie University in 2008. With 22 years of experience in photonics, his research focuses on the laser fabrication of optical devices for sensing, asset management, telecommunication, astronomy, quantum information, and biophotonic applications. He currently collaborates with Australian Water Utilities to deploy optical fibre sensors for monitoring concrete corrosion and environmental conditions in harsh wastewater environments. Ams has previously worked as a Research Fellow at City University London and Macquarie University, and he co-leads asset management projects in the commonwealth-funded SmartCrete CRC and the ARC Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Molecular Biosensors at Point-of-Use (MOBIUS). He has also served as Business Development Manager for the OptoFab node of the Australian National Fabrication Facility and as project manager for a three-year government-funded Centre of Excellence initiative. Additionally, he has contributed nine years to scientific outreach and undergraduate laboratory supervision, and unofficially supervised three PhD candidates and one French intern student from 2010 to 2018.

Ams has received Highly Commended recognition in the Engineering Excellence Awards in the Innovations and Inventions category in 2007 and 2009, and has secured competitive grants and prizes totaling approximately AUD 27 million. His scholarly impact includes 3812 citations on Scopus with an h-index of 28. Key publications comprise 'Feasibility study of optical fiber surface condensation sensors for sewer pipelines' (2025, IEEE Sensors Journal), 'Physical mechanisms of femtosecond laser induced refractive index change in direct-written mid-infrared fiber Bragg gratings' (2024, APL Photonics), 'Fiber Bragg gratings in soft glass fibers' (2022, Mid-infrared fibre photonics), 'Smart self-sensing concrete: the use of multiscale carbon fillers' (2022, Journal of Materials Science), and 'Developing robust optical fibre sensors for use in hostile sewer environments' (2024, Advanced Photonics Congress). He regularly reviews for journals from OSA, IEEE, IOP, AIP, and MDPI, and served on the conference committee for ACOFT/BGPP in 2016.