NCCR SPIN Newsletter - December 2023
NCCR SPIN wishes you a wonderful holiday time and is looking forward to a new year full of research, innovation and lively events!
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Tinguely Entangled
On the evening of 25th March 2023, the Physics + Music performance “Tinguely Entangled” took place at the Tinguely Museum in Basel.
The performance was welcomed with sold-out seats and applauded by a standing ovation. Lukas Loss, pianist and director of the Basel Infinity Festival, opened the evening, followed by Beat Jans, president of the canton Basel-Stadt and recently elected Swiss Federal Councillor.
The concert was articulated around a script written by Lukas Loss and NCCR SPIN scientist Henry Legg together with Arianna Nigro, Rafael Eggli, Valerii Kozin, and Jung-Ching Liu. The focus was on central concepts of quantum physics explained to unveil the basis of quantum computing to a broader audience. The five physicists were reciting the story on stage and through videos, while live music and visual arts illustrated the content. Linda Leimane had not only created the composition of the music but also orchestrated the position and movements of the musicians on stage, to better capture the essence of quantum physics. A video projection by visual artist Luca Scarzella accompanied what the physicists were telling in a mix of informative and immersive character. The whole performance managed to create a unique experience mixing sound and visual arts, as well as live and electronic music.
The one-hour performance was followed by an apero where about twenty scientists of NCCR SPIN interacted with interested members of the audience.
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Comics and Science
NCCR SPIN and the Lausanne comic festival BDFIL partnered to organize two events at the crossroads of comics and science!
The first one was a public discussion between Laurent Schafer, author of comic books Quantix and Infinix (ed. Dunod) and NCCR SPIN scientists Prof. Anna Fontcuberta I Morral (EPFL) and Pierre Chevalier Kwon (University of Basel). The event took place on the 7. May 2023 during the BDFIL festival.
The second one was an illustrated discussion on clichés in scientific research. The event took place in the Palais de Rumine in Lausanne on the 23rd September 2023, during Museum Night. Oriane Masseray, Lionel Codak, Carine and Azriel Malacalico from the association Splotch! were asked a few questions on scientific research. In about 5 to 8 minutes, our four artists answered those questions with a live illustration while scientists Anna Fontcuberta i Morral (EPFL) and Pierre Fromholz (University of Basel) were discussing the same questions in front and with the public.
Both events were moderated by Marie Le Dantec, NCCR SPIN Communication and Outreach officer.
NCCR SPIN would like to warmly thank all the participants, as well as all the team at the BDFIL Festival, especially directors Gaëlle Kovaliv and Barbara Markowiak, for making these events possible!
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NCCR SPIN first PhD Retreat
The Young Researchers Forum - Qubits Ideas (QUID), the community of Young Researchers at the NCCR SPIN, organised its first PhD Students Retreat, from 24th April to 26th April 2023 in Engelberg.
The event was centered around students’ talks and poster sessions organized by the QUID scientific committee. As part of the program, the young researchers attended a scientific communication workshop led by Dr. Daniel Angerhauser from the scientific communication team The Explainables. The workshop was focused on storytelling and scientific message distilling.
On Tuesday afternoon, the QUID committee also organized a tour of Engelberg followed by a dinner in the Italian restaurant “El Monastero”. At the conclusion of the three-day PhD Retreat, the QUID community held an assembly led by the Young Researchers Area Head Maria Longobardi during which they discussed community needs, and explored their expectations for future activities within the NCCR SPIN network.
Thank you to all the participants and the QUID organizing committees for their active engagement, making the PhD Retreat a very lively and exciting event!
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NCCR SPIN Quantum Industry Chat
The NCCR SPIN invited interested companies to its first Quantum Industry Chat. The event took place at IBM Research - Zurich in Rüschlikon on the 7th of June 2023 in the afternoon.
The event was initiated to gather companies interested in quantum computing and its related quantum ecosystem, be it to get informed of new advances in the field, how to integrate quantum technology into a line of products, to learn about the supply chain of the quantum industry or to assess the market potential of quantum technology developed in the research groups of NCCR SPIN.
A series of presentations was given on those different topics by the researchers of NCCR Spin, followed by an apero to promote further discussions between industry and academia in a friendly atmosphere. Posters were created for the occasion to enable deeper conversation around the topics presented in the talks.
