Management Team

Stefan Kuhr is the Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Strathclyde, where he holds the SUPA Chair of Quantum Information. His research focuses on single-atom manipulation in ultracold optical lattices. Previously, he was a senior scientist at the University of Mainz and the Max-Planck-Institute (2007-2011) and was a postdoc at École Normale Supérieure (2003-2006) after earning his PhD in Bonn.

Professor Sonja Franke-Arnold holds the Chair of Quantum Optics at the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy. Her research focuses on the angular momentum of light, exploring its orbital and spin components, and their interactions with matter. She also investigates phase-dependent atom optics, including closed-loop atomic systems and magnetometry.

Dr Alessandro Fedrizzi joined Heriot-Watt University in September 2015 as an Associate Professor. He currently holds an EPSRC Early Career Quantum Technology Fellowship. Prior to moving to Heriot-Watt he spent seven years—including three on a ARC Discovery Early Career Award—as a research fellow with Andrew White at the University of Queensland, Australia. Dr Fedrizzi completed his PhD in 2008 under the auspices of Anton Zeilinger at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Vienna.

Professor Sarah Croke is a theoretical physicist at the University of Glasgow’s School of Physics and Astronomy. Her research focuses on quantum information and measurement, particularly in developing protocols that require minimal quantum processing, making them feasible with current or near-future technology. Professor Croke earned her PhD from the University of Strathclyde in 2007 and subsequently spent nearly six years at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, as a postdoctoral fellow and later as a PSI fellow. She joined the University of Glasgow as a lecturer in September 2013. In addition to her research, Professor Croke is actively involved in promoting diversity in STEM fields and has organised various outreach events aimed at encouraging women and girls to pursue studies in physics.

Jonathan joined Heriot-Watt University in 2012 to build a leading research programme in experimental quantum optics, focusing on developing classical and quantum techniques for information science, sensing, and imaging. Before that, he was a senior research associate in the Quantum Photonics group at the University of Ottawa, collaborating with Prof. Robert Boyd on nanophotonics for quantum nonlinear optics.

Jonathan also worked as a postdoc in the Optics Group at the University of Glasgow, where he completed his PhD, researching optical trapping and microfluidics for ultra-sensitive sensors. He holds an MSci in Physics from the University of Glasgow and has industry experience with Lumerical Inc.

Paul studied for a BSc Physics from the University of Limerick before receiving his PhD in 2005 from Durham University. He went on to become a postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, GA, from 2005-2007, after which he came to the University of Strathclyde to work in what was then the Photonics Group.

He held a five-year Royal Society of Edinburgh Personal Research Fellowship starting in 2009. From 2010-2011 he was a Guest Researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Gaithersburg, MD, funded by an award from Marie Curie. In 2015 he was awarded a Chancellor’s Fellowship at Strathclyde.

Professor Jonathan Pritchard is an RAEng Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Experimental Quantum Optics and Photonics Group at the University of Strathclyde. He leads research on neutral atom quantum computing and has spearheaded the development of the UK’s first scalable platform for this field through the EPSRC Prosperity Partnership with M Squared Lasers. His team has achieved high-fidelity multi-qubit gates and single-qubit operations below fault tolerance on arrays of up to 225 qubits, forming the basis for Maxwell, a commercial quantum platform by M Squared Lasers. He is now exploring fault-tolerant quantum computing through a cryogenic dual-species platform.

Jonathan earned his PhD at the University of Durham, where he conducted groundbreaking experiments on Rydberg quantum optics, demonstrating a novel optical non-linearity using dipole-dipole interactions. He further contributed to atom interferometry at Strathclyde University and developed hybrid systems with Rydberg atoms and superconducting circuits at UW-Madison. In 2015, he was awarded an EPSRC Quantum Technology Fellowship to establish his research group at Strathclyde, advancing neutral atom quantum computing and precision sensing with Rydberg atoms.

Daniele Faccio is a Royal Academy Chair in Emerging Technologies, Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and Cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia (Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy). He joined the University of Glasgow in 2017 as Professor in Quantum Technologies where he leads the Extreme-Light group and is Director of Research for the School of Physics and Astronomy. Previously he was at Heriot-Watt University and University of Insubria (Italy).

He worked in the optical telecommunications industry for four years before obtaining his PhD in Physics in 2007 at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis (France). His research, funded by the UK research council EPSRC, DSTL, The Leverhulme Trust, the EU and ERC, focuses on the physics of light, on how we harness light to answer fundamental questions and on how we harness light to improve society.

Prof Gerald S Buller was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1965. He graduated with BSc (Hons) Natural Philosophy from the University of Glasgow in 1986 and PhD in Physics from Heriot–Watt University in 1989. In 1990, Prof Buller became Lecturer in Physics at Heriot–Watt University, was promoted to Reader in 2000 and made a Professor in 2006. In parallel, Prof Buller co–founded TeraHertz Photonics Ltd. in 1998 and founded Helia Photonics Ltd. in 2002. He remains a Company Director of Helia Photonics Ltd., which is based in Livingston, Scotland.