Mehul Malik (FRSE, FOptica) is the Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies and Professor of Physics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where he leads the Beyond Binary Quantum Information Laboratory (BBQ Lab). He currently holds an ERC Starting Grant from the European Commission and is a co-investigator on two UK National Quantum Technology Hubs on Integrated Quantum Networks (IQN) and Quantum Imaging, Sensing and Timing (QuSIT).

Mehul's research interests include quantum information processing and communication, fundamental studies of entanglement, and complex scattering media. His research has been recognised by several awards, including the 2021 Royal Society of Edinburgh Early Career Medal in the Physical Sciences and being named a 2024 UK Blavatnik Awards Honoree. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Optica (formerly OSA), and serves as an Associate Editor on the board of the journal Optica.

Prior to moving to the UK in 2018, Mehul held postdoctoral positions at the University of Vienna and the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI), Vienna, including a Marie Curie Fellowship in the group of 2022 Physics Nobel Laureate Prof Anton Zeilinger. Mehul’s work includes the creation of the first three-particle entanglement in high dimensions, the development of efficient methods for measuring complex forms of quantum entanglement, and the unprecedented transport of entanglement through a complex medium.

Mehul completed his PhD in 2013 with Prof Robert Boyd at the University of Rochester, New York. Prior to this, he received his Bachelors in Physics with a minor in Art and Art History from Colgate University, New York. Outside of physics, Mehul is passionate about science communication and issues of gender diversity and researcher mobility in academia.

Group Website: Beyond Binary Quantum Information Lab (BBQLab)