ICFONEST · ICFONest International Postdoctoral Program

ICFONest International Postdoctoral Program

ICFO – The Institute of Photonic Sciences (http://www.icfo.eu), Barcelona (Spain), provides cutting edge facilities as well as a stimulating, international and interdisciplinary environment. The ICFOnest program, partially supported by the Marie Curie Co-funding of Regional, National and International Programmes (COFUND) action of the European Commission, offered rising top-class researchers access to excellent facilities, competitive salaries, research expenses and support from Group Leaders, in order to assist them in becoming successful independent researchers. A program website, http://nestpostdocs.icfo.eu, was created at the beginning of the program and served as a valuable tool to advertise the program, attract applicants and disseminate information. A “Guide for Applicants” has also been made available for download, providing information about the program and application process, including eligibility criteria, documentation required (CV, references, education records), selection process, etc. ICFO prepared dissemination material to promote the program internationally and the calls for application were published via main jobsites, such as: Naturejobs, Euraxess, Brightrecruits, PhotonicsJobs, PhysicsToday, Research Gate, Euro Science, national websites R+D positions. Information about the ICFOnest program has also been sent to all European and extra-European partners. ICFOnest fellowship calls for applications were established in 3-months batches on a rolling basis, open from January 01, 2011, until September 30, 2012. All batches were launched successfully, receiving a total of 278 applications from aspiring post-docs. The program awarded 14 outstanding post-doctorate researchers with INCOMING Fellowships (of 24 months duration), who successfully accomplished their cutting-edge research in this scope: Dr. Nela Durisic, PhD in Biophysics, McGill University, Montreal (Canada): Improving Resolution of Single Molecule Photoswitching and Localization (SMPL) Techniques through Plasmon-Induced Fluorescence Enhancement. ICFO Research Group: Advanced fluorescence imaging and biophysics (Prof. Melike Lakadamyali). Dr. Robert Simpson, PhD, Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton (UK): Phase Change and Magnetic Photonic Modulators. ICFO Research Group: Optoelectronics (Prof. Valerio Pruneri). Dr. Agustin Mihi, PhD in Physics, University of Seville (Spain): New Optical Architectures to Enhance Light Harvesting Efficiency in Solar Cells. ICFO Research Group: Solution-processed nanophotonic devices (Prof. Gerasimos Konstantatos). Dr. Louis Gaudreau, PhD in Physics, NRC and University of Sherbrooke (Canada): Hybrid Quantum Systems (HYQUS). ICFO Research Group: Nano-Optoelectronics (Prof. Frank Koppens). Dr. Graciana Puentes, PhD in Physics, Leiden University (The Netherlands): Weak measurement of the magneto-electric effect in topological insulators at THz frequencies. ICFO Research Group: Ultrafast optical dynamics of solids (Prof. Simon Wall). Dr. Marko Spasenovic, PhD in Physics, FOM-Institute AMOLF, Amsterdam (The Netherlands): Cooling of a mechanical oscillator to its ground state. ICFO Research Group: Plasmon Nano-Optics (Prof. Romain Quidant). Dr. Emilie Wientjes, PhD in Biophysical Chemistry, Rijks Universiteit Groningen (The Netherlands): Optical nanoantennas for natural light-harvesting complexes. ICFO Research Group: Molecular Nanophotonics (Prof. Niek van Hulst). Dr. Lukasz Piatkowski, PhD in Physical Chemistry, University of Amsterdam (The Netherlands): Coherent energy flow pathways in light harvesting machines. ICFO Research Group: Molecular Nanophotonics (Prof. Niek van Hulst). Dr. Renaud Marty, PhD in Physics, CEMES, Toulouse (France): Optical Manipulation of NV centers for Quantum Information Processing. ICFO Research Group: Plasmon Nano-Optics (Prof. Romain Quidant). Dr. Natali Martinez, PhD in Physics, Rice University, Houston, Texas (USA): Quantum Metrology at the Limits of Sensitivity and Resolution. ICFO Research Group: Quantum Information with cold atoms and non-classical light (Prof. Morgan Mitchell). Dr. Alexandros Stavrinadis, PhD in Physics, Oxford University (UK): Atomic Doping and Carrier Density Control in Colloidal Quantum Dots for high efficiency solution-processed Photovoltaics. ICFO Research Group: Solution-processed nanophotonic devices (Prof. Gerasimos Konstantatos). Dr. Sebastien Nanot, PhD in Nanophysics, University of Toulouse (France): Graphene opto-electronics. ICFO Research Group: Nano-Optoelectronics (Prof. Frank Koppens). Dr. Paul Skrzypczyk, PhD in Physics, University of Bristol (UK): Nonlocality and quantum thermodynamics. ICFO Research Group: Quantum Information Theory (Prof. Antonio Acin). Dr. Bruno Castro Mota, PhD, Centro de Química - Física Molecular & Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, IST, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa (Portugal): Pathogen recognition and signalling of DC-SIGN revealed at the single molecule level. ICFO Research Group: Single Molecule Biophotonics (Prof. María García-Parajo). Throughout the first two years of the program, the ICFOnest Fellows have had opportunities to train and develop non-scientific skills, participate in outreach activities, as well as in social activities. Since the ICFOnest fellows and their projects are integrated in on-going research activities of an already existing ICFO research group and supervised by the corresponding Group Leader, advanced scientific training-through-research has also been provided. The ICFONest+ program, launched in January 2014, builds on the closed ICFOnest program, and puts forward new salient opportunities, increase its level of transnational fellowships to host 25 Fellows.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union