Dr. Robert Simpson, Dr. Graciana Palacios and Dr. Patrick Ledingham
Dr. Robert Simpson, Dr. Graciana Palacios and Dr. Patrick Ledingham
New ICFOnians
New researchers have joined ICFO.
October 02, 2011
Three post-doctoral researchers, Robert Simpson, Graciana Puentes and Patrick Ledingham; six PhD students, Jordi Tura, Dominik Kufer, Nicolò Accanto and Francesco Pastorelli, Silvana Palacios and Luis José Salazar Serrano; one undergraduate student, Charles-André Couture; and one Research Engineer, Jordi Andilla; have joined ICFO.
Dr. Robert Simpson joins the Valerio Pruneri’s group as a Research Fellow to develop nano-structured phase change materials for photonic applications. Robert will leverage his expertise on soft glass and phase change materials to design and construct new devices for optical switching and memories.
Dr. Graciana Puentes is joining the group of Juan P. Torres to perform experiments in the area of quantum optics as a research Fellow. She obtained her PhD in Leiden (Netherlands) under the supervision of Prof. Hans Woerdman, and stayed as postdoc in Oxford University (Ian Walmsley's group) and MIT (Prof. Ketterle group).
Dr. Patrick Ledingham holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He then completed a PhD thesis in the same institution. He joins ICFO as a post-doctoral researcher in the group led by ICREA Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten. He will work on the implementation of solid state quantum memories for single photons using rare-earth doped crystals.
Mr. Jordi Tura has spent a Summer intership with QOT group of Maciej Lewenstein, and is now joining the group as a PHD student. He will work on various problems of theory of entanglement and quantum correlations. Notably, he has already co-written 1 paper with the QOT group.
Mr. Dominik Kufer received his Diploma in Physics from the University of Würzburg, Germany in 2010. He participated in 2008 in an academic year at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received the Master of Physics in Physical Science. In his final diploma thesis at the University of Würzburg he worked on “Growth and characterisation of thin Magnetite films (Fe3O4) on semiconducting substrates”. He now started his PhD thesis in the area of solution processed and plasmonically enhanced quantum dot photodetectors in Prof Gerasimos Kontantatos’ group.
Mr. Nicolò Accanto studied at the University of Florence, Italy. He finished his study with a project on exciton coherence in CdSe Qdots at Cardiff University. He joins ICFO as a PhD-student in the group of ICREA Prof. Niek van Hulst. Within the ERC-project on nanoantennas he will study femtosecond control of nanoscale optical fields by means of pulse-shaping, non-linear “single-molecule” microscopy and near field approaches.
Mr. Francesco Pastorelli obtained a bachelor at the Politecnico di Milano in physics engineering and a double degree master in photonics science (Ghent University - Free University of Brussel) and electronics engineering (KTH Stockholm, Sweden). He moved to Tokyo at the University of Tokyo for master thesis project where he patented his design on an antireflection coating. After he worked in New York at the Columbia university studying the interaction between few layers graphene and quantum dots. He joined the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Erophotonics starting he experience at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille and he joined Prof. Jordi Martorell´s group at ICFO, where he is involved in the projects of nano-structured and plasmonic organic solar cells.
Ms. Silvana Palacios Álvarez earned her Bachelor in Physics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. She is working on quantum optics and quantum metrology in the group of Prof. Morgan Mitchell as part of the Master in Photonics.
Mr. Luis José Salazar Serrano is a PhD student coming from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá (Colombia). His thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Juan P. Torres, will focus on employing a technique known as weak measurements to measure extremely tiny beam displacements, and temporal correlations.
Mr. Charles-André Couture is an undergraduate student participating in the co-op work term program of the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada. He has joined the Prof., Jens Biegert’s group for an internship working on orbital tomography from prepared states.
Dr. Jordi Andilla obtained his PhD in Physics at Universitat de Barcelona working in Holographical Optical Tweezers for biophysical experiments. He moved to France to work in Imagine Optic S.A. as a postdoctoral recruitment by a Marie Curie grant under the STELUM project. He worked in the development of adaptive optics for biological microscopy. He joined ICFO as Research Engineer in the Super-resolution Light Microscopy & Nanoscopy Lab and he will be involved in the different projects and development of the different techniques in microscopy that are available in the facility.
