Steffen Meyer (AU)

Steffen Meyer recently obtained his Master of Science from the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg, Germany where he worked in the group of Prof. H. Helm on fine structure resolved imaging of dissociating triatomic hydrogen. At Aarhus, Steffen joins the Initial Training Network COMIQ and the Ion Trap Group where he will work on advancing various techniques for state-preparation of molecular ions such as MgH+ and CaH+ . These techniques will allow to measure lifetimes of specific rovibrational states and to carry out reaction experiments with state prepared reaction partners.

Kaveh Najafian (UNIBAS)

Kaveh Najafian received his Master's Degree in Physics and Astronomy from Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, Sweden. There he investigated statistical decay-processes of carbon clusters in an electrostatic storage-ring as well as the spontaneous-decay from charged water clusters, the latter being the subject of his thesis. As part of Stefan Willitsch's group in Basel he will develop a toolbox for the coherent manipulation and precision spectroscopy of sympathetically cooled molecular ions such as N2+ in an ion trap.

Johannes Heinrich (CNRS/LKB)

Johannes Heinrich graduated from Julius-Maximilians-University in Würzburg with a degree in physics in 2013. Having worked on frustrated magnetism under supervision of Prof. Hanke, he joined briefly the department of technology and innovation at the SGL Group in Meitingen, where he was tasked with simulating instabilities in the Hall-Héroult process. After a stay at the university of Ulm under supervision of Prof. Hecker-Denschlag he now joins Prof. Hilico's group at the LKB in order to work on spectroscopy of captured and cooled hydrogen molecular ions.

Lorenzo Petralia (UOXF)

I obtained my Bachelor’s Degree in Physics from Sapienza University of Rome. I recently received my Master’s Degree in Physics from Roma Tre University, in Rome, Italy. During my Master programme I worked on X-ray diffraction of multiferroic systems and on the development of a genetic algorithm for curve fitting at Diamond Light Source Synchrotron. I will join COMIQ ITN under the supervision of Professor Tim Softley at the University of Oxford to investigate cold ion-neutrals reactive collision working with two different sources of cold neutral molecules in combination with laser cooled or sympathetically cooled ions. ­

Ivan Kortunov (UDUS)

My name is Ivan Kortunov. I have graduated from the Moscow State University Department of Quantum Electronics as a Specialist in Physics physicist. It is my pleasure take part in the COMIQ network and develop methods for high-efficiency preparation of a single quantum state of a molecular ion and a high-precision spectroscopic determination of a fundamental mass rati

o with the group of Professor S. Schiller at Heinrich-Heine University Düsseldorf.

Chang Jian Kwong (UDUS)

Chang Jian Kwong obtained both his masters and bachelor degrees at the National University of Singapore. For his master thesis, he proposed the theoretical application of weak measurement scheme in interferometric settings to reduce the effects of amplitude damping decoherence channel. Chang is very pleased to work under Prof. Schiller and be a part of the exciting endeavor on high-precision molecular ion spectroscopy by building the required ultra-precise laser systems within the framework of the COMIQ programme.

Ibrokhim Iskandarov (UIBK)

I obtained my Master's degree at the University of Stuttgart in Germany. My Master thesis was in the field of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) where I investigated the dynamics of the BEC trapped in potential which possess parity and time-reversal symmetry (PT-symmetry). As being a part of COMIQ program under supervision of Professor Francesco Gianturco at the University of Innsbruck in Austria, my research will be in a close collaboration with experimental groups and will focus on numerical structure calculations as well as in

development of existing numerical codes of various dynamical processes involving molecular ions and atoms such as CN-molecules and He-atoms.

Amir Mahdian (UULM)

Amir Mahdian received his Master’s degree in physics from University of Tehran, Iran where he investigated the conversion of methane to higher valued hydrocarbons by means of a repetitive pulsed-plasma. Joining the COMIQ network under the supervision of Prof. Hecker Denschlag in Ulm, Amir investigates the elastic and inelastic collision processes between ions and atoms in a hybrid atom-ion experiment.

