Jaafar M. H. Elmirghani

Jaafar Mohamed Hashim Elmirghani is a Sudanese-British engineer specialising in communication networks and systems. He is a Professor of Communication Networks and Systems at King's College London. . His research has focused on energy-efficient communications, optical and wireless networks, and data-centre networking . He is a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2025 .

Early life and education

Elmirghani was born in Sudan and moved to England in 1991. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Khartoum in 1989 and a PhD from the University of Huddersfield in 1994. His doctoral research concerned synchronisation of optical systems and optical receiver design. In 2012, he was awarded a Doctor of Science (DSc) in Communication Systems and Networks by the University of Leeds .

Academic and professional career

Elmirghani was Chair in Optical Communications at the University of Wales Swansea from 2000 to 2007. During this period, he established the Communications and Photonics Group and became head of Swansea's Institute of Advanced Telecommunications . In 2007, Elmirghani joined the University of Leeds as Professor of Communication Networks and Systems . At Leeds, his research included energy-efficient communication networks, optical communications, network optimisation and data-centre systems . In 2022, Elmirghani joined King's College London as Professor of Communication Networks and Systems .

During a visit to King Abdulaziz University from December 2011 to January 2012, Elmirghani delivered scientific lectures, discussed student-exchange and joint-research opportunities in communications, and worked with university faculty on proposals for a communications and networking research group .

Research

Elmirghani's research has addressed the energy consumption and performance of communication networks and computing infrastructure . His work has included optical networks, wireless communications, data-centre networks, network optimisation and energy-efficient computing .

In 2008, The Daily Telegraph reported on an intelligent-road research project led by Elmirghani at the University of Leeds, involving vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications for improving road safety and traffic management .

Awards and honours

Elmirghani has received awards from professional organisations for his work in communication networks and energy-efficient communications. He received the IEEE Communications Society Transmission, Access and Optical Systems (TAOS) Outstanding Technical Achievement Award in 2020 and the TAOS Outstanding Service Award in 2015 . He also received the IEEE Communications Society Harold Sobol Award for Exemplary Service in 2005 . In 2016, Elmirghani received an IET Premium Award for a paper published in IET Optoelectronics . In 2015, he received the GreenTouch 1000x Award .

He was elected Fellow of the IEEE in 2021 for contributions to energy-efficient communications . Under these initiatives, the working group has developed a series of IEEE standards addressing energy-efficient networking and computing, including dynamic line-rate transmission, distributed big-data processing, virtualised data-centre orchestration, virtual machine placement, and content distribution .

Entrepreneurship

In 2020, Elmirghani founded Ultracell Networks Ltd, a University of Leeds spin-off company developing energy-efficient optical networking technologies for cloud and edge data centres. The company originated from research conducted at the University of Leeds.