Keynote Talk Speakers

Philippe Bouyer
University of Amsterdam and the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

“Quantum Sensor with Matter-Waves: From Lab to Field”

Biography ↓

Philippe Bouyer is a CNRS research director on secondment as a professor at the University of Amsterdam and the Eindhoven University of Technology, and a specialist in laser-cooled atoms. After completing his PhD at the Kastler-Brossel laboratory in Paris, he moved to Stanford University and then to the Institut d’Optique where, among other things, he carried out the first experiments on matter-wave quantum sensors and quantum simulators. Founder of the Photonique, Numérique et Nanosciences laboratory and of the Muquans start-up in Bordeaux, he is now interim chair in charge of science and technology for the national Quantum Delta NL initiative.

Maria Chekhova
Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

“Quantum, Nonlinear, and Nano Optics Meet”

Biography ↓

Maria Chekhova obtained her PhD at the Lomonosov University (Moscow, Russia) in 1989 and worked there until 2009 as a researcher and a group leader. Meanwhile she was also a visiting professor at the University of Maryland (USA) and in the Metrology Institute (Turin, Italy). Since 2009 she leads an independent research group at Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light (Erlangen, Germany) and since 2020, also holds a professor position at Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. Her research area is generation and application of nonclassical light, with a special focus on extreme cases: bright states of light manifesting quantum behavior on the one hand and nanoscale sources of quantum light on the other hand. She has authored more than 200 papers and a book. She is a Fellow of Optica and a Deputy Editor of Optics Express journal.

Ralph Ernstorfer
Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

“Ultrafast Dynamics of Individual Quantum States in Condensed Matter”

Biography ↓

Ralph Ernstorfer is a professor in physics and heading the Ultrafast Nanoscience Group at the Technical University Berlin, Germany. In addition, he heads the Research Group Structural and Electronic Surface Dynamics at the Fritz Haber Institute in Berlin. After graduating in Physics at the Technical University Munich, he obtained a PhD in Physics at the FU Berlin in 2004 for the spectroscopic investigation of ultrafast electron transfer reactions. His experimental research at the University of Toronto (2005-2007) and at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and TU Munich (2007-2010) focused on structural and electron dynamics in condensed matter on femto- and attosecond time scales. His current research deals with ultrafast photoinduced phenomena in low-dimensional solids and at surfaces exhibiting strong correlations between atomic and electronic structures.

Natalia Litchinitser
Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

“Structured Light and Darkness in Nanophotonics”

Biography ↓

Natalia Litchinitser is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and a Professor of Physics at Duke University. Her research focuses on linear and nonlinear optics in engineered nanostructures, metamaterials, topological photonics, as well as the engineering of the light beams themselves. Natalia M. Litchinitser earned her Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology and a Master’s degree in Physics from Moscow State University in Russia. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Institute of Optics, the University of Rochester in 2000. Natalia Litchinitser previously was a Professor of Electrical Engineering at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, a Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories, Lucent Technologies, and a Senior Member of Technical Staff at Tyco Submarine Systems. She authored 7 invited book chapters and over 250 journal and conference research papers. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS), a Fellow of Optica (formerly the Optical Society of America), a Fellow of SPIE, a Senior Member of the IEEE, a co-chair of CLEO Fundamental Science and SPIE Nanoscience and Engineering Applications conferences in 2021-2022.

Miriam Vitiello
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

“Detector-less Near-Field Nanoscopy Techniques in the Far-Infrared”

Biography ↓

Prof. Miriam Serena Vitiello (PhD 2006) is group leader of the Terahertz photonics and optoelectronics group at NEST-Nanoscience Institute of the National Research Council (CNR) since 2010.
Since 2015 she is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at Scuola Normale Superiore, Pisa (IT).
Since 2017 she is Director of Research at the National Research Council.
Prof. Vitiello is member of the Scientific council of the National Institute of Metrology, of the CNR Department of Physics and technology of the Matter and of the CEITEC center (Czech Republic).
Her researches focuses on the design, development and applications of THz quantum cascade lasers; the development of THz nanostructured detectors based on semiconductor nanowires, 2D materials and vdW heterosctructures; far-infrared metrology; graphene-based photonics; near-field THz miscroscopy.
Prof. Vitiello is the recipient of several prestigious European (ERC Consolidator Grant, 2 ERC proof of concept grant,five FET Open grants, ITN Marie Curie grant) and international research grants (Balzan International Research Grant)and several awards (the Friedel-Volterra Medal 2020 of the French and Italian physical societies, the Gold Medal of the Pontificia Academy of Science (2018), the Sapio Research and Innovation award (2018), the International research award Guido Dorso (2016), the SPIE early career award (2015), the “Sergio Panizza” award of the Italian Physical Society (2012)).
She is co-author of more than 250-refereed papers on international journals, holds 1 patent and delivered more than 120invited/plenary talks at international conferences.

Jun Ye
JILA, NIST, Colorado, USA

“Quantum Science, Clocks, and Fundamental Physics”

Biography ↓

Jun Ye went to the University of Colorado Boulder for Ph.D. work in physics. He was accepted as the last graduate student of eventual Nobel Prize laureate John L. Hall. His thesis was on high-resolution and high-sensitivity molecular spectroscopy, which he completed in 1997. He then moved to California Institute of Technology as a Milikan Postdoctoral Fellow, working under Jeff Kimble.
Ye moved back to Boulder and JILA as a JILA Associate Fellow and NIST physicist in 1999. John Hall donated most of his lab space to him. He was promoted to full Fellow in 2001 and has been there since, establishing a research program in AMO physics and precision measurement.
Ye’s research focuses on ultracold atoms, ultracold molecules, and laser-based precision measurement. In 2018 JILA reported that the 3D quantum gas clock reached a frequency precision of 2.5 × 10⁻¹⁹ over 6 hours.
Such clocks could potentially be used for research into variations in the Earth’s gravitational field, searching for particles of dark matter, performing quantum simulations of many-body physics, and investigating the fundamental nature of light and matter. He also conducts research on strontium for experiments in quantum information science (collaborating with Mikhail Lukin, Ana Maria Rey, Peter Zoller, and others).
He is one of the most highly cited researchers in experimental atomic physics in the world, having according to Google Scholar a h-index of 120 (As of 2022) and being regularly named as a Thomson-Reuters (ISI) Highly Cited Researcher.Ye also holds four U.S. Patents for frequency combs and laser technology.

Keynote Talk Speakers

Philippe BouyerUniversity of Amsterdam and the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

“Quantum Sensor with Matter-Waves: From Lab to Field”

Maria ChekhovaMax-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, GermanyFriedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

“Quantum, Nonlinear, and Nano Optics Meet”

Ralph ErnstorferTechnical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

“Ultrafast Dynamics of Individual Quantum States in Condensed Matter”

Natalia LitchinitserDuke University, Durham, NC, USA

“Structured Light and Darkness in Nanophotonics”

Miriam VitielloConsiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

“Detector-less Near-Field Nanoscopy Techniques in the Far-Infrared”

Jun YeJILA, NIST, Colorado, USA

“Quantum Science, Clocks, and Fundamental Physics”

Philippe Bouyer
University of Amsterdam and the Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

Maria Chekhova
Max-Planck Institute for the Science of Light, Erlangen, Germany
Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany

Ralph Ernstorfer
Technical University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany

Natalia Litchinitser
Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

Miriam Vitiello
Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche – Istituto Nanoscienze and Scuola Normale Superiore, Italy

Jun Ye
JILA, NIST, Colorado, USA