4 June 2024

We took a short interview with Arthur Christianen - MCQST PhD Award 2024 Winner - after the graduation ceremony which took place on MCQST Conference 2024. We asked Arthur about his time in Munich, advice for future graduate students, and research plans.

With what memories do you leave your group and the community in Munich, and what would you advise someone who just joined it recently?

I had a great time during my PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, where I had a very friendly culture in our group, with weekly homemade cakes, nice group outings (e.g. to Zugspitze), regular board games and karaoke sessions. There I also got many opportunities to develop myself as an independent scientist and establish international connections. I also benefited from all the great activities that IMPRS-QST and MCQST organized, both on a scientific and a personal level. I met many interesting people in the Munich quantum community and beyond and could develop essential soft skills to further my career.


I would advise new people joining the community to definitely make use of these excellent opportunities to meet new people and to immerse yourself also in the research beyond your own field. In such an excellent scientific environment, there are endless possibilities, especially if you have an open mind and take an active stance.

Looking ahead, what are your long-term goals and aspirations in the field of quantum research, and how do you envision making an impact in this rapidly evolving field?

The area of quantum technology I am personally most interested in is quantum simulation, in particular in the setting of ultracold gases. Having access to very controllable systems to simulate complex problems that are hard to understand theoretically can really help to answer important open questions in physics.

I think it is important that the knowledge and understanding we gain with these systems is also exchanged with other fields such as condensed matter physics and chemistry. I have always enjoyed working in a multidisciplinary setting, and reinforcing the connections and transferring ideas between these different scientific disciplines is therefore one of my personal research and career goals.

My work focuses on bridging the gap between few- and many-body physics. Already on the level of three quantum particles with strong interactions interesting quantum effects appear. I am interested in how such few-body effects manifest themselves in a medium, and how they lead to the emergence of fascinating new phenomena. In my PhD, I have mostly focused on the platform of ultracold gases, but in the next step of my career, I am expanding my scope to other systems, such as two-dimensional semiconductors.

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