How an accidental photo of a spider changed Alberto Borges’s life

BSc MSc PhD
Carmem is an experimental physicist using quantum-optical tools to investigate materials. As a Rubicon Fellow funded by the Dutch Research Council, she explores how materials with engineered symmetries can have added functionality for information processing technologies.
After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Brasilia in 2014, Carmem moved to Groningen, the Netherlands. There, she finished a Master's programme in Nanoscience followed by a PhD investigating the optics of crystalline defects in traditional semiconductors with potential quantum-technological applications. Both her Master's and PhD degrees were awarded cum laude, the highest distinction in the Netherlands. For the work developed during her PhD, she has been recognized with the 2023 Ehrenfest-Afanassjewa Thesis Award from the Dutch Physics Council, the 2022 New Journal of Physics Early Career Award, and with an honourable mention in the 2022 Dutch For Women in Science Rising Talents Award from the L’Oreal-UNESCO Foundation. The Dutch Research Council funds her current position at the University of Cambridge via a Rubicon Fellowship.
Carmem uses a combination of theoretical and experimental tools to investigate the interplay between optics and spin – a quantum mechanical property of electrons that determines how they interact with magnetic fields – in different material systems. She is interested in platforms with engineered symmetries, where novel functionality may arise from the interaction between spins and different degrees of freedom. Ultimately, she would like to contribute to a change in the paradigm of how one searches for materials and systems for spin-based applications, from a characterization-based search towards a targeted approach where systems are designed from the bottom up to express specific functionalities.
How can the archaeology of temples account for people with disabilities?
We hear terms like ‘research impact’ and ‘engagement’ all the time, but what does ‘impact’ and ‘engagement’ actually look like in practice?
Join Professor Inger Mewburn, also known online as the Thesis Whisperer, for one or both workshops to help increase your productivity: Getting sh!t done and Building a second brain (for writing)
Visit Wolfson's latest exhibition 'Things Put Differently' featuring Gavin Fry and works by Anthony Green and Mary Cozens-Walker.
We're delighted to be the first to display Gurpran Rau's latest exhibition 'Patterns of Renewal', featuring a series of paintings created during lockdown inspired by her walks in the woods of Cambridgeshire.