BIO:

Francesca Ferlaino (born 1977) is Professor of Physics at the University of Innsbruck (Austria), having moved there in 2007, with past post-doc position at the University of Florence and LENS in Italy. She is currently Research and Managing Director at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) of the ÖAW, which is one of the most active center for quantum science.

Her research activity explores quantum phenomena in atomic gases at ultralow temperatures with contributions spanning topics including quantum matter of atoms and molecules and few-body and scattering physics. Over the last years, she focuses specifically on the strongly magnetic, and rather unexplored, Erbium and Dysprosium atomic species, realizing in 2012 the first worldwide Bose- Einstein condensation of Erbium, and in 2018 the first dipolar quantum mixture of Erbium and Dysprosium. In 2020, she was able to prepare the first long-lived supersolid state, an elusive and paradoxical state where superfluid flow and crystal rigidity coexist.

With these systems, she explored a variety of many-body quantum phenomena dictated by the long-range and anisotropic dipolar interaction among the atoms.

Her work has earned her multiple awards, including the prestigious Feltrinelli prize, the Grand Prix de Physique "Cécile-DeWitt Morette/École de Physique des Houches" from the French Academy of Science, the Junior BEC Award, and the Erwin Schrödinger Prize, the highest award of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In addition, she is recipient of an Alexander-von-Humboldt Professorship, and two ERC Grants (Starting and Consolidator).

This project has been co-funded with 50% by the European Regional Development Fund under the framework of the ERFD Operative Programme for Catalunya 2014-2020 (project QuantumCat, ref. 001-P-001644).