With the first Quantum Industry Chat, we planted a seed to grow interest local companies in ongoing developments on quantum computing. Lively presentations and discussions strengthened the ties between industry and research.
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The first NCCR SPIN Women's retreat
The first NCCR SPIN women’s retreat took place in Thun.
The morning started with a talk by Prof. Jamie Gloor from the University of St. Gallen on “Careering while Female: Naming, reframing and taming the (un)conscious bias dragons”. Lunch took place in the castle of Thun as well. In the afternoon, our NCCR SPIN women got to visit the caves of St. Beatus! NCCR SPIN would like to thank all the women who participated to the retreat, and especially Alicia Ruiz who helped organizing it, and Prof. Jamie Gloor for giving a great talk! We are looking forward to the next retreat!
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3rd Annual Meeting in Pontresina
The 3rd NCCR SPIN Annual Meeting took place from June 19-21st, 2023 in Pontresina. The Rondo congress center was animated for three days by more than 25 talks and 35 posters, innovation sessions and networking events. The participants came from all of our member and associate member institutions, and gave everyone a chance to exchange about their scientific research conducted in the past year.
The meeting opened at the beginning of the Monday afternoon, after a short standing lunch. Dominik Zumbühl, director of NCCR SPIN, welcomed all the participants, and immediately left the stage for talks about hole spin qubits in Silicon and Germanium. The poster session opened with the Poster flash intro competition. Lisa Sommer and Felix Schupp convinced the public with their creative performances and swept the Poster flash Intro Awards! After dinner, special guest David Gunarsson, CTO of Bluefors, gave a talk followed by a fireside chat moderated by PhD students Lisa Sommer and Deepankar Sarmah. During this session, the young researchers could openly discuss with David Gunnarsson about running a company.
The second day was marked by talk sessions on hole spin planar Ge and theory. The sessions were closed with a talk by special guest Alexandra Beckstein from QAI Ventures. In the afternoon, two hiking groups took over the mountains. The first group walked to the lake Staz and the lake St. Moritz, where they could enjoy the water sides and the mountain views. The second group hiked up to the hut at Chavanna de Boval, and made the most of a stunning view over the Morteratsch glacier. In the evening, the participants were invited to discuss their posters around a drink.
The last day of our Annual Meeting was marked by two sessions on spins and electron and architecture. Before departing, Dominik Zumbühl and Maria Longobardi presented excellent paper awards to Simon Geyer and Bence Hetényi. During the three days of meeting, the public had the chance to vote for their favourite image in two different categories: “Scientific: object of study” and “people and places of science”. Andreas Kuhlmann won the public prize in the scientific category with his picture entitled “Cryo-probing of quantum devices”. Pierre Chevalier Kwon won the jury prize in the same category with “The failure beauty”. Miguel Carballido swept both the public and the jury prizes in the category “people and places of science” with his photograph entitled “Enigmatic source of white noise”.
We thank all the speakers and participants for making this Annual Meeting so exciting and interesting! We are looking forward to welcome you again next year in Pontresina for even more scientific breakthroughs and lively exchanges!
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Berlin Science Week
The Berlin Science Week is an international science outreach fair taking place in Berlin every year. Scientists from all over the world introduce their research topics and their social impact during the 10-day fair to thousands of visitors. This year, the fair took place from 1st to 10th November 2023, with two central locations: the Campus and the Forum. NCCR SPIN participated to both program with a quantum computing booth "Quantum Computing Unplugged" for the Campus at the Museum für Naturkunde, and an art and science installation "Hidden Variables" for the Forum at the Holzmarkt25.
The teams for both the Campus and the Forum were formed in August 2023 and the preparation of the event took three months of work. Six young researchers joined the team together with our Outreach officer Marie Le Dantec. Miguel Carballido, Pierre Chevalier Kwon, Pierre Fromholz, Simon Geyer, Akash Gupta and Jung-Ching Liu worked on all aspects of the project, from concept to realization. All of them took part in the Forum, while Miguel and the two Pierres also dedicated their time to the Campus.
The Campus received 9'500 visitors over the two days 3-4th November, and the Forum got 11'500 visitors. The team interacted with many people wanting to learn about quantum computing and asking many questions. The two projects allowed us to do outreach with two different approaches. Thank you to the team and the public!