Leonardo Carcagnì (UBO)

Early stage rese

archer at University of Bonn for 12 months.

Ashwin Boddeti (UBO)

I recently obtained my Integrated Master of Science from UM-DAE Center for Excellence in Basic Science, Mumbai, India. For my Master's thesis I worked in Prof. Sushil Mujumdar's group at Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai on mesoscopic light transport phenomena in disordered dielectric media. In Prof. Michael Koehl's group at University of Bonn, I will be working on trapped ions. The primary focus of my research training at Bonn would be to carry out quantum state preparation of ions, study the coherence and decoherence of trapped ions and develop tools for fast readout of quantum states. Left the COMIQ project September 2016.

Johannes Kombe (UBO)

Johannes Kombe graduated with a Master’s degree in physics from Oxford University, UK. For his thesis he worked with Prof. S. Simon on anyons in the field of topological quantum computing. As ESR at the University of Bonn, he is joining the Initial Training Network COMIQ to work on non-equilibrium dynamics of impurities in ultracold quantum gases, for example using matrix product state methods.

Milán János Negyedi (HIGHFINESSE)

My name is Milán János Negyedi. I have graduated from the Budapest University of Technology and Economics as a physicist. Previously I have worked as a research assistant at the university, in the field of laser (Photoluminescent and Raman) spectroscopy. I look forward to further develop my skills in optics. In my free time I like to read, play video games, and listen to rock music. 

Ilia Sergachev (ALPES LASERS)

Ilia Sergachev received his Master's degree in physics from Moscow State University, Russia, working on a spectral correlation based method for high precision optical measurements. He will develop quantum cascade lasers with specific properties at Alpes Lasers, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, while also taking part in Stefan Willitsch's group at University of Basel as a PhD student, where these lasers will be used for precision spectroscopy of cold molecular ions.

Humberto da Silva junior (CNRS/LAC)

Humberto received his master degree from the European Master in Theoretical Chemistry and Computational Modeling (EMTCCM), at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM), under the Erasmus Mundus programme; working in the field of dynamics and fragmentation of excited molecular clusters (fullerenes and PAHs systems). At the COMIQ Initial Training Network, he joins as PhD student, the CNRS-node of Laboratoire Aimé Cotton (LAC)/Université Paris-Sud IX in the team of Dr. Olivier Dulieu, devoted to shed light on the electronic structure and dynamics of ultracold neutral/ionic molecular systems, i.e. their formation and destruction processes.

Alexander Dietmar Dörfler (UNIBAS)

Alexander Dörfler received his Master's degree in physics from the University of Innsbruck, Austria. Working in the group of Univ. Prof. Dr. Wester he was investigating the photo dissociation of vibrationally excited molecules with the goal to verify the excited fraction in order to further study ion molecule reactions of vibrationally excited molecules using reactive scattering and velocity map imaging. Joining Stefan Willitsch's group in Basel he will focus on the project to explore quantum effects in cold collisions of ultracold atoms and molecules with quantum-state-selected, cold molecular ions in an ion-neutral hybrid trap.

Karin Fisher (AU)

Karin Fisher recently obtained her Master of Science from ETH Zürich in Zürich, Switzerland. While in the Trapped Ion Quantum Information Group at ETH Zürich, Karin worked on the design and implementation of a system that was used to perform coherent state manipulations on trapped 40Ca+.  At Aarhus, she joins the COMIQ Initial Training Network where, in the Ion Trap Group, she hopes to develop femtosecond laser techniques to address low-lying rotational transitions in MgH+ as well as evaluate the possibility of using these states as qubit states.

Michael V. DePalatis (AU)

Michael V. DePalatis recently finished his PhD studies at Georgia Tech, Atlanta, USA, and has joined COMIQ as Experienced Researcher (ER). Michael will be overseeing training activities of the Early Stage Researchers (ESR) soon to join the network as well as setting up the wikisystem that will help the network reaching its ambitious training goals.