Who are you?

I’m Yiqi, I studied physics in my bachelors and masters at ETH and conducted my master’s thesis at the university of Basel. In my free time,
I enjoy dancing.

How have you heard about the INSPIRE Potentials Fellowship? In what way did the fellowship help you in your research?

I heard about it through my friend who got a similar fellowship from the ETH Quantum Center. It helped me financially to focus on my thesis instead of worrying about how to pay my bills during the project. I also met cool people at a winter school and attended interesting talks in the quantum field thanks to the Fellowship.

What is the topic of your master’s project? Who did you work with?

The subject of my Master’s thesis was “Hall effect gyrators”. Gyrators are electronic elements that should help reducing temperature fluctuations in quantum computers since these operate like fridges but at way lower temperatures. I worked with Aldo Tarascio, Rafael Eggli and Taras Patlatiuk from Prof. Dominik Zumbühl’s Group. They all helped me a lot with understanding the theory and the complicated setup. Aldo was my savior for all fabrication steps.

What attracted you to take a (quantum) physics career?

I had a great physics teacher in high school who was very motivating. I also did my matura thesis already in Prof. Dominik Zumbühl’s group which was really inspiring and partly led to the decision.

What was the biggest challenge in your master thesis? What did you enjoy the most?

Understanding the data was difficult, we knew we saw some signal, but we didn’t know what they meant and it was hard to get a good signal to noise ratio. That’s why it took a long time to do a lot of measurements to make sure the result was reproducible and that the behavior I was looking for was kind aligned with the theory.

Working with Aldo was really nice, he taught me a lot, not only about physics but also plenty of other fun facts. The group was also super nice in general. I really felt like part of the team and always had an enjoyable time with everybody.

What did you learn through this experience?

I learned that being persistent pays off, not only during my thesis but throughout the whole journey of studying physics. Also finding supportive people who motivate you during the tougher times definitely helps a lot!

What are your plans for the future?

I’m a Tech recruiter now and will transition to management consulting at BCG (Boston Consulting Group).