I am a Professor in Photonics Materials and Fibres at The University of Adelaide and am passionate about glass science, art and technology, and optical fibres. I am also Deputy Director of the Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) and Director of the Adelaide University Optofab Hub of the Australian National Fabrication Facility (ANFF). In these roles, I am working with researchers from academia to create fundamental breakthroughs and with industry to translate the new science into real-world outcomes for end-users in a wide range of areas including advanced manufacturing, photonics, and defence.Recent examples of my passion for glass and fibres are:My team is developing fluoride glasses for a joint project led by David Lancaster on developing chip lasers, which are promising for the next generation of frequency combs that will allow a quantum leap in spectroscopy and other applications.Together with the co-inventors Jiangbo (Tim) Zhao and Yunle Wei of our eco-friendly and versatile coloured glass technology, I have founded our start-up company EZY-GLAS Technology to translate GLAS to real-world products for making glass art and for screen printing applications. Collaboration with glass artists inspired me to devise a new approach to incorporate luminescent diamond particles into optical fibres as part of an interdisciplinary project with Brant Gibson and Andrew Greentree from RMIT University, David Simpson from Melbourne University, Shahraam Afshar from University of South Australia and many more. The new diamond doped fibre concept paves the way towards magnetic field sensing with high sensitivity from a distance and with a robust material. Recently, I won together with Brant Gibson, Andrew Greentree, David Ottaway and Takeshi Ohshima an ARC Discovery Project valued at $670k on a fibre-based laser magnetometry threshold concept.