New ICFOnians

Two visiting scientists, Nela Durisic and Urs Staufer, three postdocs, Carles Barcelo, Hanan Herzig and Mohammad Mehboudi, two research engineers, Daniel Fernandez and Unai Ortiz, six Ph.D. students, Chiara Mazzinghi, David Barcons, Gerard Jiménez, Hitesh Agarwal, Stefano Duranti, and Stella Avtzi, two visiting PhD students, Gil Triginer and Mehdi Alizadeh, three students, Lukas Heller, Marco Wiedemann and Shanmukh Majji, and one member of management, Gloria Pons have joined ICFO in the month of September.

Nela Durisic, who obtained her PhD degree in Biophysics from the McGill University (Montreal, Canada) and is now a postdoc researcher in the University of Queensland, Australia, is coming back to ICFO to join the SLN Facility led by Pablo Loza as a visiting scientist.

Urs Staufer, professor and head of the Micro and Nano Engineering laboratory from TU Delft is joining the Quantum Nanomechanics research group led by ICFO Prof. Adrian Bachtold as a visiting scientist.

Carles Barceló, who holds a PhD degree in Biomedicine from the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and Harvard University (USA), has joined the Single Molecule Biophotonics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Maria García-Parajo as a postdoctoral researcher. During his stay, he will be investigating the role of the glycocalyx matrix and CD44 in interleaflet coupling of the cell membrane using single molecule and SR approaches, which has implications in cancer progression.

Hanan Herzig holds a 2017 PhD degree from the Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, is joining the Quantum Nano-Optoelectronics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens as a postdoctoral researcher. During his stay at ICFO, he will be conducting research in topological nanophotonics.

Mohammad Mehboudi, who holds a 2017 PhD in Physics from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, is joining the Quantum Information Theory research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Antonio Acín as a postdoctoral researcher. At ICFO, he will be working on the use of quantum information concepts to understand thermodynamic processes and opensystem dynamics.

Daniel Fernandez, who holds a MSc degree in Telecommunications engineering from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, is now joining the Medical Optics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Turgut Durduran as a research engineer. At ICFO, he will be focusing his research on FPGA programming, digital electronics and control software.

Unai Ortiz, who graduated with an MSc in Photonics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, is now joining the Molecular Nanophotonics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Niek van Hulst as a research engineer. At ICFO, he will focusing on the ERC Proof of Concept project IBIS.

Chiara Mazzinghi, who obtained her MSc of Physics and Astrophysics from the Université degli Studi di Firenze, is now joining the Quantum Information with Cold Atoms and Non-classical Light research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Morgan Mitchell as a PhD student. Her thesis will focus on spinor condensates.

David Barcons, who holds an MSc from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid in Nanophysics and advanced materials, is joining the Quantum Nano-Optoelectronics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens as a PhD student. During his time at ICFO, he will be conducting research on topological nanophotonics.

Gerard Jiménez, with an MSc in Photonics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, is joining the Quantum Engineering of Light research group led by ICFO Prof. Juan P. Torres as a PhD student.

Hitesh Agarwal, who obtained his MSc in Physics at the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani, India, has joined the Quantum Nano-Optoelectronics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Frank Koppens as a PhD student. He will be working on Graphene Flagship applications.

Stefano Duranti, who holds a 2015 MSc degree in Physics from the University of Perugia, Italy, has joined the Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Hugues de Riedmatten as a PhD student. At ICFO he will be working on long-lived solid-state quantum memories.

Stella Avtzi, who obtained her MSc in Optics and Vision from the University of Crete, Greece, is now joining the Medical Optics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Turgut Durduran as a PhD student. At ICFO, she will be focus her thesis in diffuse optics for neuro-monitoring.

Gil Triginer, who is an ICFO summer fellow and is now pursuing a PhD degree in experimental quantum optics and quantum information from the University of Oxford, is joining the Quantum Information with Cold Atoms and Non-classical Light research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Morgan Mitchell as a visiting PhD student. At ICFO, he will be carrying out research on quantum random number generation with atomic ensembles.

Mehdi Alizadeh, with an MSc degree in Photonics, and who is now pursuing a PhD degree in the University of Kurdistan, has joined the SLN facility led by ICFO prof. Pablo Loza as a visiting PhD student. At ICFO, he will be working on nonlinear microscopy of elected biological samples.

Lukas Heller, who is pursuing an MSc in Physics in the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, has joined the Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Hugues de Riedmatten as a student. At ICFO, he will conduct research on quantum memories with cold atoms.

Marco Wiedemann, who is pursuing an MSc in Photonics from the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya has joined the Optoelectronics research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Valerio Pruneri as a student. At ICFO, he will focus on attosecond soft X-rays.

Shanmukh Majji, who is pursuing a dual degree of BSc and MSc in Science from the Indian Institute of Science, is joining the Functional Optoelectronic Nanomaterials research group led by ICREA Prof. at ICFO Gerasimos Konstantatos as a student. At ICFO, he will be doing research on colloidal quantum dot optoelectronics.

Gloria Pons, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from the Universitat de Barcelona, is joining the ICFO Projects unit and will be in charge of managing post-award support.