Team

Antonius Armanious, Oberassistent,

Antonius has a broad scientific experience spanning engineering, physical chemistry, environmental virology, surface sciences, and biological physics. He develops innovative tools to probe the (sub-)nanoscale world. In the Degen group, he uses different approaches to improve the sensitivity of nanomechanical resonators, bringing them closer to quantum-limited sensitivity.

Lorenzo Bechelli, PhD Student, 

Lorenzo holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Bologna and a Master's degree in Quantum Engineering from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU). After completing his Master's thesis on Spinmechanics at DTU, he joined the Degen group for his PhD in September 2023 to work with ensembles of NV centers.

Geena Benga, PhD Student, 

Geena holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree in Physics from ETH Zurich. For her Master's thesis, she worked as a visiting assistant in research at Yale University's Wright Lab, searching for dark matter with levitated nanosphere sensors. She joined the Degen group in November 2023 to work on nuclear spin sensing and to test mass sensing techniques with membrane-​based scanning force microscopy. She loves cats, lifting weights and cooking pasta.

Eric Clot, Postdoc, 

Eric joined the group in September 2024 as a postdoctoral researcher, focusing on NV center microscopy under cryogenic conditions. He completed his PhD in condensed matter physics at the Spintec lab and the Néel Institute (Grenoble). He earned two Master's degrees from Grenoble Alpes University: one in Nuclear Engineering (2019) and another in Micro- and Nano-Engineering (2020). His work primarily involves designing and developing techniques for near-field microscopy using NV centers.

Chiara Corticelli, Admin. Assistant (Oscillator Lab),

Chiara received her Master's degree in Physics from the University of Genoa (I). After working at Empa as a scientist in the field of atomic force microscopy for several years, she moved into administration, first for CCMX and then for the laboratory of Prof. Hans J. Hug. In April 2024, she joined the Degen group. She is a passionate diving coach for children and a diving judge for Swiss Aquatics.

Christian Degen, Principal Investigator, 

Christian joined ETH in 2011 after positions at MIT, Leiden University and IBM Research, Almaden. His background includes a PhD in magnetic resonance (Prof. Beat Meier) and postdoctoral training in scanning force microscopy (Dr. Dan Rugar). Since 2009, he has led a research group on quantum sensing and nanomechanics. Christian was tenured in 2017 and promoted to full professor in 2020.

Chaoxin Ding, PhD Student, 

Chaoxin joined the Degen group as a PhD student in May 2022, focusing on quantum imaging of nanoscale electronic transport with NV centers. Previously, he participated in a Quantech workshop jointly with the Degen group and QZabre within the ETH Master's program in Quantum Engineering. As one of the first graduating quantum engineers, he completed his Master's thesis in the Quantum Photonics Group in April 2022.  

Vincent Dumont, Postdoc,

Vincent joined the nanomechanics team in November 2022 as a postdoctoral researcher to concentrate on magnetic force resonance microscopy and parametric oscillators. He obtained a Bachelor's (2015) degree in Physics from the University of Montreal, and a Master's (2017) and PhD (2022) degrees in Physics from McGill University, both under the supervision of Jack Sankey in the field of optomechanics.

Farnaz Ebrahimi, PhD student, 

Farnaz joined the group in April 2023 after her Master's studies in Materials Science. During her PhD work, which she mainly performs at CSEM Neuchâtel in the team of Amir Ghadimi, she aims to develop a new generation of ultrahigh-sensitive miniaturized opto-mechanical accelerometers. Her main focus is on simulation and modeling of opto-mechanical systems as well as micro-fabrication.

Alexander Eichler, Senior Scientist, 

Alexander studied physics in Basel from 2000-05, followed by a PhD in C. Schönenberger's group. His first postdoctoral position was in A. Bachtold's group in Barcelona, where he investigated the nonlinear properties of nanomechanical resonators made from carbon nanotubes and graphene. In 2013, he joined the Degen group to work on magnetic resonance force microscopy. Since 2019 he has been a senior scientist in charge of our nanomechanics team.

Urs Grob, Technician, 

After studying physics at ETH Zurich, Urs joined the Degen group in 2013 and completed his PhD on high-resolution cantilever-based magnetic resonance force microscopy in 2019. Since 2020, he has been the group's technician helping the scientific staff design experimental components, order new equipment and set up instruments.

Sebastián Guerrero Soriano, PhD Student

Sebastián holds a Bachelor’s degree and a Master's degree in Physics from ETH Zurich. After completing his Master’s thesis project on micromechanical resonators in September 2021, he decided to stay in the Degen group and joined the Diamond Lab for his PhD. His research focuses on cryogenic quantum sensing and its applications to multiferroic materials.

Konstantin Herb, PhD Student, 

Konstantin holds a Bachelor's degree in Physics from the University of Stuttgart and a Master's degree in Physics from ETH Zurich. He joined the Degen group in 2018 for his Master's thesis, for which he was awarded an ETH Medal. After a research stay at the Martinos Center of the Harvard Medical School and MIT, he rejoined the group for his PhD in January 2020.

