STEM Alumni Award Winners 2025

Dr Yanong Ning

Dr Yanong Ning graduated from City 30+ years ago and has shown a sustained and consistent level of professional achievement in the multi-billion pound business that optical fibre and photonics technology is today, all this stemming from the time when he was introduced to the field as a highly successful student at City.

The description below shows that he has had a sustained professional achievement and leadership at the highest levels in terms not only of innovation in technology in the commercial sector but this achieving transformational change – through successful project management and a major contribution to company growth, profitability and thus job creation.

Dr Ning is recognized and distinguished as a pioneer in the field of optical fibre and photonics sensors, especially in knowledge transfer to industry, operating successfully internationally.

In particular, key business and technical opportunities for the better exploitation of photonics and optical fibre sensor systems has been transferred squarely into engineering – broadening out from being just a ‘physics-based’ subject, to become a well-established and vitally important part of the instrumentation and sensors field – and that worldwide.

Dr Ning’s professional achievements are at a very high level internationally, recognized not only for his research, but in his entrepreneurial work, in the UK, the United States and China, over the last 30+ years.  Such an enterprising flair is evident in his holding some 43 patents 9 of which are GB, US and PCT (with some 20 more being applied for) – emphasizing innovation not only in the development of new technology but also in the key entrepreneurial aspects – as well as being the author of more than 100 high quality publications in the best international media in the field

However, a key skill has been in marketing innovation and promoting technological investment over that time, in a technology where he is convinced it offers real benefits for UK and international industry.  In this way, he has shown a high level of leadership not only in this technology – especially given that he has been involved ‘from the ground up’ – but also in innovation, and in resulting commercial leadership, in the companies he has worked for.

All this is reflected in his extensive cv, showing his contribution to companies in the UK, China and the USA.  Examples of where he has achieved transformational organizational change include in his role as Chief Operational Officer for Intelligent Sensor Systems Ltd, Marlborough, UK, since 2008, where he has been responsible for developing and running the international sales business of optical fibre sensor systems for the company.

Further, he has shown significant and successful project management as the Investment Director and partner in the Rockley Group (UK) since 2010, having established the ‘Rockley China Fund’ promoting active investment there, being active in the strategic planning of the fund and presiding over the formulation of its investment business strategy, and coordinating its overall financial investment management.

Since August 2024, he has been appointed to be an Expert Advisor of the Greater Bay Area Alliance of China Sensor and IoT Industry Alliance, to provide expert opinions and jointly contribute to the development of the smart sensor industry in the Greater Bay Area in China. All this has contributed to company profitability and job creation, especially including his latest role at Shandong Micro-Sensor Photonics Ltd, as a Director and Chief Scientist.

Read Yanong's interview with City St George's News.

Dr Judit Guimerà Busquets

Judit built her career across three organisations, progressing rapidly to her current role as Head of Data Science at Datasparq, an AI and data specialist company. She has led teams of up to 10 data scientists and works closely with the company’s leadership team to define the team’s strategic roadmap, support organisational growth and shape future-facing initiatives within the business.

Drawing on a strong background in the travel and hospitality sectors, from her degree and PhD studies at City University, she plays an integral role to support and grow client relationships and contribute to strategic business development in these industries. Her work often involves senior stakeholder engagement and participation in long-term planning discussions.

Her project portfolio includes several internationally impactful initiatives from the data science perspective, such as co-leading a long-term engagement with a UK low-cost airline delivering multiple high-value projects over two years; and developing a quality risk model used within the consumer health industry.

Alongside technical delivery, Judit champions best practice and ways of working, promoting agile delivery methodologies and data science lifecycle. She also actively engages in a range of external initiatives to showcase the innovative work of her team and contribute to the broader technology and AI community, both nationally and internationally. She has represented Datasparq at the World Aviation Forum, presented at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s AI Summit and the Operational Research Conference.

Before Datasparq, Judit worked at Royal Mail as a Data Scientist and Virgin Atlantic as an analyst.

She holds a PhD on Air Traffic Forecasting from City University, during which Judit led one of the five finalist teams in the Airbus Fly Your Ideas competition.

She also holds an Air Transport BEng from City University and Aeronautical (specialising in air navigation) BEng from Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya (Spain).

She has been mentoring students at City for about five years.

Read Judit's interview with City St George's News.

Peter Rutherford MBE

Peter Rutherford graduated from City University with an MSc (Distinction) in Management of Information Security and Risk (MISR) in 2017.  Since graduation Peter has held several key information security roles in the UK and EU.

During his studies he was appointed Chief Business Information Security Officer for Deutsch Bank Global Markets, the investment banking arm of Deutsche Bank AG, where the subject of his dissertation ‘Designing an Information Security Policy (ISP) compliant role-based access control (RBAC) framework for business applications in a Front Office business unit of a global investment bank’ was activity implemented across the global business.

In March 2019 as the UK prepared for BREXIT Peter joined Mizuho Securities Europe GmbH as Chief Information Security Officer tasked with creating the information security function for the newly created regulated financial institution. During this period, he actively worked to extend his professional knowledge in other compliance related topics and was subsequently appointed as the registered Data Protection Officer in Germany, Spain and France, and the Head of Business Continuity Management.

In December 2022 Peter moved to Amsterdam to take up the appointment as the Group Chief Information Security Officer for Infront AS, a private equity owned leading European Wealth Tech firm with more than 20 legal entities across 11 countries in the UK, European Union, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

Infront AS celebrated their 25-year anniversary in 2024 and was previously listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, with an extensive financial data catalogue going back over 70 years that serves over 3,400 clients in the financial services industry.  Today, there are over 1M daily users of Infront products that process over 8 Bn data points per day.

Peter was the first Chief Information Security Officer to be appointed in the history of Infront AS.  His initial primary focus has been to create the group information security function and assume responsibility for the corporate information security domains in the second line of defence (2LOD) with an emphasis on reducing the cyber security risk profile, information risk management, and operational resilience.

Read Peter's interview with City St George's News.