Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany
I obtained my PhD in theoretical quantum optics and ultracold atom physics from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, in 1999. I joined the University of Oxford (UK) as a Lecturer in 2003, became a Reader in 2008, and a Professor in 2010. In 2021, I moved to the University of Hamburg (Germany), where I lead a research group on many-body quantum optical systems, while still holding a part-time researcher position at Oxford. I specialize in strongly correlated non-equilibrium quantum systems, focusing on their use in quantum computing and quantum simulation. My early work was pivotal in quantum simulation with ultracold atoms in optical lattices. More recently, I have explored non-equilibrium dynamics in optically driven condensed matter and developed variational quantum computing algorithms for non-linear optimization problems with applications to fluid flows. I have authored around 200 scientific publications with over 25,000 citations and have been a principal investigator on major research programs, including the ERC Synergy Grant QMAC and the UK Quantum Hub NQIT. Currently, I lead the EU Quantum Flagship project QCFD. In 2018, I received the Thomas Young Medal and Prize from the Institute of Physics.