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SPIN Newsletter July 2021

Dear all

We are excited to present to you a number of new faces that have joined the the NCCR SPIN.
For the very first time we congratulate our INSPIRE Potentials Master's fellows: Asma Chabane, Lisa Sommer and Rhea Hoyer will conduct their ambitious master projects in the labs of NCCR SPIN.
Check our info page on the upcoming Annual Meeting in Pontresina and make sure the date of the on site review by the SNSF is marked in your calender: November 11 & 12, 2021.

Now we wish you a great summer and look forward to seeing most of you in Pontresina.

Is something missing in the Newsletter? Let me know !

Highlights

NCCR SPIN Annual Meeting

Pontresina, August 30 – September 1, 2021

The first Annual Meeting of our NCCR SPIN is approaching! We are very much looking forward to the event and to meet and see you all in person (fingers crossed!). The Meeting will take place in Pontresina, a stunning place in the Engadin mountains.

The launch of NCCR SPIN happened in a quite special and not so easy year: while some projects have already made good progress, others are off to a slow start; further, new labs are being set up and new groups and efforts are being started. The goal of the event is not only to report on project progress and plans but also to bring together students, postdocs and scientists, not only those directly involved in SPIN but also those interested who may be working on related topics. We would like to provide an opportunity for people to meet and talk to each other, hear what others are working on, create interest in what we do, grow our community, intensify our collaborative network and come up with new ideas.

Info & Schedule

People

Meet our new Coordinator: Maria Longobardi

We welcome our new coordinator Maria Longobardi who has joined the NCCR SPIN team on May 1, 2021. Maria (Marilena) Longobardi earned her Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Salerno, Italy, in joint supervision with the University of California, Berkeley, in the group of Mike Crommie in 2010. In 2011, she moved to the University of Geneva, Switzerland, where she focused her studies on the electronic properties of 1D systems at the atomic scale and the atomics defects of 2D materials. In 2020, she rejoined the Department of Quantum Matters Physics at the University of Geneva as a Senior Researcher. Maria has always been involved in international relations and programs and is also a science journalist. Since 2012, Maria is serving the American Physical Society (APS) in different leadership roles.

Dr. Rolf Allenspach

from IBM Research Zurich was elected as an associate member of NCCR SPIN. He is leading the "Physics of Nanoscale Systems" group at IBM. Within NCCR SPIN he is working on the electron spin qubit project and micromagnets for spin manipulation. His further interests cover spintronics, nanomagnetism and atomic/molecular manipulation by scanning probe techniques.

Prof. Guido Burkard

from the University of Konstanz has joined the NCCR SPIN as an associate member. His research interests are in the theory of solid-state quantum information processing and in particular spin-qubits in semiconductor quantum dots. He has also done a lot of work in spin-photon coupling, often collaborating with leading experimentalists.

Prof. Edoardo Charbon

from the EPFL has joined the NCCR as an associate member. Within NCCR SPIN, Edoardo's expertise is in cryogenic qubit control and on-chip integration with the qubits. Further interests include
3-D vision, Computer Aided Design for VLSI, Virtual Human-Computer Interfaces, LiDAR, super-resolution microscopy and time-resolved Raman spectroscopy.

Dr. Andreas Kuhlmann

from the University of Basel was elected by the executive committee as a co-principal investigator (full member) of the NCCR SPIN, in recognition of his exceptional contributions to the finFET qubit project H4. Over the past few years, he has played a leading role on his project together with Richard Warburton and in close collaboration with the IBM Zurich Team of Andreas Fuhrer.

Prof. Ernst Meyer

from the University of Basel has joined the NCCR SPIN as a new PI (full member). Within NCCR SPIN, Ernst is planning to work on scanning probe microscopy for the characterization of spin-qubits. Further interests include friction at the nanometer scale, photovoltaics, graphene nanoribbons and Majorana zero modes.

Prof. Vincenzo Savona

from the EPFL has joined the NCCR SPIN as an associate member. His research interests cover the fields of quantum information science and quantum technology, quantum optics, and photonics, with the overarching goal of exploring the frontiers of modern quantum physics. He has been recently appointed as a Director of the new “Quantum Center” at the EPFL.

Prof. Andreas Schenk

from the ETH Zurich was elected as an associate member of NCCR SPIN. The focus of his current research is on the physics-based modeling of nanoelectronic devices such as quantum dots and spin qubits. His simulations can include many-body effects, contacts, heterojunctions, degradation and disorder, as well as full transport properties.

Changes in the Executive Committee

Adrian Ionescu (EPFL) was elected as a new member of the Executive Committee (EC), after the departure of Anna Fontcuberta I Morral (EPFL). We would like to thank Anna very much for her service on the committee, and extend our sincere welcome to Adrian as a new member of the EC.

New Head of Young Researchers

Ilaria Zardo has resigned from her role as a Head of the structure related Area Young Researchers. Maria Longobardi was elected unanimously as new Area Head for Young Researchers. She has a track record of experience in community building and activities in this area. She has for example founded and led the Forum on Early Career Scientists at the American Physical Society (APS), which has grown strongly in the past years. We thank Ilaria Zardo for her work in the first year of the NCCR SPIN and welcome Maria Longobardi to her new position.

Diversity & Inclusion

INSPIRE Potentials - SPIN Master’s Fellowship

We proudly present our first three INSPIRE Potentials Fellows: We congratulate Asmaa Chabane, Rhea Hoyer and Lisa Sommer. They will conduct their master's projects within the SPIN-Network.

By the Way: The next Deadline for Applications is December 1, 2021.

Asma Chabane
is an intern at IBM Research Zurich since February, where she works in Cryogenic Modeling. She is developing a model that is simple enough to be incorporated in circuit simulators and sufficiently accurate to make the outcome of the simulators useful to circuit designers. She believes that the integration of the control and read-out electronics closer to Qubits can have a major influence on the development of quantum computing.

Lisa Sommer
is a student at the Westfälische Universität Münster. Her primary research interest is quantum computers, in particular controlling single spins in silicon finFET devices. The title of her bachelor thesis was “Single Quantum Dots for nanophotonic integration: Simulation and experimental characterization” Lisa Sommer will start her master thesis project at IBM starting in October 2021.

Rhea Hoyer
is a student at the University of Basel. She has successfully completed her Master’s examination on the topic of spin qubits and will conduct theoretical research in spin physics. She has started in May 2021 and investigates new topics within the area of spin physics in her Master thesis. The subjects include multiple excitations in spin systems and particle non-conserving processes, that will require the use of more advanced techniques including topology, quantum geometry, and many-body perturbation theory.

QUSTEC SUMMER SCHOOL
Tuesday – Friday, 14.-17.9.2021 in Engelberg

The students of the QUSTEC COFUND PhD program, together with the QCQT PhD school and NCCR SPIN, are organizing a summer school on quantum science and technology in Engelberg. The program addresses a broad spectrum from quantum science and technology, spanning from quantum materials to quantum computation, quantum simulation and quantum technologies. It comprises two academic days with lectures and posters as well as an industry day including transferable skills courses.