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A new Wissensbox on Physics
Together with Dr. Debora Haller, NCCR SPIN postdoc Dr. Taras Patlatiuk from Prof. Zumbühl's group has completed the development of the new "Wissensbox" ("Knowledge Box" in German), part of the Outreach program of the University of Basel. This Knowledge Box is entitled "Physics - wave, particle or both?”.
With the "Wissensbox", the pupils of elementary schools in Basel-Stadt and Basel-Landschaft can discover exciting science topics in a playful and practical way during two school lessons, accompanied by young scientists from the University of Basel. The core objective of the program is to immerse the students in the world of science and to enable them to participate in it.
With the knowledge box "Physics - wave, particle or both?” they will be able to develop scientific curiosity and set of mind. The box offers insight to the students on what is the size of an atom. The students will also learn about the properties of particles and waves, and the so-called wave-particle duality in an interactive way.
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Outreach Canvas Grant
The NCCR SPIN Canvas Grant aims at encouraging young researchers to participate in public engagement events, both within the NCCR SPIN and externally. It is designed for doctoral students and postdocs who are members of NCCR SPIN and wish to participate in public engagement, outreach and science communication programs.
The award provides an incentive of up to 2’000 CHF depending on the program and the involvement of the candidate. The travel costs (economy) for participating in the program are reimbursed. The awards are subject to budget availability.
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SPINnovate
The SPINnovate Innovation Seed Grant is an exclusive initiative tailored to accelerate pioneering ideas stemming from research within the NCCR SPIN or associated domains, driving their transformation into practical technology for quantum computing.
NCCR SPIN is looking to support technology advancements and to facilitate the transition from research breakthrough to commercial success. The first call for proposals closed on the 30. November 2023 and is providing up to CHF 75,000 non-dilutive funding per project. The grants are designed to support initiatives at NCCR SPIN institutions related to your spin-off, including activities like hiring personnel or developing prototypes. This is a special initiative during the 4th year of the NCCR and the project must be completed, and the funds spent by July 31, 2024.
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Five women Master's students awarded INSPIRE Potentials fellowships
Twice a year, the INSPIRE Potentials Fellowship financially supports women Master's students who would like to pursue their Master's thesis in one of the NCCR SPIN research teams. This year, the jury decided to award five women with outstanding backgrounds: Elena Acinapura, Clara Galante, Lea Haas, Natalie Lehmann, and Myriam Rihani. Congratulations and welcome to all of them! We wish them a productive and wonderful time at NCCR SPIN!
The next deadline for applications to INSPIRE Potentials fellowships is January 7th, 2024. Consult our webpage for more information on the conditions and application procedure.
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Natalie Lehmann
Natalie Lehmann pursues both her Bachelor and her Master’s degrees in the Physics department of ETH Zürich. She started her Master's thesis in April 2023 in the Nanophysics group of the ETHZ under the supervision of Prof. Klaus Ensslin. She works on entropy measurement on bilayer graphene quantum dots.
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Myriam Rihani
Myriam Rihani graduated with a Bachelor degree in Micro-engineering at EPFL in 2021. She is now pursuing a Master in Micro-engineering (minor in Photonics) at EPFL as well. Her Master’s thesis will deal with control electronics focused on QEC for spin qubits at IBM/PSI supervised by Prof. Kirsten Moselund and Dr. Cezar Zota.
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Elena Acinapura
After a Bachelor degree in Physics at the University of Trento, Italy, Elena Acinapura enrols in Master studies in Quantum Engineering at the ETH Zurich. Her Master’s project focuses on fabrication of quantum dots in planar Germanium in the Hybrid Quantum Circuits Laboratory led by Prof. Scarlino at EPFL.
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Clara Galante
Clara Galante obtained her Bachelor's degree in Physics at the Universidad Autonomy de Madrid, before enrolling for her Master's studies in Physics at ETH Zurich. She will do her Master's thesis in the Nanophysics group of ETH Zurich under the supervision of Prof. Thomas Ihn starting in September 2023
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Lea Haas
Lea Haas earned her Bachelor of Science in Physics at the Leopold-Franzens-Universität, Innsbruck, Austria in 2021. She is now pursuing her Master's degree in Physics at ETH Zurich. She will complete her Master's thesis in the Institute for Theoretical Physics at ETH Zurich embedded in the group of Prof. Zilberberg (University of Konstanz), and supervised by Prof. Sigrist. She started her project on quantification of quantum entanglement in quantum protocols that are subject to dissipation in September 2023.
