Friday Light Talks
Friday Light Talks is more than just a series of scientific presentations. It is a supportive community of early career researchers, brought together by a shared passion for knowledge and connection. Hosted by physicists working in quantum optics and nanophotonics at Humboldt University, these regular events provide a welcoming context for students and young researchers to meet, interact, and learn from one another over a drink. Whether discussing scientific topics or exploring issues of career development, mental health, and diversity in academia, the Friday Light Talks are a platform for empowering the next generation of scientific leaders.
Format: 20-30 min presentation followed by a get together with drinks
Where? At the Physik Institute - NewtonStr. 15, 12489.
The talks take place either at the Main Lecture Hall or at Room 1,202, depending on availability. The room is announced together with the speaker previous to each talk.
When? Every third Friday at 5pm
Sponsored by:
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Thank you!
We want to thank all of you who participated in Light Connections last July 12, the first conference organized by the Friday Light Talks team from the Humboldt and Freie Universities and sponsored by the Berlin University Alliance.
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Do you want to be a speaker? Do you have any suggestions about Friday Light Talks? You don't want to miss any upcoming event? Follow us on Twitter, Instagram or suscribe to our newsletter sending us an email to lightTalks@physik.hu-berlin.de
@fridaylighttalks 
@FridayLightTalk
Archive
2025
13.02 Johannes Piotrowski (AG GOP, HU): Multimode cavity optomechanics with levitated nanoparticles
23.01 Johannes Lechner (AG PLD, HU): Universal Vibrational Anharmonicity in Carbyne-Like materials
2024
12.12 Rafael Nadas (AG PLD, HU): Beyond the diffraction limit: probing nanoscale worlds with tip-enhanced optics
10.11 Hamish Beck (AG QOM, HU): The current status of the BECCAL laser system for cold atom experiments onboard the ISS
17.10 Special Event: Spinmagic: The journey towards a spin-off company
Michele Segantini (HZB) told us about his experience applying for and becoming part of the Exist Programme of the Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz to set a spin-off start-up from his PhD work
24.05 Inna Kviatkovsky (AG Ramelow/GOP, HU): Microscopy with undetected photons in the mid-infrared
25.04 Sofia Pazzagli (AG GOP, HU): Organic molecules for photonic quantum technologies
05.04 Lucas Pache (AG GOP, HU): A nanofiber-based atom trap with sub-λ/2 spacing
22.03 Simon Kanthak (AG IQS, HU): Optically guided BEC interferometry with a single wavelength
01.03 Ignacio Gonzalez Oliva (AG SOL, HU): Hybrid materials: still challenging for ab initio theory?
26.01 Sinan Gündogdu (AG IQP, HU): AlGaN diamond integrated photonics
2023
01.12 Niclas Sven Mueller (FHI): Imaging Phonon Polaritons with Sum-Frequency Spectro-Microscopy
17.11 Tommaso Pregnolato (FBI): On integrated quantum photonics
12.10 Special Event: Introducing the WINS postdoc fellows
WINS Adlershof and the PostDoc Center Adlershof offer five fellowships to visiting female postdoctoral researchers sponsored by the Einstein Stiftung in cooperation with the Berlin University Alliance. These fellowships aim to provide opportunities for exchange and support the career development of female postdoctoral researchers in an international context.
Pitches from the 2022 WINS fellows:
Dr. Nina Stiesdal (University of Bonn) | Quantum Optics with Rydberg Superatoms
Dr. Guadalupe Souza Satiro (University of Brasilia) |Sustainable Development and Critical Agrarian Studies in Latin America
Dr. Ruth Nakata (Mbarar University)| Ethics in Computing and Cyber Security
Dr. Felicia O. Akinyemi (University of Bern) | Analyzing agricultural systems in Nigeria with satellite and machine learning
22.09 Richard Zeltner (Menlo, Optica): Insights into industrial research projects
07.07 Special Event: WissZeitVG the fixed-term contract reform
For the last Friday Light Talk before the summer break we had an open discussion on WissZeitVG - the fixed-term contract reform in Germany: changes & opportunities in academic career development with the participation of:
Prof. J. Plefka, Head of the "Commission for Research and Scientific Career" of Humboldt University
Dr. M. Zimmermann, Member of the "Executive Board for Young Members and Professional Matters" in the German Physical Society (DPG)
Dr. B. Leder, Member of Humboldt University Mittelbau
With this event, we wanted to give young researchers like us the opportunity to get a better understanding of the German research system and to participate in the debate about our career opportunities in academia. After the discussion, we joined for networking and further exchange over drinks and food at MoPs, generously sponsored by the PostDoc Center Adlershof and WISTA.
