Fellows 2nd call

EDUCATION

I have acquired a wide knowledge in LASERs, plasmonics, and materials during my master at the Lebanese University. My master’s project was about developing a microfluidic chip to study antibiotic resistance of bacteria using luminescent techniques. I admire the potential of physics in understanding biological phenomena.

PHD PROJECT: "Physics of virus diffusion: from environmental studies to medical applications"

We study the diffusion properties of nanoparticles in aquatic environments using an interferometric approach to detect label-free biotic particles. We measure the light scattered by each nanoparticle and track its motion to get information about its optical properties and size.Our aim is to understand the interaction between virus and bacteria

My PhD in 1 minute" – Samer Alhaddad

EDUCATION
I graduated with First Class from my integrated Master in Science, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, in Neuroscience with Psychology (Bio-Business) with Industrial Placement. My placement year was in the Josselyn/Frankland lab, University of Toronto, Canada, where I studied the ontogeny of contextual fear memory in Zebrafish.

PHD PROJECT: "Real-time visualization and modulation of spatial codes in the brain during memory consolidation"
The director of my PhD thesis is Dr Gisella Vetere in the Cerebral Codes and Circuits Connectivity team, in the Brain Plasticity Unit. The title is “Real-time visualisation of neuronal networks under memory consolidation”. I will study the activity of head direction cells and compare their activity at recent and remote memory recall.

My PhD in 1 minute" - Charlotte Andrews

EDUCATION
I was a DST-INSPIRE Fellow during my undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune, graduating in 2019 with a BS & MS in Natural Sciences, specializing in Physics. My Master’s thesis was on the ’Design of a stable optical system with an injection-locked laser to cool quantum gases to ultracold temperatures’ as a Charpak fellow at the Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, ENS Paris. My previous research experience spans diverse areas in Physics from astrophysics to nano-physics.

PHD PROJECT: "Label-free optical imaging with super-resolution and 3D tomographic reconstruction of light scattered around nanostructures and through complex media"
In October 2019, I joined the UPtoPARIS doctoral programme, where I will work on near-field optics at Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris under the supervision of Yannick De Wilde. My doctoral project is aimed at investigating complex disordered media using a combination of holographic microscopy and near-field scanning microscopy, to develop a new wide-field optical microscopy method capable of measuring super-resolved images of nano-objects in one single shot. Beyond the lab, and when not immersed in French culture, I am deeply passionate about theatre and science outreach.

"My PhD in 1 minute" - Anwesh Bhattacharya

EDUCATION
I’ve got my B. Sc. and M. Sc. in Applied Physics at the University of Puebla (Mexico), also in collaboration with the Rochester Institute of Technology (USA). Since my undergraduate studies i had been interested in doing Research in the areas of Soft Matter and Fluid Mechanics, allowing him to publish in international journals. In 2019 I attended the 69th Lindau Nobel Meeting dedicated to Physics.

PHD PROJECT: "Programmable active matter for transport optimization
The main goal of this PhD project is to improve the motion of a group of active particles, in this case they are centimeter-sized robots which can interact in a very complex way in order to achieve this goal. This project is under the supervision of Prof. M. Labousse and Prof. E. Fort.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Samuel Hidalgo Caballero

EDUCATION

My name is Magda. I came to Paris from Krakow, Poland. My education and professional path led me through different areas on the border of chemistry, biochemistry, biotechnology and biophysics. My first stop were my studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, where I completed my bachelor’s degree on chemistry. Then I realized my master’s degree project within the double diploma program at the Jagiellonian University and the University of Orleans and my thesis combined the areas of biotechnology and biochemistry. During my next scientific stop I worked for a biotechnology company in Krakow, developing biochemical and biophysical assays serving drug discovery.

PHD PROJECT: "Growth and mechanics of actin filament networks"

Currently, as a part of UPTOParis program, I became a member of PMMH lab at ESPCI and the goal of my project is to examine growth and mechanics of actin filaments network in vitro using specific method developed at ESPCI with the application of magnetic cylinders.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Magdalena Kopeć

EDUCATION

My name is Reza Kowsari, and I am a mechanical engineer from Iran. I received my B.Sc. at Isfahan University of Technology (2012) and my M.Sc. at Sharif University (2015). Then I continued my journey as a microfluidic engineer at Royan Institute and also at Pasteur Institute. I have experience in bio-microfluidics, cell biology, and tissue engineering.