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New PIs, associate members and member of the Scientific Advisory Board
In the past few months, new faces joined NCCR SPIN in diverse manners. Matthias Mergenthaler became NCCR SPIN co-PI at IBM Research Zurich. Agnes Meyder (Roche), Clément Javerzac-Galy (FHNW), Zoë Holmes (EPFL) and Giuseppe Carleo (EPFL) joined NCCR SPIN as PI associate members, and Silvano De Franceschi joined our Scientific Advisory Board.
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Matthias Mergenthaler
Dr. Matthias Mergenthaler is a Research Staff Member in the Semiconductor Quantum Technologies Group at IBM Research - Zurich. Prior to joining IBM in 2018, Matthias was at the Department of Materials & Department of Physics, University of Oxford, UK, where he performed research for his PhD thesis entitled 'Hybrid Circuit QED with Spin Ensembles and Carbon Nanotube-Based Superconducting Qubits'.
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Clément Javerzac-Galy
Clément Javerzac-Galy obtains his PhD in physics from EPFL in 2018. In 2015, he co-founded Miraex, a company which builds photonic and quantum hardware for next-generation sensing, networking and computing. Since 2022, he is a professor of applied quantum computing at the University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW).
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Agnes Meyder
Agnes Meyder obtained her PhD diploma at the University of Hamburg in 2020. Working at Roche since 2020, her work focuses now on enabling new scientific software to be used (small molecules, the cloud and the qubit). She also lead the over 600 people strong gender diverse group "Haecksen" in Europe's largest hacker association, the CCC.
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Zoë Holmes
Zoë Holmes received in 2015 her MPhil degree in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford. In 2019, she got her PhD in quantum thermodynamics from the Imperial College London. In 2020 she started as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Los Alamos National Laboratory (USA). In 2021 she became the Mark Kac Fellow at Los Alamos National Lab. Since August 2022 she is Tenure Track Assistant Professor of Physics at EPFL.
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Silvano de Franceschi
Silvano De Franceschi is a leading researcher in experimental condensed-matter physics. At the end of 2006, he joined the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives (CEA) in Grenoble. In the emerging field of quantum nanoelectronics, his research activities and interests largely focus on silicon-based spin-qubit devices.
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Dominik Zumbühl elected American Physical Society Fellow for 2023
The APS Fellowship Program recognizes outstanding individuals in the physics community who have contributed to advances in physics through original research, innovative applications, teaching, and leadership. Prof. Dr. Dominik Zumbühl was awarded this special recognition “For quantum transport experiments in semiconductor nanostructures at low temperatures studying coherence, spins, and spin-orbit coupling including developing and deploying laboratory instruments.“ Congratulations!
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15.-17.01.2024
NCCR SPIN QUBITS Winter School on Quantum Computation for Young Researchers
The NCCR SPIN QUBITS Winter School on Quantum Computation will open its doors to young researchers of the NCCR SPIN Network on January 15-17 2024 in the charming winter town of Kandersteg, Switzerland.
Tailored specifically for PhD students and Postdocs with a keen interest in quantum computation, the Winter School is designed to provide a dynamic platform for interactive training, meaningful networking, and an extraordinary line-up of lectures from field experts. This event serves as a catalyst for fostering collaboration and the exchange of knowledge among participants.
For more info on the event, please refer to the dedicated page.
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31.01-02.02.2024
Swiss Quantum Days
The second edition of the Swiss Quantum Days will again take place in Villars-sur-Ollon, in the canton of Vaud, from January 31 - February 2, 2024.
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03.-08.03.2024
APS March Meeting 2024
March 5-8, 2024, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
More info: https://march.aps.org/
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18.-20.03.2024
Global Quantum Symposium 2024
The Symposium, bringing together leaders from industry and academia, will run over three full days, Monday to Wednesday, March 18-20, 2024. With a lively and intense program of three days across the entire field of quantum computing, participants will fully immerse in the academia, industry and government perspective of Quantum.
More info: https://quantumbasel.com/calendar/quantum-symposium-2024
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