23.06 Marlon Placke (AG NQO, HU): Bright quantum light sources from AlGaAs-on-insulator waveguides
09.06 Giulia Peveri (AG Plefka, HU):Non-Standard Models: An outreach Project
26.05 Special Event: Mental Health in Academia
Katharina Bögl (Scholar Minds, Charité) and Luisa Esguerra (PhD student) introduced us to the often-overlooked topic of mental health challenges among PhD and postdoc. With this event we aimed to provide a safe and supportive space to initiate a dialogue and encourage open discussions to work together towards creating a healthier academic community.
12.05 Special Event: Day of Light
In occasion of the UNESCO International Day of Light, we hosted Danilo Flores, co-founder of Mimotype, a Berlin based startup developing bio-inspired materials for ambient light sources. He told us about their scienceprenuer journey and drove us into the dark side of light bulb industry.
28.04 Marco De Pas (Fritz-Haber-Institut): The extreme conditions of a scientific Antartic campaign: a photographic journey
14.04 Julien Kluge (AG IQS, HU), Small Clock, Big Imact: A Spaceborn Atomic Clock the Size of a Shoebox with an Instability of 0.000000000000001
31.03 Ananga-Mohan Datta (AG TOP, HU), Generating Schrödinger-cat-like states by means of photon subtraction on a waveguide-trimer
17.03 Christian Liedl (AG GOP, HU), From flashing fireflies to quantum choirs: spontaneous synchronization in superradiance
03.03 Jan Kirchhoff (AG Bolotin, FU), Tunable Graphene Phononic Crystals
10.02 Laura Orphal-Kobin (AG IQP, HU), Optically coherent nitrogen-vacancy defect centers in diamond nanostructures
27.01 Julian Bopp (AG IQP, HU), Near-unity cavity-to-fiber coupling mediated by ‘Sawfish’ photonic crystal cavities – or: which animal confines light best?
13.01 Simon Kanthak (AG IQS, HU), Engineering of matter-wave lenses for quantum sensing and information
2022
16.12 Luisa Esguerra Rodríguez (AG Wolters, DLR), Laser Luisa and the quest for the lost photons
02.12 Kathinka Gerlinger (AG Eisebitt, MBI), Of Hedgehogs and Lightsaber/s - Manipulating Magnetism with Light
18.11 Lucas Rickert (AG Heindl, HU), Semiconductor Quantum Dots for Quantum Information Technologies: 101 ways of how to not get a perfect quantum light source
21.10 Special Event: Friday Light Show
To celebrate the Day of Photonics we set up a special Friday Light Talk with hands-on experiments and light games: "Friday Light Show - a journey through the spectrum" with Daniel Lechner (AG GOP, HU) and Luisa Esguerra (AG Wolters, DLR)
07.10 Francesco Arzani (AG Eisert, FU), Can crystals and pendulums heal quantum computers? An introduction to Gottesman-Kitaev-Preskill codes
23.09 Special Event: PostDoc Appreciation Week 2022
To celebrate the PostDoc Appreciation Week 2022 we were thrilled to welcome Dr Petya Jordan, the coordinator of the newly established PostDoc Center Adlershof that talked about "PostDoc Center: what is it and why we need it". Afterwards, Giulia Carini presented her PhD project in the group of Pr Paarmann at the Fritz Haber Institute. To best conclude the day, we had a get-together with pizza kindly offered by the PostDoc Center Adlershof.
29.07 Gabriela Luna Amador (AG Reich, FU), Light-matter coupling in plasmonic platforms
01.07 Philip Albrodt (Trumpf), From academia to R&D in the laser industry
17.06 Pablo Hernández López (AG PLD, HU), Strain engineering and hybridization of excitons in 2D semiconductors
03.06 Felix Tebbenjohanns (AG GOP, ETH Zurich), Quantum optomechanics with optically levitated particles
20.05 Gregor Pieplow (AG IQP, HU), Coherent Optical control of group IV vacancies in diamond
06.05 Esteban Gómez López (AG Nanoptik, HU), Storing light in warm vapors at single photon level
22.04 Luke Masters (AG GOP, HU), A photon-pair source from a single atom