Center for Ultracold Atoms and Quantum Gases, IExP and IQOQI, Innsbruck
Category for non scientific news about the Erbium group
Congratulations to our Masters student, Sarah Embacher, who defended her thesis today! 
Sarah worked in the ERBIUM lab where she implemented a scanning optical dipole trap and also carried out simulations of how q-plates can be used to create optical potentials. 
After a short break, Sarah will be returning to the ERBIUM lab as a PhD student. Well done on your defense, and we look forward to having you back soon, Sarah!
Congratulations to Arfor for winning the UIBK Early Stage Funding grant! This grant is awarded to doctoral candidates and recent graduates of UIBK doctoral programmes to carry out an independent, small research project at the beginning of their academic career.
Louis Lafforgue joined the group of Prof. Dr. Francesca Ferlaino at the end of 2022 for his PhD studies and on August, 1st 2023 he joined the FWF Doctoral Programme Atoms, Light, and Molecules (DK-ALM). Louis is currently working on the erbium experiment on optical lattices and in-situ imaging. He received his MSc from the University of Innsbruck on a study of a dipolar gas confined in a one-dimensional lattice and construction of a new imaging setup for the ERBIUM experiment.
Alex Patscheider, who finished his PhD with us last year, just received one of this year’s Hypo Tirol Prizes for his dissertation on controlling and understanding of dipolar quantum gases of erbium atoms. Congratulations! 
Currently, Alex works as a Quantum Network Engineer at the Canada-based quantum technology company Photonic Inc.
Welcome to Sarah Embacher, who has joined the Erbium team for her Masters’ thesis.
Both Gabriele and Claudia held their defences for their PhD’s one after the other, and are now officially Doctors of Philosophy! We wish them both luck as they take on postdoctoral positions for groups in Zurich!