Sidney Goossens is a Ph.D researcher at the Department of Photonics and Applied Physics (TONA) of the Faculty of Engineering (IR) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). He is part of the Brussels Photonics (B-PHOT) research group, where his main research interests are Optical Fiber Sensors (OFS). In particular, his research is about microstructured optical fiber (MOF, PCF) sensors for damage detection in composite materials. In this way he hopes to contribute in developing lighter, stronger and smarter materials for aerospace applications in order to reduce maintenance cost, fuel consumption and pollution of future aircrafts.

Sidney achieved a Bachelors degree in Physics in 2012 at the Universiteit Hasselt (UH). Interested in a more experimental, yet still fundamental trajectory, he started a Master of Science in Engineering in Photonics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. In 2015 he achieved this Master degree Cum Laude. For his Master Thesis on "Dynamic strain analysis with micro-structured fiber optic strain sensors embedded in structural components", Sidney was awarded with the Best Master Thesis Presentation Award, with the 3th place at the ie-net Flemish Engineering Community Awards, and made it on the longlists of both the Flemish Dissertation Award 2015 as well as the Agoria Award 2015. Caught by the subject of his thesis, he started his Ph.D in 2015 at the VUB in the same research interest: (microstructured) optical fiber sensors for damage detection in composite materials.