Bhavesh Kharbanda, PhD Student, 

Bhavesh joined the group as a MSc student to learn how NV centres 'relax' after his studies at KIT & IIT Madras. In April 2022, he moved to (literally) very cool optomechanics for his PhD, working with string resonators, photonic cavities and milli-Kelvin temperatures. With his prior quest in the fields of engineering physics and optics, he is onto getting magnetic spins perform some back flips.

Kuno Knapp, PhD Student, 

Kuno received both his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics from ETH Zurich. After having studied the relaxation mechanisms of niobium and tantalum transmon qubits for his Master's thesis, Kuno joined the Degen group in September 2023 to work on the millikelvin scanning NV setup, looking to harness the potential of NV magnetometry in the sub-kelvin regime.

Christa Leumann, Admin. Assistant (Diamond Lab & Finances),

Christa obtained a Master's degree in English (2010) and a degree to teach English at secondary level II (2011) from UZH. After working as an English teacher at Swiss grammar schools, she changed into administration. From 2013-2017, she worked as an assistant to Prof. Merkt at ETH Zurich before dedicating herself full time to her family for two years. In June 2019, she joined the Degen group.

Gabriel Margiani, PhD Student, 

Gabriel received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Physics from ETH Zurich. For his Master's thesis, he joined the Spin Physics group in 2021 focusing on phase-state switching in single and coupled pairs of parametric micro-mechanical oscillators. He rejoined the Degen group for his PhD in January 2022, working on coupled nonlinear parametric oscillators.

Annika Mechnich, PhD Student, 

Annika studied Physics at the University of Konstanz. During her studies, she went to the Victoria University of Wellington (NZ) as an exchange student and to the University of Cambridge (UK) for her Master's thesis, where she started working on scanning diamond quantum magnetometry, which she will continue to do for her PhD in the Degen group as from November 2023. Learning from the NV center, she plays Lacrosse (LAX) to reLAX.

Nicholas Meinhardt, PhD Student, 

Nicholas joined the group in March 2022 as a PhD student focusing on time-resolved scanning NV magnetometry of dynamic fields in magnetic racetrack devices. Prior to that, he already worked on a collaborative project of QZabre and the Degen group. He obtained a Bachelor's and a Master's degree in Physics from ETH Zurich and completed his Master's thesis at the interface between quantum algorithms and machine learning at TNO in The Hague.

Luis Martins Mestre, PhD Student,

Luis joined the group in September 2023 to work on parametric string resonators. For his Master's at The University of Manchester (UK), he built an Earth's field NMR device. He then worked at an R&D technical consultancy in Cambridge (UK), where he developed various proof-of-principle prototypes in the lab for products in the medical and consumer sectors. After two years of work, he decided to go back into academia for a PhD.

Shobhna Misra, PhD Student, 

Shobhna started her PhD in the Spin Physics group in October 2020. Her research focuses on developing versatile magnetic scanning tips for membrane-based scanning force microscopy. She worked towards the development of a quantum biomimetic electronic nose sensor as part of her Master's thesis. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Engineering Physics and her Master's degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Uros Ognjanovic, PhD Student, 

Uros holds Bachelor's degrees in Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics from TU Delft. He obtained his Master's degree in Quantum Engineering at ETH Zurich, with a Master's thesis on radiation-induced quasiparticles in Niobium and seedless-Tantalum qubits. He joined the Degen group in November 2023 as a PhD student, focusing on NV magnetometry in the milli-Kelvin regime.

Nils Prumbaum, PhD Student, 

Nils joined the Degen group in June 2020 after obtaining his Master's degree in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology from ETH Zurich. His research focuses on recording and reconstructing 3D nano-MRI images using a technique called magnetic resonance force microscopy.

Laura van Schie, PhD Student,

Laura joined the group in September 2021 following her Master's studies at Durham University. Her research will span two groups (Gambardella group and Degen group), combining quantum sensing using diamond NV centres with analysis of dynamic fields in magnetic racetracks. She is hoping that joining the Spin Physics group will help her master her turns on the basketball court.

Diego Visani, PhD Student, 

After his Master's studies in Physics at EPFL, Diego worked in an emerging spin-off, producing frequency-agile narrow linewidth lasers targeting the LiDAR industry. He joined the Degen group in April 2022 to work on membrane-based magnetic resonance force microscopy, aiming at improving the experimental setup and measuring spins at milli-Kelvin temperatures, hoping to beat the current records in spin sensitivity and spatial resolution.

Laura Völker, PhD Student, 

Laura holds a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Chemistry from ETH Zurich and has a background in NMR spectroscopy of inorganic materials and surface organometallic chemistry. She joined the Degen group in January 2022 as a PhD student to study chirality-induced spin selectivity using nitrogen vacancy centers in diamond.