Since almost two weeks, we have the pleasure to welcome back Luis Pires, now assistant professor at the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil), for one month in the lab. And next week, Atef Shalabney, from Braude College (Karmiel, Israel), will also come back for a shorter one week stay. Who else is missing the lab and Strasbourg winter cold ?
We had a farewell dinner last monday to say good bye to Shahana Nizar, who was among us since more than 4 years. After a phD and a postdoc in the lab, she will start a second postdoc in March, in the group of Anna Painelli in Parma University. All the best Shahana !
Last week, our new postdoc Tamaghna Chowdury arrived just on time to enjoy the cold in Strasbourg. Tamaghna comes from Chittaranjan, a railway township in West Bengal, India. He completed his Bachelor of Science with Honors in Physics from Jadavpur University, Kolkata, in 2017. Subsequently, he completed his integrated Master’s and PhD in Physics at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), Pune, Maharashtra, in November 2024. His PhD thesis focused on the modulation of the optoelectronic properties of 2D materials through strain, twist, and dielectric engineering. He will be working half time here and half time with the group of Stéphane Berciaud in IPCMS.
We celebrated the end of the year all together last week : our indian students cooked delicious chicken biryani and paneer curry, with raïta and chapatis. Others brought starters and desserts and we shared food and good mood at the 6th floor of ISIS, before the end of the year break.
Happy festive season to all our visitors, friends and collaborators around the world !
Since the end of last week, Pr Paulo Maia Neto, from Physics Institute of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) is back in Strasbourg for a one month stay, as last year, in the context of the CAPES COFECUB project we are sharing together.
Moreover, he will give a the seminar entitled
The Casimir Interaction in Electrolyte Solutions
on Thursday December 19th at 10.30 am, at ISIS (meeting room, ground floor). If you wish to meet him, don’t hesitate to contact Dr Cyriaque Genet.
Weijian Tao, who was working as postdoctoral researcher in our lab for 2 years left us at the end of last week. He will start another postdoctoral contract in January 2025 in the USA, at Purdue University, in the group of Pr Libai Huang. We thank him for the nice interactions with our group and wish him good luck for the future !
Weijian’s departure lunch at Le Cèdre, Strasbourg
Our group is growing again and we welcomed last week a new postdoc, Sumit Yadav. He was born in the state of Haryana, North-India, and he recently defended his phD in physics at IISER Mohali (Indian Institute of Science Education and Research). During this phD, he worked on the effects of optical nonlinearity in optical tweezers using femtosecond pulsed lasers and on the application of laser beam shaping in optical tweezers. He will work more closely with LIMACS team, on Mueller polarimetry setup and chiral coupling. Welcome in the lab !
Thomas Ebbesen and Cyriaque Genet are the laureates of a prestigious ERC Synergy grant with three other teams at the University of Tel Aviv, the University of Pennsylvania and the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg. The project is focused on polaritonic chemistry, a field that was imagined and developed in the lab during the past 15 years. In polaritonic chemistry, the interaction between molecules and electromagnetic fluctuations are enhanced in optical cavities, in the dark, which can radically modify the properties of matter such as chemical reactivity. Together, the four teams aim to understand during the next 6 years the underlying chemical physics in order to make polaritonic chemistry a predictive tool for the molecular sciences. This new approach to control the properties of matter has generated considerable interest around the world as it raises not only fundamental questions but it also opens up unsuspected technological potential.
Illustration of light-molecule coupling in an optical cavity – Source : Chemical Reviews
In the last edition of CNRS Le journal, one can read an article describing the new funding program of CNRS, called (RI)² (Recherche à risque et à impact). This program aims to detect and support fundamental and innovative scientific projects potentially capable of causing major technological advances in the next decades. Polaritonic chemistry and polaritonic materials has been elected as one of them and the project will be carried out by our group for the experimental part and the one of Pr Cristiano Ciuti for the theoretical support.
Source : CNRS Le journal
Autumn is the season of falling leaves but also of postdoctoral researchers arrivals and we welcomed this week Kaina Gonçalves Diniz, from Brazil. Kaina came in the context of the CAPES-COFECUB exchange program and will stay about one year in the lab. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, where he also completed his Master and PhD. He is primarily an experimental physicist, with a research focus on optical tweezers and their applications. He is also interested in chiral nanoparticles and has explored how these particles can be studied in the context of optical trapping. Welcome Kaina !
