IEEE Photonics Society Industry Achievement Award

For demonstrating the first distributed fiber optic sensor and then continuously leading its development and commercialization into a globally deployed technology that transformed industrial monitoring across energy, infrastructure, and environmental applications.

Arthur Hartog has been at the forefront of the development and commercialisation of distributed optical fibre sensing (DFOS) for more than four decades, helping establish it as a technology platform now deployed worldwide in energy, infrastructure and environmental monitoring.

Following a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Southampton, during which the first distributed optical fibre sensor was demonstrated, he joined York Technology and established York Sensors to commercialise the technology. The company developed the world’s first commercial distributed temperature sensing systems, opening markets that are now standard applications of DFOS, including high-voltage power cable monitoring, linear fire detection, cryogenic leak detection and oil and gas well production profiling.

Following the integration of York Sensors with Sensor Highway into Schlumberger, Dr. Hartog led the development of the next generation of fibre-optic sensing technologies, including distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), distributed strain sensing and optical pressure sensing. He pioneered the industrial deployment of DAS for borehole seismic imaging, well-integrity monitoring and pipeline surveillance, applications that have since become central to the energy industry’s adoption of fibre-optic sensing.

As a Schlumberger Fellow—the company’s highest technical distinction—he became part of a small group of Fellows that advised the CEO directly on long-term technology strategy and scientific innovation across the company’s global businesses.

In 2020 he co-founded FOSINA to accelerate the application of distributed fibre sensing beyond the energy industry into marine science, critical infrastructure, transportation and subsea telecommunications, continuing to extend the technology into new industrial and scientific domains.

Dr. Hartog is the author or co-author of more than fifty refereed journal papers, over sixty refereed conference publications and is named inventor on more than fifty patent families comprising over seventy granted patents worldwide. His textbook, An Introduction to Distributed Optical Fibre Sensors, has become the standard reference for engineers and researchers entering the field and reflects his longstanding commitment to translating photonics research into industrial practice.