WINQ and WACQT Young Faculty Workshop

On August 19th, a one-day meeting took place at Nordita and KTH, where the newly recruited young faculty from the WINQ (Wallenberg Initiative on Networks and Quantum Information) and WACQT (Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology) initiatives presented themselves and their research to one another as well as to the general research community.

During the meeting the following new faculty presented their work:

• Vaishali Adya (WACQT KTH)
• Sofia Qvarfort (WINQ Nordita/Stockholm University)
• Anton Frisk Kockum (WACQT Chalmers)
• Roope Kristian Uola (WINQ Nordita/Uppsala University)
• Armin Tavakoli (WACQT Lund University)

Professor Katia Gallo, Director of the Quantum Communication program in WACQT and Professor of Applied Physics at KTH, emphasised the importance of WINQ and WACQT initiatives strengthening research on quantum science and technology by recruiting top talent to Sweden. Both initiatives have nodes at the Albano campus, aiming to provide our newly recruited researchers the best possible start in their career.

“The event provided a platform for our new young faculty to present their research and engage with one another,” Gallo noted. “The workshop was about bringing together the newly recruited faculty from the past year, helping them to get to know each other and each other’s research. The event allowed the assistant professors to showcase their research and engage with one another, stimulating interdisciplinary interests and catalyzing synergies among different fields, such as theory and experiments. The outcome was very encouraging and the enthusiasm of our new faculty extremely contagious!”

Professor Mikael Fogelström, Director of Nordita, highlighted Nordita’s unique role in facilitating these collaborations. “Nordita’s mission is to bring these research networks together,” Fogelström explained. “As an institute, we are ideally positioned to act as a facilitator.”

Gallo added, “Nordita’s extensive experience and reputation are really important in bringing together these significant initiatives. We are very thankful that Nordita is there with all the experience to provide the organisation, reputation and spirit to foster and sustain interdisciplinary scientific discussions and collaborations.”

Looking ahead, both professors are optimistic about future collaborative efforts. As Fogelström mentioned, “We are exploring opportunities for joint graduate courses that extend beyond our current collaborations at a Nordic level. Our goal is to continuously support and develop top talent.”

Gallo highlighted the broader impact of Nordita’s efforts. “Bringing researchers from various backgrounds together is a much more fruitful way of working rather than the traditional mode of focusing on individual efforts. It creates the synergy needed to enhance research in terms of collaboration, innovative ideas and results. It really adds value and can make a difference for Swedish excellence in Quantum Science and Technology.”