Professor
Andrew
Maiden

PhD, MEng

School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Professor of Computational Imaging

Headshot of Andy Maiden
Profile picture of Headshot of Andy Maiden
a.maiden@sheffield.ac.uk
Sir Frederick Mappin Building

Full contact details

Professor Andrew Maiden
School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering

Sir Frederick Mappin Building
Mappin Street

Sheffield

S1 3JD

Profile

I am interested in computational optics – enhancing optical systems such as microscopes, cameras or projectors with computer code. My interest began with my PhD at Durham University, where I used computer modelling of the way light propagates to design digital holograms. These holograms were printed out and projected a 3D pattern of circuitry when illuminated with a laser. We used these projected patterns to expose photoresist for the manufacture of volumetric integrated circuits and 3D antennas.

I spent a year living in the Lake District (where I grew up) after my PhD. I got to indulge my passion for outdoor sports – rock climbing, fell running and triathlon – whilst I was there, so when I decided to return to academia Sheffield was a natural choice, being a very outdoors city with excellent Universities. I moved to Sheffield to work with Professor John Rodenburg FRS, and was lucky enough to join him in the pioneering days of a computational optics technique called ptychography (pronounced tie-cog- ra-fee).

Ptychography uses diffraction pattern measurements to enhance microscopes. It realises ‘perfect’ imaging, where the image of a microscopic specimen it recreates is an exact copy of how that specimen interacts with a beam of light. I left Sheffield University for a brief spell to work with a spin-out company on commercialisation of ptychography-enhanced microscopes. I missed the freedom of the academic environment, and returned as a Lecturer after a couple of years.

As well as my continuing research in computational optics, I now teach Digital Signal Processing (DSP) to our third years.

Research interests
  • Coherent Diffractive Imaging (CDI)
  • Ptychography
  • Computer-generated holography
  • Phase imaging in the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM)
  • Inverse problems
  • Image processing
Publications

Journal articles

  • Wang R, Zhao Q, Quinn J, Yang L, Zhu Y, Huang F, Guo C, Wang T, Song P, Murphy M , Nguyen TD et al (2026) . eLight, 6(1).
  • Allars F, Maiden A, Batey DJ & Allen CS (2025) . Journal of Microscopy.
  • Maiden A, Lu P-H, You S & Allars F (2025) . Microscopy and Microanalysis, 31(Supplement_1).
  • Chennit T, Li S, Hofer C, Schrenker NJ, Maiden A, Lalandec Robert HL, Bals S, Pennycook T & Verbeeck J (2025) . Microscopy and Microanalysis, 31(Supplement_1).
  • Chennit T, Hofer C, Yuan B, Li S, Maiden A & Pennycook T (2024) . BIO Web of Conferences, 129, 04034-04034.
  • Hu Z, Zhang Y & Maiden A (2024) . Optics Letters, 49(17), 4839-4842.
  • Chennit T, Hofer C, Yuan B, Li S, Maiden A & Pennycook TJ (2024) . Microscopy and Microanalysis, 30(Supplement_1).
  • Song P, Wang R, Loetgering L, Liu J, Vouras P, Lee Y, Jiang S, Feng B, Maiden A, Yang C & Zheng G (2024) . Light: Science & Applications, 13(1).
  • Maiden AM, Mei W & Li P (2024) . Optics Express, 32(12), 21327-21344.
  • You S, Lu P-H, Schachinger T, Kovács A, Dunin-Borkowski RE & Maiden AM (2023) . Applied Physics Letters, 123(19).
  • Wang R, Zhao Q, Loetgering L, Allars F, Hong Z, Pennycook TJ, Horstmeyer R, Rodenburg J, Maiden A & Zheng G () . Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 5(1).
  • Maiden A, Clark L & O'Toole P () . Journal of Microscopy.

Conference proceedings

  • Saad R, Maiden AM, Li GJ & Ford KL (2025) . Sefi 2025 53rd Annual Conference of the European Society for Engineering Education Engineering and Society Proceedings (pp 823-831)
  • Maiden AM, Hu Z & Zhang Y (2024) . Optica Imaging Congress 2024 (3D, AOMS, COSI, ISA, pcAOP) (pp CW3B.1-CW3B.1), 2024.

Preprints

  • Zhao Q, Hong Z, Wang R, Wang T, Jiang L, Ma Q, Lu P-H, Dunin-Borkowski RE, Maiden A & Zheng G (2026) , arXiv.
  • Wang R, Zhao Q, Quinn J, Yang L, Zhu Y, Huang F, Guo C, Wang T, Song P, Murphy M , Nguyen TD et al (2025) , arXiv.
  • Song P, Wang R, Loetgering L, Liu J, Vouras P, Lee Y, Jiang S, Feng B, Maiden A, Yang C & Zheng G (2024) , arXiv.
Teaching activities
  • ELE346, Digital Signal Processing
  • ELE339, Digital Engineering
Professional activities and memberships
  • Fellow of Royal Microscopical Society
  • Member of Optical Society
  • Editorial Boards of Journal of Microscopy and Ultramicroscopy
  • Grant reviewer for UKRI/ERC/EPSRC/SNSF/PSC/DRC

Links

Semiconductor Materials and Devices Group