ICFO Day 2023
The 8th edition of an all ICFO celebration of community
ICFO Day is an annual celebration of community in which we explore the interests and achievements of all ICFOnians. It is also a moment when we are able to discover the unique talents both in the lab and out, of our colleagues.
Thursday afternoon, 14th December, ICFOnians got warmed up with what was the 2nd edition of ICFactor- a talent show that took place in a packed Nest Hall- in which we discovered a side of some of our colleagues that few knew existed. We were thoroughly entertained and laughed, cheered and sang along to the performances of these talented ICFOnians.
The ICFO Day agenda started early on Friday, 15th December, with activities organized at ICFO:
The ICFO Gymkhana (Scavenger Hunt): Postdoctoral researcher Sarah Keary put in motion an initiative many, many months ago to gather amazing images taken by ICFOnians in our laboratories using a variety of microscopy techniques. Of the 50+ images submitted, 27 were converted into 80x80 works of art and displayed in shared spaces around the institute. To inaugurate this permanent exhibit, we organized a unique scavenger hunt in which participants raced through corridors in search of the images. They competed to identify the subject matter both creatively and scientifically.
Lab Tours: Optics laboratories are generally closed, dark spaces. Not so on ICFO Day, when doors are opened and visitors were encouraged to come in and learn what kind of science is developed in the participating research groups. Tours were also offered in the new Nano-Fabrication lab recently opened in the Mir-Puig building.
PhD Poster Session: 24 scientific posters were displayed in the Nest Hall and in the ensuing session the PhD authors discussed their work with the ICFO community.
After lunch, ICFOnians met back up in the auditorium of the World Trade Center on Barcelona’s waterfront, close to the city center. In the first half of the afternoon’s agenda, we celebrated science. In the second half, we celebrated ICFOnians’ contributions and achievements.
Session I: Science
Director’s presentation: ICFO’s director Lluis Torner offered a welcome address
Nobel Prize Talks: Both the 2023 Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry were awarded on topics closely aligned with the work of several ICFO research groups. Professors Jens Biegert, leader of the Attosecond and Ultrafast Optics group and Maciej Lewenstein, leader of the Quantum Optics Theory group offered presentations that covered both the awarded experimental work of the Nobel Prize in Physics and the theoretical work that paved the way for this work. Prof F. Pelayo García de Arquer, leader of the CO2 Mitigation Accelerated by Photons group presented a talk on the Nobel prize in Chemistry.
Strategic Programs at a Glance: Many have heard of the PIXSpain and QTwist initiatives in which many of our research groups will be contributing over the coming years. Professors Valerio Pruneri, leader of the Optoelectronics group and Frank Koppens, leader of the Quantum Nano-Optoelectronics group, the respective leaders of these programs, offered overviews.
Session II: People
The Alumni Network: Andrea Morales, the Alumni coordinator, honored outgoing and incoming Alumni representatives who volunteer their time and energy to strengthen ICFO through the Alumni Network.
Poster Prizes:
- Natalia García from Academic Affairs presented the PhD Committee’s Poster Prize. This year with two winners, the prizes went to Sandra Buob, from the Ultracold Quantum Gases group led by Prof. Leticia Tarruell, for the poster “A strontium quantum-gas microscope: imaging single atoms in an optical lattice ; and to Geng Li, from the Quantum Nano-Optoelectronics group led by Prof. Frank Koppens, for the poster “Mid-infrared fingerprints of twisted bilayer graphene”
- ICONS VP Javier Arrés and Secretary Rebecca Hoffmann presented the Popular Vote prize This was awarded to Sebastian Haegele from the Optoelectronics group led by Prof Valerio Pruneri, for the poster “Holographic amplitude and phase imaging for characterization of ultra-thin and 2-D materials”
Graduating Class of 2023: All 2023 PhD graduates were invited to attend the ICFO Day and were recognized for the important achievements culminating in the presentation of their doctoral theses.
2022 Thesis Prizes: Three ICFO PhD graduates from the 2022 cohort were recognized for their creative and ambitious research
- Paolo Abiuso (Quantum Information Theory group led by Prof Antonio Acín) received the prize for best thesis in the theoretical field for the thesis “Optimization and Geometry for Quantum Information tasks”
- Dr Ugaitz Elu (Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics group led by Prof. Jens Biegert) received the prize for best thesis in the industrial field for the thesis “High-peak-power mid-infrared OPCPAs for extreme nonlinear photonics”
- Dario Lago-Rivera (Quantum Photonics with Solids and Atoms group led by Prof Hugues de Riedmatten) received the prize for best thesis in the experimental field for the thesis “Remote distribution of quantum states assisted by multimode quantum memories”
15-year ICFOnians award: ICFO has become what it is today thanks to the contributions of all members of our gifted and diverse community. Five ICFOnians from the management units were recognized for their 15 years at the institute:
- Oscar Casellas: Electronics Lab
- Noelia Cuesta: Project Unit
- Vittoria Finazzi: PPL and ChemLab Technician
- Magda Lara: Purchasing
- Javier Pérez: Nanofabrication Laboratory
And finally, as we do each year, we ended the day with a festive cocktail dinner (and dancing!) where we were able to relax and celebrate in the company of our friends and colleagues.
Many thanks to each and every ICFOnians who contributed to the success of this enormous and important annual event, including those who organized, planned and executed on the logistics side, those who offered talks and tours, created posters, put together the Gymkhana, sang, danced, mixed the music, … all who participated and connected with the positive energy of this important community event.