Early Stage Researchers

Akhil Kuriakose (IFN)

Akhil Kuriakose was born in Kerala (India) in 1994. He received his Integrated Master’s degree in Photonics in 2019 from Cochin University of Science And Technology. His undergraduate thesis was carried out at International School of Photonics, CUSAT and was focused on synthesis of platinum nanoparticles using laser ablation for photocatalytic applications. His master thesis investigated the rate of nuclear fusion in graphite for Inertial Electrostatic Confinement systems and was conducted at Fusion-Plasma Group, University of Sydney. He also spent significant amount of time as an intern at Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research in India working on Ab-Initio studies on the ground state properties of nuclear materials.  

Akhil is currently a doctoral student at the University of Insubria as a part of LasIonDef project and is working at CNR-IFN on femtosecond laser micromachining of diamond using Bessel beams for wave guiding and microfluidic applications under the supervision of Dr. Ottavia Jedrkiewicz.

Giulio Coccia (IFN)

Giulio Coccia was born in Arpino (Italy) in 1994. He studied Physics Engineering - Photonics and Nanooptics - at Politecnico di Milano, where he obtained his M.Sc degree in 2019. Previously, he also concluded his B.Sc. degree in Physics Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. He joined the group of Prof. A. Baltuška at the Technical University of Vienna for his master thesis, where he worked on post-compression techniques for ultrafast lasers. From 2019 to 2021 he worked as an assistant researcher in the same group in Vienna, focusing on the development of high-peak power laser sources for ultrafast spectroscopy. At the moment, he is a PhD student at Politecnico di Milano and working at CNR-IFN on femtosecond laser fabrication of quantum emitters and photonics circuits in diamond under the supervision of Prof. Roberta Ramponi and Dr. Shane Eaton.

Elena Nieto Hernández (UNITO)

Elena Nieto Hernández was born in Salamanca, Spain in 1998. She studied Energies and Fuels for the Future at University Autonoma of Madrid (Spain), where she obtained her Master degree in 2021. Previously, in 2020, she also concluded her B.Sc. in Physics at Salamanca University (Spain).

As an early-stage researcher at Torino University within the LasIonDef project, Elena will work on the development of ion beam implantation strategies for the engineering of exotic colour centres in diamond and quantum emitters in GaN under the supervision of Dr. J. Forneris.

Adam Britel (UNITO)

Adam Britel was born in Rabat, Morocco in 1996. He graduated with a double master's degree in Optics and Photonics at Aix-Marseille University (France) and Karlsruhe School of Optics and Photonics (Germany). In 2018, Adam received his my B.Sc. in Physics at Aix-Marseille University (France).

As an Early-stage researcher at Torino University within the LasIonDef project, Adam will work on the development of ion-beam-based strategies for the creation of innovative devices in artificial diamond, with applications in bio-sensing and microfluidics under the supervision of Dr. Federico Picollo.

Sahnawaz Alam (WUST)

Sahnawaz Alam was born in Kolkata, India, in 1996. He completed his B.Sc. in physics from Ramakrishna Mission Vidyamandira, Belur Math (University of Calcutta, India), in 2018. Then he graduated with an M.Sc. degree in physics from the Institute of Technology (IIT) Gandhinagar (India) in August 2020. In his thesis, Sahnawaz focused on studying the light-matter interaction. During his master's, he also did an internship at the University of Saskatchewan (Canada), where he modelled the action of an enzyme called Topoisomerase on DNA. After that, he continued working at the IIT as a Junior Research Fellow and built a quantum engine fuelled by quantum measurements.

In September 2021, Sahnawaz joined the LasIonDef project and started working as a PhD student under the supervision of Dr. Paweł Machnikowski at the Wrocław University of Science and Technology (Poland). He will theoretically model the effect of stress and magnetic fields on the laser-written, ion-implanted quantum emitters in diamond and photonics devices.

Sajedeh Shahbazi (UULM)

Sajedeh Shahbazi was born in Tehran, Iran in 1992. She got her Bachelor degree in solid state Physics from Shahid Beheshti University of Tehran in 2015. In 2016 she moved to Germany to pursue her Master degree in condensed matter physics at Heidelberg University. Her thesis was on electron spin resonance spectroscopy of single molecular magnets (SMM)s.

Upon finishing her master she moved to Canada in 2019 and spent a year at Ottawa University in the structural quantum optics group where she worked on structured light and p-mode correlation in the photons. Sajedeh will be a PhD student at Ulm University, at Hybrid Quantum System group under the supervision of Dr. Alexander Kubanek working on NV-magnetometry in waveguides and 2D quantum emitters.