Dr. Robert Simpson joins the Valerio Pruneri’s group as a Research Fellow to develop nano-structured phase change materials for photonic applications. Robert will leverage his expertise on soft glass and phase change materials to design and construct new devices for optical switching and memories.
Dr. Graciana Puentes is joining the group of Juan P. Torres to perform experiments in the area of quantum optics as a research Fellow. She obtained her PhD in Leiden (Netherlands) under the supervision of Prof. Hans Woerdman, and stayed as postdoc in Oxford University (Ian Walmsley's group) and MIT (Prof. Ketterle group).
Dr. Patrick Ledingham holds a BSc in Physics from the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. He then completed a PhD thesis in the same institution. He joins ICFO as a post-doctoral researcher in the group led by ICREA Prof. Hugues de Riedmatten. He will work on the implementation of solid state quantum memories for single photons using rare-earth doped crystals.
Mr. Jordi Tura has spent a Summer intership with QOT group of Maciej Lewenstein, and is now joining the group as a PHD student. He will work on various problems of theory of entanglement and quantum correlations. Notably, he has already co-written 1 paper with the QOT group.
Mr. Dominik Kufer received his Diploma in Physics from the University of Würzburg, Germany in 2010. He participated in 2008 in an academic year at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he received the Master of Physics in Physical Science. In his final diploma thesis at the University of Würzburg he worked on “Growth and characterisation of thin Magnetite films (Fe3O4) on semiconducting substrates”. He now started his PhD thesis in the area of solution processed and plasmonically enhanced quantum dot photodetectors in Prof Gerasimos Kontantatos’ group.
Mr. Nicolò Accanto studied at the University of Florence, Italy. He finished his study with a project on exciton coherence in CdSe Qdots at Cardiff University. He joins ICFO as a PhD-student in the group of ICREA Prof. Niek van Hulst. Within the ERC-project on nanoantennas he will study femtosecond control of nanoscale optical fields by means of pulse-shaping, non-linear “single-molecule” microscopy and near field approaches.
Mr. Francesco Pastorelli obtained a bachelor at the Politecnico di Milano in physics engineering and a double degree master in photonics science (Ghent University - Free University of Brussel) and electronics engineering (KTH Stockholm, Sweden). He moved to Tokyo at the University of Tokyo for master thesis project where he patented his design on an antireflection coating. After he worked in New York at the Columbia university studying the interaction between few layers graphene and quantum dots. He joined the Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate in Erophotonics starting he experience at the Fresnel Institute in Marseille and he joined Prof. Jordi Martorell´s group at ICFO, where he is involved in the projects of nano-structured and plasmonic organic solar cells.
Ms. Silvana Palacios Álvarez earned her Bachelor in Physics from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico. She is working on quantum optics and quantum metrology in the group of Prof. Morgan Mitchell as part of the Master in Photonics.
Mr. Luis José Salazar Serrano is a PhD student coming from Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá (Colombia). His thesis, under the supervision of Prof. Juan P. Torres, will focus on employing a technique known as weak measurements to measure extremely tiny beam displacements, and temporal correlations.
Mr. Charles-André Couture is an undergraduate student participating in the co-op work term program of the Université de Sherbrooke in Canada. He has joined the Prof., Jens Biegert’s group for an internship working on orbital tomography from prepared states.
Dr. Jordi Andilla obtained his PhD in Physics at Universitat de Barcelona working in Holographical Optical Tweezers for biophysical experiments. He moved to France to work in Imagine Optic S.A. as a postdoctoral recruitment by a Marie Curie grant under the STELUM project. He worked in the development of adaptive optics for biological microscopy. He joined ICFO as Research Engineer in the Super-resolution Light Microscopy & Nanoscopy Lab and he will be involved in the different projects and development of the different techniques in microscopy that are available in the facility.
Mr. Jordi Tura, Mr. Dominik Kufer and Mr. Nicolò Accanto
Mr. Francesco Pastorelli, Ms. Silvana Palacios and Mr. Luis José Salazar
Mr. Charles-André Couture
Dr. Jordi Andilla