Current Postdocs & Alumni

Proposal topic: Elucidating the Enigmatic Role of the Silk Protein Gel in Mollusk Shell Biomineralization 

PhD Institution: Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel 

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Peter Fratzl Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces 

Host at WIS: Prof. Lia Addadi, Prof. Steve Weiner & Prof. Asaf Gal

I have joined the MPI-WIS fellowship program after completing my PhD at the Weizmann Institute of Science. My research focuses on unveiling the impact of land cover change in Africa on the land-atmosphere interactions. As part of this collaborative project, I am hosted by Professor Dan Yakir from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Weizmann Institute, where I conduct fieldwork and perform data analysis using a unique mobile laboratory. Additionally, I am hosted by Dr. Sung-Ching Lee at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, focusing on validating remote sensing data by integrating it with the field-based observations.

Proposal Topic: Laser-Induced Vibrational Emission Spectroscopy of Complex Molecular Ions

PhD Institution: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune India

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Klaus Blaum / Dr. Holger Kreckel,  Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik Heidelberg (MPIK)

Host at WIS: Prof. Daniel Zajfman/ Dr. Oded Heber

Francesca Zaffalon completed her PhD at KU Leuven. Her current research centers around the topic of positive geometries, an area of mathematics that provides a novel framework for the description of physical phenomena. In particular, her research aims to deepen the understanding of the amplituhedron - a mathematical object capturing scattering amplitudes, key quantities in theoretical particle physics. As part of the MPG-Weizmann Joint Postdoctoral Program, she will work with Bernd Sturmfels at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences in Leipzig and with Ran Tessler at the Weizmann Institute of Science.

Proposal Topic: Characterizing the Effect of Submarine Groundwater Discharge on Oceanic Nitrogen and Carbon Budgets

PhD Institution: Columbia University

Host and Institution in MPG: Alfredo Martinez Garcia, Max Planck for Chemistry

Host at WIS: Yael Kiro

In collaboration with Sarah Kang from the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology and Yohai Kaspi from the Weizmann Institute, I investigate the impact of land-sea contrasts on the evolution of surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean. Over recent decades, the surface of the Eastern Pacific has experienced a cooling trend, contrary to the overall warming of the Earth. While some reasons for this phenomenon are understood, critical questions remain unanswered. For instance, will this cooling trend persist, or will the Eastern Pacific begin to warm - and if so, when? This question is crucial not only for local climates but also for global climate change, as the Pacific Ocean's surface temperatures play a vital role in regulating the Earth's climate. To explore these hypotheses, I conduct simulations using a global climate model developed by the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, where I also completed my PhD.

Host and Institution at MPG: Babette Döbrich at Max Planck für Physik (MPP) Host at WIS: Gilad Perez PhD Institution: Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz

Topic: Ultralight dark matter with masses below 1 eV evolve classically, and their coupling leads to an apparent evolution of the fundamental constants of the Standard Model. In a theoretical model developed at WIS, the dark matter candidate causes temporal oscillations in the strength of the flavour-changing mixing angles, as parameterised in the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. Such oscillations can be searched for in precision experiments such as the Kaon experiment NA62 at CERN. During his time at MPP and WIS, Prisco will develop the phenomenological analysis of the CKM angle oscillations at NA62. He will also study, both theoretically and phenomenologically, how future nuclear clocks based on the isomeric transition of Thorium-229 can be used to increase the sensitivity to ultra-light dark matter, as well as to serve as general "QCD-ometers", tracking with unprecedented sensitivity even minute changes in the properties of the strong interaction caused by physics beyond the Standard Model.

During his time at MPP and WIS, Prisco will also develop theoretical methods to study non-perturbative phenomena, building on his graduate work at the interface between classical and quantum physics using the mathematical theory of resurgence. The interplay of quantum and classical effects is central to the theory of the Sauter-Schwinger effect, the creation of electron-positron pairs in intense electric fields. The focus will be on the discovery of novel signatures of physics beyond the Standard Model, which may evade detection in conventional experiments, but can be picked up by experiments operating in the high-intensity, large-multiplicity regime of quantum field theory.

Proposal Topic: Computer-Aided Design of Green Solvents for Closed and Open Shell Transition Metal Catalysis  

PhD Institution: Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India

Host and Institution in MPG: Prof. Matthias Stein, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics of Complex Technical Systems Magdeburg, Germany  

Host at WIS: Prof. Leeor Kronik

Proposal Topic: Transchromatic homotopy theory and categorification

PhD Institution: Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Host and Institution in MPG: Tobias Barthel, Max Planck Institute for Mathematics

Host at WIS: Shachar Carmeli

Vinod Kumar was born and brought up in Hyderabad, India. He obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Hyderabad, under the supervision of Prof. R. Chandrasekar, where he worked on the design and fabrication of organic-crystal-based photonic integrated circuits. He is currently working on enhancing the sensitivity of quantum measurements in the NV-based sensors at the Experimental Quantum Biosensing Laboratory under the guidance of Prof. Mouzhe Xie at Arizona State University.

Proposal: Enhanced scattering properties of extremely birefringent scattering media

MPI host and institution: Prof. Silvia Vignolini, Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Am Mühlenberg,  Potsdam-Golm, 114476, Germany.

WIS host: Prof. Dan Oron, The Harry Weinrebe professor of laser physics, Weizmann Institute of Science Rehovot 76100, ISRAEL.