PHD PROJECT: "Combinatorial drug screening with droplet microfluidics"
In my Ph.D. project, I am developing microfluidic technology for the high-throughput screening of cellular response to drug-dose combinations, using stationary drug gradients within hydrogels. Targeting several physiological functions simultaneously using a combination of drugs can lead to drug synergy. The resulting knowledge will have a direct impact on antibiotic combination strategies.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Reza Kowsari

EDUCATION
I was trained as an aerospace engineer during my undergraduate studies and obtained a Bachelor of Engineering degree in the year 2014. Following this, in 2015, I was offered to continue engineering at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, through an MS-PhD course but I chose to join a masters program in physics at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research (JNCASR), Bangalore. Having completed my masters work at JNCASR, I then joined the International Centre for Theoretical Sciences (ICTS) of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Bangalore, as a Research student in March 2018. At ICTS-TIFR, I worked with Prof. Samriddhi Sankar Ray and Prof. Subhro Bhattacharjee and used a Galerkin truncated Burgers equation as a probe to quantify chaos in classical thermal systems. The work is now in review and can be accessed at the following location: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.00016.

PHD PROJECT: "Mesoscale modelling of memory effects in glasses"
During my PhD, I plan to study the yielding behavior of an amorphous material in a simple elastoplastic lattice and develop a minimalistic model at the mesoscopic scale that captures critical features such as avalanches and finite size effects but also in particular, features more specific of amorphous plasticity, such as, hardening and shear-banding. This work will be done under the supervision of Prof. Damien Vandembroucq and Prof. Sylvain Patinet at PMMH of the ESPCI.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Dheeraj Kumar

EDUCATION

I completed my B.Tech in Biotechnology and M.S by Research from Anna University, Chennai, India. I have over seven years of research training in various disciplines including biofuels, systems biology, transcriptomics, proteomics and 3D scaffolds for cancer cell models that can be used to successfully complete my PhD.

PHD PROJECT: "From clouds to our environment: proteomic study of microorganisms contained in clouds"
My PhD topic is titled “Proteomic study of microorganisms contained in clouds”. It involves the identification of proteins in microorganisms in clouds/rain water by mass spectrometry. In order to achieve the goal, three important things have to be fulfilled- sample preparation, instrumentation and data analysis. My prior experience in working with mass spectrometer and data analysis software will enable me to perform the respective parts.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Ranjith Kumar

EDUCATION
I majored in Chemistry for my bachelor degree at Northeast Normal University in China in 2016. I felt motivated to study more about Green Chemistry and related techniques after graduation. My motivation resulted in starting my study journey at the University of Copenhagen, specialised in Green and Sustainable Chemistry. My master project, under the supervisor of Prof. Matthew Stanley Johnson, was focused on improving the performance of metal-oxide sensors towards NO2 and ozone detection. This project was in collaboration with Airlabs to design a portable gas sensor device for air pollution monitoring.

PHD PROJECT: "Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) - Spin Crossover Complexes (SCO) hybrid architectures for sensing applications"
In 2019, I joined Dr. Christian Serre’s group for one of the topics from the 2nd call of the UptoParis project. I’m currently working on synthesizing Metal Organic Frameworks (MOFs) – Spin Crossover Complexes (SCO) hybrid architectures for Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) sensing application under the supervision of Dr. Antoine Tissot. The MOF-SCO hybrid solids will be prepared by incorporating SCO complexes into the pores of robust MOFs. The target hybrid solids ideally present a thermal spin transition close to room temperature. The influence of guest molecules on the spin state of the complex will then be probed. The most sensitive solids towards objective VOCs gas will be shaped and designed into sensing devices.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Yuwei Shen

EDUCATION

I am interested in physical chemistry, materials science, soft materials and macromolecules investigation. I obtained a Master degree in the field of physical chemistry (UNICAMP, Brazil, 2019). In 2015, I was laureate with a scholarship from Science Without Borders programme for an exchange in the University of Oslo, and in 2018 I was selected to hold an internship at MemBrain S.R.O. (Czech Republic).

PHD PROJECT : "Formulation of self-healing vitrimer membranes"

The goal of my Ph.D. project is to investigate template materials of the C3M Laboratory at ESPCI and design new vitrimers with adequate functionality to ensure efficient healing and transport properties. Such materials are heavily needed to improve the chemistry of energy conversion in storage devices and develop cleaner processes in chemical engineering.

My PhD in 1 minute" – Henrique Trevisan