Selene Sachero (UULM)

Selene Sachero was born in Turin, Italy in 1997. She studied advanced technologies at the University of Turin, where she obtained her Master degree in physics in 2021. Her thesis was focused on the characterisation of the optical properties and of the charge state of the tin vacancy colour centre in diamond. It was carried out at the University of Turin and at Ulm University. As a PhD student at Ulm University, at the Hybrid Quantum System group under the supervision of Professor Alexander Kubanek, she will work on group four colour centres.

Bilge Yagci (CU)

H. Bilge Yağci was born in Balikesir (Turkey) in 1993. He received his B.Sc. in Electronical Engineering from Bogazici University in 2018, followed by an M.Sc. degree in the same field from Bilkent University in 2021. In his M.Sc. thesis, he focused on utilization of near-field-coupling between dielectric nanopillars to design transmissive meta-lenses free of chromatic aberrations.  

Bilge joined the QLab team in Cardiff University in the summer of 2021 as an early-stage researcher under the supervision of Prof. Anthony Bennett and Dr JP Hadden. He will work on fabrication of nanophotonic structures that will enhance the emission characteristics of the photon sources in wide-bandgap semiconductors.

Yanzhao Guo (CU)

Yanzhao Guo was born in China in 1992. He got his bachelor’s degree in material engineering from North China University of Science and Technology in 2015. In 2016, he went to the University of Science and Technology, Beijing to pursue his master’s degree in material engineering. His thesis was the ‘Study on Fabrication and Performance of Radiation Detector Basic on CVD Diamond’. After graduation, he worked as a research assistant at the institute of physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the University of Southern Denmark in the last two years where his main work was the preparation of color centers in diamond and quantum coherent control of color centers in diamond.

Now Yanzhao Guo has enrolled as PhD at the engineering school of Cardiff University, at Compound Semiconductor Quantum Photonics group where he will work on creating and controlling quantum emitters in III-Nitride semiconductors using lasers, epitaxy, and ion implantation under supervision by Prof. Professor Anthony John Bennett and Dr. John Hadden.

Osvaldo Gasperin (LITH)

Recently graduated with an M.Sc. in Optics and Photonics, with a holistic background in physics. With experience in research and design in optics, laser technology, electronics, and instrumentation and a strong link with theory. Self-motivated and always interested in deepening knowledge

Juan Sandubete (ELVESYS)

Juan Sandubete Lopez was born in San Fernando, Spain in 1996. He received his M.Eng. degree on Systems and Control Engineering in 2021 from University Complutense of Madrid. Previously, he obtained his B.Eng. degree in Electronics, Robotics and Mechatronics in 2018 from University of Seville (Spain). He created and patented cost-effective underwater modular probe for oceanography measurements based on commercial electronics combined with physic models and data fusion algorithms as a M.Eng. thesis. Additionally, Juan has been working at the software engineering industry since 2017, participating in two previous H2020 projects working on the estimation of internal states of hydrogen fuel cells.

As a PhD student at Elvesys, he will work on developing appropriate software (and hardware) to realize a novel microfluidic flow sensor for low flow rate and wide range sensing applications.

Bibek Raut (ELVESYS) resigned

Bibek Raut was was born in Siraha, Nepal in 1995. He completed his Master's by research degree in Mechanical Engineering from Tohoku University, Japan, in 2020. During his Master's degree, he worked on multiple projects on engineering biomedical device prototypes, organ-on-a-chip devices, and 3D printing, resulting in half a dozen co-authored peer-reviewed papers. Upon graduation, he decided to work in a management job at UD Trucks, Japan. His primary work was to lead the cross-functional team of engineers, sales, buyers, and other stakeholders to solve the quality issue in production and aftermarket.

Bibek has experience in both academia and industry. As a PhD candidate at Elvesys, he will work on developing appropriate hardware (and software) to realize a novel microfluidic flow sensor for low flow rate & wide range sensing applications.

Katerina Tzanetou (EYEST)

Katerina was born and raised in a small Greek city Nafplio and obtained her university education in the country's capital. She initially studied chemistry and received her first B.Sc. in Chemistry at the University of Athens (Greece) in 2012. During her chemistry studies, she attended quantum mechanics courses for the first time, developing a deep interest in modern physics ideas.
After graduation, she worked as a science teacher, and her passion for Physics led her to enrol this time in an applied physics program. Finally, in 2020 she obtained her integrated B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Applied Physics from the National Technical University of Athens (Greece).
During her physics studies, she gained her first experience in cutting-edge research by working on collaborative accelerator physics projects carried out at the National Technical University of Athens (Greece) and CERN (Switzerland). Furthermore, she volunteered in multiple outreach activities by developing and presenting educational material.
In August 2022, Katerina joined EYEST (Belgium) as an Early Stage Researcher within the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network LasIonDef project. During her one-year research, she will focus on developing a Quantum Outreach Kit under the supervision of MSc. Astghik Chalyan, Ing. Tine De Pauw and Ir. Nathalie Debaes.