Leila Mashhadi

Position and role within Covesion:

I am a Business Development Manager, working with Dr. Stuart Coomber covering the UK, Americas, Australasia & India territories. However, the team here at Covesion is very diverse in its knowledge and expertise and so we work with customer’s in other parts of the world if our expertise is best placed to add value to their particular application.

What are your main areas of expertise?

My main area of expertise is photonics, nonlinear optics-laser and quantum optics.

I completed a PhD degree in Physics at Amirkabir University in Tehran, Iran in 2010 and after graduation worked as part time lecturer of Fundamental Physics and as a supervisor in an optics laboratory.

Then in 2011 I began work at The HOPE Laboratory at Tsinghua University in Hsinchu city, Taiwan under supervision of Prof. Yen-Chieh Huang, where I gained experience of designing mask, photolithography, polishing, wet etching and as well as coating using the RF magnetron sputtering system.

I moved to Italy in 2012 where I was fortunate enough to work with some of the best physicists in the field of laser cooling, trapping and Bose Einstein condensation at the University of Pisa. I had the opportunity to attend lectures on quantum optics which motivated me to start research on interaction of vortex beams with atoms.

After this I worked in Germany and Hungary increasing my knowledge and experience in Laser Sciences.

When I first moved to the UK, I worked with the Quantum Measurement Group at the University of Southampton. I then decided to shift focus from academia to scientific industry and joined Covesion. I think my wide range of experience in laser, optics and laser applications that I have gained during the past ten years working in different international institutes and universities will give me the technical background to help our customers find solutions with Covesion products. Customers mostly need PPLN for applications such as spectroscopy, cooling and trapping of atoms, quantum sensors and quantum measurement and come with questions that are usually related directly to my previous experiences.

What is your favourite part of your job?

I enjoy being challenged in work and especially if this relates to helping customers with their questions, working in a scientific environment with very knowledgeable people is also a privilege as I am able to learn something new every day.  I like gathering information, having discussions with colleagues, calculating and analysing data or reading papers to find a particular answer to a customer enquiry.

What is your personal background?

I was born and raised in Tehran, Iran where I completed my PhD and started my career. It was my father who inspired me to work hard and keep learning. He raised me to be a strong woman and always tells me “Never let fears takes over your life”. It is because of him that I never give up.

I have also been very privileged to work with some amazing people and scientists throughout my career so far. Prof. Yen-Chieh Huang at The HOPE Laboratory at Tsinghua University in Hsinchu city, Taiwan played a pivotal role in my life and career. He is a brilliant professor, generous with his time and knowledge, key attributes for a person involved in education and learning.

I have amazing memories of living in many different countries, learning the language, the nuances of life and becoming embedded in a new culture. However, the best part of travelling is the people you meet on the way, and we have been lucky enough to make some very special friends. I lived for a year in Basel, Switzerland and took that time as an opportunity to travel as much as possible. Most weekends my husband and I would cycle through the wine routes along Swiss-France-Germany border and taste the local Italian, German and French foods.  For ten years my life was just a bit of luggage, a bike and my dog ready to go to a new place. It was amazing experience but now I am happily settled here in the U.K.

What do you do outside of work?

At weekends, we often go long walks with our dog, we especially love the New Forest. I also enjoy painting landscapes, photography and baking which helps me to de-stress and relax. Luckily, considering all the travelling we have done, I relish the opportunity to learn a new language, German and Italian are my favourites so far. To help with this, in my free time I listen to classic Italian songs.