ICFO-TIFR Frontiers School: Hot Topics in Photonics Sciences

Earlier this year, ICFO announced the appointment of its first ICFO Ambassador to India, Prof. Dr. Chaitanya Kumar Suddapalli. Chaitanya was an ICFO PhD graduate and later postdoctoral researcher in the Optical Parametric Oscillators group led by ICREA Prof Majid Ebrahim-Zadeh, and is now an ICFO alumnus and Reader at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Hyderabad. Both his strong ties to ICFO and his new role at TIFR perfectly positions him to facilitate opportunities for collaborations between ICFO and India’s extremely talented scientific community through the coordination, organization and promotion of ICFO events such as schools, workshops and career camps at TIFR and other Indian institutions. At the end of October 2023, the first such event was celebrated at the TIFR campus in Hyderabad, focusing on hot topics in photonic sciences.

As Head of Academic Affairs at ICFO, Prof. Robert Sewell launched ICFO’s Frontiers Research School program in 2016 and through the years, has been able to magnify the reach of these schools, which incorporate a dynamic and social learning environment including lectures, group discussions, direct interactions with the lecturers, student talks, and poster presentations, by partnering with leading international organizations. The first international Frontiers School Collaboration with UNAM (MX) took place in Mexico in 2019 and has become a fantastic and productive tradition. “ICFO has a strong Alumni base in India with whom we would like to continue collaborating on topics of mutual interest,” explains Sewell. “We would all like to see our community and reach in India grow through our Alumni and also through new ties that we seek to establish with the many excellent scientific intuitions in India. Our Frontiers Schools that aspire to motivate talented early career scientists who could make a value contribution to our fields of research are opportunities to strengthen these inroads with the scientific community in India at all levels.”

The ICFO – TIFR School attracted 54 participants from all over India as well as neighboring countries, with a healthy gender distribution (60%M, 40%F). About half of these participants were doctoral researchers, while approximately 10% were junior research fellows and almost 40% Master students. “We were quite pleased with the caliber and engagement of the participants, not only from my institute (TIFR), but from the region. I was also very happy to be able to bring together experts from the ICFO Alumni community who are now in India, ICFO Group Leaders, as well as other leading experts in India, to build a really fantastic program. It felt very gratifying to be able to offer such a great program to students with these esteemed colleagues, many who are also dear friends,” reflected Suddapalli.

Again, this was the first of what is to be a series of opportunities for ICFO and the Indian scientific community to find common ground and interests. “We owe a hearty thanks to Chaitanya for all his efforts to make this school a success and are really looking forward to great things to come with this wonderful scientific community in India,” summarized Sewell.