Cretan Matter Waves Group
Igor Lesanovsky, a former postdoc of CMW (2006) now full Professor at University of Nottingham, has won the 2014 Maxwell medal and prize for his outstanding contributions to the theory of control and manipulation of quantum systems, particularly his pioneering studies of highly excited ‘Rydberg’ states in cold atomic gases
Ben Sherlock joins us from Oxford University (Chris Foot’s group) and before this M.Sci. at Hatfield College, University of Durham. Ben is one of the pioneers of Time-Averaged-Adiabatic Potentials with the first demonstration of the TAAP dumbbell and TAAP ring.
Before joining us at the Cretan Matter-Waves Ben his D.Phil. at Oxford University and before this M.Sci. at Hatfield College, University of Durham. Ben is one of the pioneers of Time-Averaged-Adiabatic Potentials with the first demonstration of the double TAAP and the TAAP ring. Ben is now a Lecturer in Translational Biophotonics at the University of Exeter, England, United Kingdom.
Before coming to Crete I graduated from Cork Insitutute of Technology (CIT) with a B.Sc. in “Applied Physics and Instrumentation” in 2004. As part of completeing the B.Sc. a five month project was undertaken. This project, entitled “Quality Surveillance Algorithms for Erbium Doped Fibre Amplifiers”, was carried out in the Information and Communication Network (ICN) Department at Siemens AG research facility in Munich. The project entailed research into how the aging of components with the EDFA can be monitored using algorithms. From a mathematical model, the key parameters needed to detect the degradation/aging of the EDFA were determined. In addition to theoretical work, optical experiments were carried out to determine a technique to measure the required parapeters. A procedure was developed to test the feasibility and accuracy of the EDFA model.
From my experience in Siemens AG, I developed an interest in optics and decided to pursue this interest. I started my PhD in September 2004 with the Quantum Optics Group under the supervision of Dr. Síle Nic Chormaic, in the area of “Control of cold rubidium atoms“.
I built the first cold atom experiment in South-Africa at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and then moved on to work at Extreme Light Infrastructure in Prague
Grigoris joined the Cretan Matter-Waves Group in November 2006 as a Master student. He graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. October 2005 he came to the Physics Departement of the University of Crete to do a Master in General Physics with a specialization in Condensed Matter Physics.
Gregory succesfully defended his thesis (link to pdf) on the 25. January 2012.
10/2006-05/2010 PostDoc on BEC1
03/2014-06/2014 PostDoc on BEC1
Daniel did his undergraduate studies in the National University of Mexico (UNAM). After that he carried out a PhD studying the fundamental limitations of atom chips at the Centre for Cold Matter at Imperial College London lead by Ed Hinds in Imperial College, London. In 2006 he joined the Cretan Matter Waves as a postdoc for four years during the lab setup and first BEC experiments. He made a second postdoctoral stay at group of Bjorn Hessmo , part of the Centre for Quantum Technologies, at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In Singapore he worked on fiber optic integration onto atom chips and prepared experiments to study the interaction of micro-nano fibers with cold atoms. During his stay in Singapore Daniel continued to collaborate with the Cretan Matter Waves in experiments related to atom interferometry and lasers.
From June 2014 he has researcher position (tenure track) at UNAM, Mexico City. There he is a founding member of the Laboratory for Quantum Matter of the Physics Institute and has started his own research group
From June 2014 he has researcher position (tenure track) at UNAM, Mexico City. There he is a founding member of the Laboratory for Quantum Matter of the Physics Institute and has started his own research group.
He made a second postdoctoral stay at group of Bjorn Hessmo , part of the Centre for Quantum Technologies, at the National University of Singapore (NUS). In Singapore he worked on fiber optic integration onto atom chips and prepared experiments to study the interaction of micro-nano fibers with cold atoms. During his stay in Singapore Daniel continued to collaborate with the Cretan Matter Waves in experiments related to atom interferometry and lasers.
08/2006 – 09/2007 Master Student
Nick joined the Cretan Matter-Waves Group in August 2006 as a Master student. He then did his mandatory service in the Greek army. Nick is now doing a PhD at the University of Patras in Department of Materials Science and also at the Institute of Materials in E.K.E.F.E at the Demokritos Institute in Athens. He is currently working on the theory of nanowires and nanoparticles structures.
03/2006 to 05/2014 PhD student on parity violation
05/2004 to 05/2006 Master student on parity violation
Lykourgos received his PhD from the Physics Department of the University of Crete. His thesis was supervised by Peter Rakitzis and Wolf von Klitzing.
His first postdoc at Berkeley was on a parity violation. He is now doing a second postdoc with Dmitry Budker’s Group in Mainz.
His motto is
Improving your self, is the only thing you can do to improve the world.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
10/2005 to 11/2007 Postdoc on BEC 1
Angelos was one of the first postdocs with the Cretan Matter Waves group and was instrumental in setting up the laboratory.
Before joining us at the Cretan Matter-Waves Angelos did a Ph.D. at Temple University, Philadelphia. He workt on EIT in molecules in the Molecular Quantum Optics group of Prof. Lyyra. He now works on research on education of physics in Athens, where he has been super successful in attracting EU funding for his projects.