Section: Overview
Overview
Key publications
Research funding
Supervising & teaching
Career

Key details

Areas of expertise

  • Photonics
  • Optical fibre sensors
  • Microscopic Imaging and LLLT
  • RE-doped optical fibres
  • Curriculum & pedagogy

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

About Foti Sidiroglou

Fotios Sidiroglou is a dynamic and highly resourceful physics educator and photonics researcher with an equally strong record in interdisciplinary research and teaching. He holds a PhD in Physics from the University of Melbourne and has also completed further studies in education (GCTE).

He won the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) in 2019.

He joined Victoria University in 2009 by being awarded the highly competitive VU Research Fellowship, and since then has filled various research roles at both VU and in industry. He was awarded a “Researchers in Business” placement in 2012 and served as head optics researcher at Draco Analytics until 2015. His research output in the area of photonics has been published in highly ranked journals and international conferences.

In education he is widely known for his work in designing and developing student-centred learning activities. In his first year of teaching at VU, he won the "Students' Choice Award" for best facilitator and over the years has taught to various teaching programs that span over the whole spectrum of tertiary education (Diploma, Bachelor, Masters and PhD).

He is a founding member of the revolutionary First Year College, which won the Vice-Chancellor's Peak Award in 2018.

Qualifications

  • PhD, University of Melbourne, Australia, 2007
  • GCTE, Victoria University, Australia, 2018
  • BSc (Hons), Victoria University, Australia, 2003
  • BSc, Victoria University, Australia, 2002

Key publications

Year Citation
2019 Faiz, F., Cran, M. J., Baxter, G., Collins, S., & Sidiroglou, F. (190101). Perfluorooctanoic (PFOA) Acid Detection in Aqueous Medium using Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) Thin Film on Optical Fiber Endface Paper presented at Optics InfoBase Conference Papers.
2013 DUKE, M., Nazari, M., Hill, M., Collins, S., & Sidiroglou, F. (131208). Zeolite-based optical fibre sensor for selective sensing of alcohols in water Paper presented at Australia and New Zealand Conference on Optics and Photonics (ANZCOP) (pp. 1-1). Freemantle, Australia: The Australian Optical Society.
2010 Sidiroglou, F., Blanc, W., Kilburn, M., Nguyen, T., Roberts, A., Dussardier, B., Monnom, G., & Baxter, G. W. (101201). Improving the radial dopant distribution in silica optical fibres Paper presented at 35th Australian Conference on Optical Fibre Technology, ACOFT 2010.

Year Citation
2016 Sidiroglou, F., Roberts, A., & Baxter, G. (160401). Contributed Review: A review of the investigation of rare-earth dopant profiles in optical fibers. Review of Scientific Instruments, 87(4),

doi: 10.1063/1.4947066

2015 Zhang, W., Collins, S. F., Baxter, G. W., Sidiroglou, F., Duan, C., & Yin, M. (150526). Use of cross-relaxation for temperature sensing via a fluorescence intensity ratio. Sensors and Actuators, A: Physical, 232 (8-12).

doi: 10.1016/j.sna.2015.05.005

2013 Nguyen, H., Sidiroglou, F., Collins, S. F., Davis, T. J., Roberts, A., & Baxter, G. W. (131104). A localized surface plasmon resonance-based optical fiber sensor with sub-wavelength apertures. Applied Physics Letters, 103(19),

doi: 10.1063/1.4829530

2012 Bal, H. K., Brodzeli, Z., Dragomir, N. M., Collins, S. F., & Sidiroglou, F. (120501). Uniformly thinned optical fibers produced via HF etching with spectral and microscopic verification. Applied Optics, 51(13), (2282-2287).

doi: 10.1364/AO.51.002282

2012 Wade, S. A., Brown, W. GA., Bal, H. K., Sidiroglou, F., Baxter, G. W., & Collins, S. F. (120101). Effect of phase mask alignment on fiber Bragg grating spectra at harmonics of the Bragg wavelength. Journal of the Optical Society of America A: Optics and Image Science, and Vision, 29(8), (1597-1605).

doi: 10.1364/JOSAA.29.001597

2011 Sidiroglou, F., & Nguyen, T. (111201). Synthesis of chitosan films on optical fibers for detection of ammonia vapors. Optics InfoBase Conference Papers, (1742-1744).
2011 Sidiroglou, F., Roberts, A., & Baxter, G. W. (111115). Probing the erbium ion distribution in silica optical fibers with fluorescence based measurements. Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids, 357(22-23), (3847-3852).

doi: 10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2011.07.024

Research funding for the past 5 years

Please note:

  • Funding is ordered by the year the project commenced and may continue over several years.
  • Funding amounts for contact research are not disclosed to maintain commercial confidentiality.
  • The order of investigators is not indicative of the role they played in the research project.

Low Level Laser Therapy for Treating Wounds and Managing Pain
From: Defence Science Institute
Other investigators: Prof Vasso Apostolopoulos, Prof Kulmira Nurgali, Dr Sarah Fraser, Dr Maja Husaric
For period: 2020-2020
$50,000

Supervision of research students at VU

Available to supervise research students

Available for media queries

Completed supervision of research students at VU

No. of students Study level Role
3 PhD Associate supervisor
1 PhD Principal supervisor

Completed supervision of research students at VU

Students & level Role
PhD (3) Associate supervisor
PhD (1) Principal supervisor

Teaching activities & experience

Fotios is a PhD graduate from the University of Melbourne (Physics, 2007) and has recently completed the Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education in 2018 (HD average grade).

He won the Vice-Chancellor's Award for Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) in 2019.

He is currently the key academic and convenor of two units:

He thoroughly re-designed and developed these units prior to the start of the 2018 teaching period to adequately support students’ learning journey under the Block Model.

His teaching philosophy utilises a student-centred approach encapsulated by a “show that you care” mentality, which requires a great sense of respect and care towards both the material to be taught and the audience. To support this teaching style, he developed a unique ensemble of blended learning resources (e.g. H5P interactive videos and presentations, applets and formula calculators, question banks and practice quizzes), while placing special emphasis in creating learning activities and linked assessment tasks that help students to achieve their academic aspirations without compromising learning standards.

He has years of hands-on experience with various learning management systems (e.g. Brightspace, Moodle) and associating online learning tools (e.g H5P, JavaScript) and how these can be effectively utilised to enhance student centred learning.

In his first year of teaching at VU, Fotios won the Students' Choice Award for best facilitator and over the years has taught various teaching programs that span the whole spectrum of tertiary education (Diploma, Bachelor, Masters and PhD).

His research focus from a curriculum and pedagogy point of view, is to investigate the effect of blended learning and unit sequencing strategies for enhancing the quality of teaching and learning under the block mode.

Recent findings from his studies on the efficacy of the block mode was presented in many local and international settings and he is particularly interested in the supervision of PhD students in the area of Education and STEM.

Key academic roles

Dates Role Department / Organisation
Jan 2018 - Present
Lecturer
Victoria University
Jan 2014 - Dec 2015
Head Optics Engineer
Draco Analytics
Jan 2009 - Dec 2012
Research Fellow
Victoria University
Dates Role & Department/Organisation
Jan 2018 -
Present
Lecturer
Victoria University
Jan 2014 -
Dec 2015
Head Optics Engineer
Draco Analytics
Jan 2009 -
Dec 2012
Research Fellow
Victoria University

Awards

Year Award
2019

Vice-Chancellor's Award for Learning and Teaching (Higher Education) - Victoria University