Category Archives: Alumni

Marcel Morillas

11/2023 Visiting Student on BEC1

I am Marcel Morillas, I completed my undergraduate studies at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Then, I pursued an MSc. in Photonics at Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, where I did my Master’s Thesis on simulating one and two-mode squeezed light in topological photonic lattices as a member of the Quantum and Atom Optics Group (QAOS) at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.

Beyond my scientific pursuits, I enjoy watching and playing sports, especially American football and playing the bass guitar.

Mary Georgousi

12/2022 – today PhD Student on Space Optics
09/2021 – 10/2022 MSci Student on Space Optics

Mary joined us in September 2021 to work on a novel spectroscopy model for quantum space missions.

Mary Georgousi is a PhD student in the Space–Optics Group in IESL. She completed her undergraduate studies in Physics at the Physics Department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. As member of the  Gravitational Waves Group – AUTh, she has worked on  probing the properties of our Galaxy based on the detection of gravitational waves from LISA. She then obtained her MSc diploma on Advanced Physics, focusing on astrophysics and space applications, in the Physics Department of University of Crete. She is also a member of SpaceDot  team, participating in Fly your satellite! 3 program for CubeSats.

Email: georgousi@iesl.forth.gr

Linkedin:  www.linkedin.com/in/mary-georgousi

Vidhu Catherine Antony

05/2021 – today PhD Student (on leave)

Vidhu did her Bachelor of Science (Physics, Mathematics, Computer Science – Triple Major) at Bangalore University (Wiki), from which she graduated second of her class (Gold Medalist).  

During the final year of her Bachelor’s Program, she was selected for the prestigious Indian Academy of Science (IASc) – Summer Research Fellowship Program (SRFP) – 2017 at the Quantum Materials and Devices Group (formerly known as the Low-Temperature Nano-Electronics Group), Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, under Prof Arindam Ghosh.

After working as a Project Trainee in the same group, she continued with her Master of Science (Physics) at Bangalore University and graduated top of her class (Gold Medalist). Her master’s project was on Quantum Computation, Estimating Pi using Quantum Phase Estimation Algorithm, which she runs on the public access quantum computer of IBM (Qiskit).

Following her masters, she joined as a Project Assistant / Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at the Quantum Optics and Quantum Information Processing Group, Department of Instrumentation and Applied Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

At the moment she is awaiting her visa which has been delayed due to COVID restrictions.

Vasiliki Bolpasi

05/2014 –  10/2020 Research Assistant on BEC2 and AtomQT
02/2009 – 04/2014 PhD Student
09/2006 – 06/2008 Master Student

Vasiliki joined the Cretan Matter-Waves Group in October 2005 as an undergraduate student. She graduated from the Physics Department of the University of Crete in October 2006. Right after that, she started her Master in Optoelectronics – Microelectronics in the University of Crete, where she completed her master thesis working on high-power tapered-diode lasers. She has recently finished her PhD on high flux atom lasers and now she works in our lab as a postdoc. She is now teaching at the University of Crete.

T S Hrudya

02/2020 – 06/2020 MSci Student on BEC1

Hrudya joined us in February 2020 to work on the BEC1 experiment. Unfortunately, soon after her arrival, we were locked down due to the Covid crisis. Hrudya successfully switched to Theory and wrote a very successful Master Thesis on Analytic Solutions and Experimental Applications for Thick and Thin Magnetic Coils. She then graduated from the International School of Photonics Cochin University of Science and Technology Cochin, India, 2020.

Picture of Vangelis Tzardis

Vangelis Tzardis

01/2021 – to date PhD Student at the Frederick University in Cyprus

08/2018- 09/2019 Master Student on OBST2
09/2019- 10/2020 Research Assistant on OBST2

Education and Employment:

2020 – today PhD student in the eHealth laboratory of the Frederick University in Limassol, Cyprus. He will be working on intelligent MRI image analysis in order to identify and predict types of metastatic brain tumors

2019- 2020 Research assistant on OBST2

2018 – 2019 Master Student at the University of Crete and IESL-FORTH in the BEC group on OBST2

2017 – 2019 : Interdepartmental Postgraduate Program in Optics and Vision in University of Crete and Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, FORTH

2011 – 2017 : Diploma in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical University of Crete, Chania, Greece

Saurabh Pandey

07/2019 – 11/2019 Postdoc on BEC1
10/2013 – 07/2019 PhD Student on BEC1
06/2013 – 09/2013 Intern

Saurabh was PhD student and postdoc  on BEC 1 on guided matterwaves, where he was the first author on our Nature Paper demonstrating ring-shaped matterwave guides.

Saurabh is now a senior postdoc at the Sandia National Lab (in Albuquerque), where he is working on on atomic clocks and Rydberg quantum computing.

Before this, Saurabh worked  at Los Alamos National Laboratory in the group of Malcolm Boshier, where he was working on the demonstration of a novel atomtronic rotation sensor based on optical dipole potentials.

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Hector Mas of the Bec - Cretan Matter Waves Group

Hector Mas

06/2014 – 07/2019 PhD Student on BEC1
10/2013 – 06/2014 Internship on BEC 1

After a postdoc at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, he is now in the Weld Group at the UC Santa Barbara, California.

06/2014 to 07/2019 PhD Student on BEC 1 

10/2013 to 06/2014 Intern on BEC 1 
09/2012 to 09/2013 MsC in photonics at the Optics Laboratory of the University of Vigo 
Hector did his MSc at the Optics Laboratory of the University of Vigo at Ourense Campus, where he worked on the optimization of the photonic gauge for XHV under the supervision of Ángel Paredes.
10/2008 to 10/2012 Undergraduate at the University of Valencia
Hèctor graduated from the University of Valencia in 2012 and he went right after to Galicia to start a MsC in photonics at the Optics Laboratory of the University of Vigo at Ourense Campus. His last incursion in physics was a collaboration in the theoretical development of the Photonic Gauge of XHV.
 09/2008 to 09/2012 Undergraduate at the University of Valencia 
 Hèctor did his undergraduate studies at the Physics Faculty of the Universitat de València. There he also had a short internship at Energesis Group.