José Miguel López-Higuera was born in February, 1954, in the village of Ramales de la Victoria, Cantabria, Spain. He obtained his technical engineering degree in telecommunications from the Universidad Laboral de Alcalá de Henares, Madrid and his telecommunications engineering degree from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). He obtained his PhD in telecommunications engineering, with an extraordinary award, at UPM. An assistant professor in the Universidad Laboral de Alcalá de Henares since 1976, and since 1986 at UPM, in 1991 he became an associate professor, and in 2001 a full professor in the University of Cantabria (UC), where he teaches courses in electronics and photonics.
He was the head of the Components and Technology Department, and director of the Technical School of Telecommunications Engineers in the Universidad Laboral de Alcalá de Henares. He was the director of the COIE and founded and heads the Photonics Engineering Group of the UC.
Prof. López-Higuera fabricated the first lithium niobate integrated optic devices in Spain and presently works in the development of new devices and subsystems for optical communications and sensors in photonic instrumentation, optical fiber sensor systems, and in materials detection and characterization using photonic techniques. He is currently manager and coordinator of R&D&I projects and has directed more than 40. He promoted the creation of the spin-off company TELNOS and was a member of the steering committee of the company Fibersensing.
He has also been involved in journal and book publishing in both editorial and authorial roles. He has written or co-written more than 300 publications in the form of books, chapters, papers, and conferences, and he has obtained several patents. He has acted as technical reviewer for several journals and conferences in the field of photonics.
He has been a member of the Technical Program Committee, International Steering Committee, technical co-chair, and general chair of scientific international meetings such as the International Optical Fibre Sensors Conference (OFS), the European Workshop on Optical Fibre Sensors (EWOFS), and the Optoelectronics Distance Measurements and Applications (ODIMAP), among others.
Prof. López-Higuera is a senior member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), associate senior member of the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEE), and member of the Optical Society of America (OSA) and SPIE.