Speakers

- Biography and abstract

Susanne Viefers

Head of the Department of Physics at the University of Oslo (UiO)

Susanne Viefers is Head of department and professor of theoretical physics at the Department of Physics, UiO. Her research has always focused on various aspects of quantum science, especially quantum physical phenomena in one- and two-dimensional materials.

She has also taught quantum physics for a number of years. Viefers has a PhD from UiO (1997), worked as a postdoc at NORDITA (then Copenhagen), Chalmers (Gothenburg) and the University of Jyväskylä (Finland). She has been a permanent employee at UiO since 2003, the last five years as head of department. She is a member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters.

  Employee profile at the University of Oslo (UiO)

Lecture: Quantum Science: From Fascinating Natural Phenomenon to Tomorrow's Technology

Abstract: When quantum physics emerged just over a hundred years ago, it represented a paradigm shift in our understanding of nature, and especially of nature's smallest components. It has long fascinated people far beyond the ranks of physicists and has almost been somewhat shrouded in myth. Gradually, quantum physics has also gained invaluable importance for technological development. Quantum technology, with its unprecedented possibilities for computer calculations, sensor technology and communication, is now a major area of ​​focus throughout the world.

In this talk, I will give a review of some of the main features and fascinating properties of quantum physics, and how these are now being exploited to develop completely new types of technology. I will then discuss the status and potential of quantum technology, illustrated with examples.

Anton Frisk Kockum

Associate Professor at Chalmers University of Technology

Anton Frisk Kockum is a theoretical physicist working on various aspects of quantum optics and quantum information, including superconducting quantum computers, circuit quantum electrodynamics, giant atoms, ultrastrong light-matter coupling, and quantum acoustics. He received his Ph.D. degree in physics from Chalmers University of Technology in 2014 and then moved to Japan to be a postdoctoral researcher in the group of Franco Nori at RIKEN, where he was supported for two years through a JSPS Fellowship.

In 2018, he moved back to Sweden, taking up a permanent position as a researcher at the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology (WACQT), at Chalmers University of Technology. From June 2020 to November 2022, he was also the scientific coordinator of WACQT. In May 2024, he was tenured as associate professor.

  Employee profile at Chalmers

Lecture: Quantum technology and WACQT

Abstract: We are in the middle of what has been called the second quantum revolution, where precise control over systems that obey the laws of quantum physics enable progress in many technologies, e.g., computers, sensors, and communication devices. In this presentation, I will explain what quantum technology is based on and what it can be used for.

I will also give an overview of the Swedish efforts in quantum technology through WACQT — the Wallenberg Centre for Quantum Technology. In particular, I will show how we build a Swedish quantum computer based on superconducting circuits in the core project of WACQT at Chalmers University of Technology.

Florian Ströhl

Researcher, Professor at the Department of Physics and Technology, The Arctic University of Norway (UiT)

Dr Ströhl's research is on the development of advanced optical system for use in biology, medicine, and industry. He leads projects cover optical system development, production of optic elements, photolithography, optical theory, nanoscopy for use in pathology, mechanosensitive microscopy development, and light-sheet microscopy development for regenerative medicine. 

With a PhD in Biotechnology and over twelve years of optics research experience, Dr Florian Ströhl has a strong background in designing and managing advanced optical systems, analysing microscopy data, and creating workflows for image acquisition and analysis. Dr Ströhl's work spans application-oriented R&D, optical systems engineering, and project management.

  Employee profile at the Arctic University of Norway (UiT)

Lecture: A Decade in 4D Live Microscopy: Looking Under the Hood

Abstract: I want to take you on a journey through the last ten years of my field of research - 4D live microscopy. Live microscopy allows us to observe living cells in real-time and capture dynamic processes as they unfold and evolve in 3D space. This capability provides invaluable insights into the complex and dynamic nature of biological systems, as well as stunning imagery. I’ll be focusing on technical innovations while ensuring that the methods are contextualized within their respective applications in dementia research, regenerative medicine, and developmental biology.

Our journey begins at Cambridge University, where I completed my PhD and served as Head of Imaging at the Dementia Research Institute. Here, I worked on super-resolution, a technique that allows us to surpass the diffraction limit of conventional optical microscopy. Together with medical scientists, we used these methods to study phase transitions of molecules thought to be involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Following my time in Cambridge, I started my own group at the Arctic University in Tromsø. Driven by application needs, my focus shifted to the development of ultra-fast confocal microscopy methods tailored to tissue imaging in the context of regenerative medicine. Specifically, we developed a confocal microscope that can record an entire volume in a single camera exposure. With this machine, we managed to capture tiniest cellular organelles in engineered human heart tissue - an achievement I believe will have wide-ranging implications for therapeutic strategies in heart repair.

The final leg of my talk covers my time at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany, where I concentrated on the development of light-sheet microscopy. This technique has revolutionized our ability to study the developmental biology of maritime specimens, providing detailed insights into how entire living organisms develop on a cellular level. Recently, we finalized a similar method in Tromsø, which will allow us to study the immune system of farmed fish, with the hope of improving the conditions in which these animals are raised.

Reflecting on this decade, I must conclude that live microscopy is truly at the crossroads of biomedicine, engineering, and physics.

Alex Hansen

Professor and Director of Center of Excellence PoreLab, NTNU

Alex Hansen earned a Cand. Real. degree at the University of Oslo in 1981 under the direction of Finn Ravndal.  He continued his studies at Cornell University obtaining a PhD in theoretical physics in 1986, followed by postdoctoral positions at Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris, the University of Cologne, IBM Bergen Scientific Centre and the University of Oslo.  In 1992 he got a permanent position with the French CNRS and in 1994 he was appointed professor at the NTH – the Norwegian Institute of Technology (today NTNU).  

Alex Hansen research focuses on transport in disordered systems, with an emphasis on porous media over the last years.  His main interests today lay at the intersection between fluid mechanics and statistical mechanics.  
Since 2017 Hansen has headed the Center of Excellence PoreLab (porelab.no), and from beginning of 2025, he holds an ERC Advanced Grant on the use of statistical mechanics to describe immiscible two-phase flow in porous media. 

  Employee profile at NTNU

Lecture: Porous media: A rapidly advancing basic research field with immediate applications

Abstract: “Physics of porous media” is a term that would contain very little up to a few years ago. Even though porous media are at the center of many fields such as soil science or fuel cells, there has been little or no communication between them, leading to our knowledge on porous media being highly fragmented. The advent of systematic investigations of the basic physical principles behind transport phenomena in porous media started in the eighties as a result of the emergence of the computer as a serious and available research tool.

At that time, it was the fractal structure of the fluid injection patterns that fascinated the researchers. Since then, a proper sub-field of soft condensed matter physics has emerged which focuses on the physics of the problem in a unified manner.  Among myriads of open questions, there are some overarching ones that stand out. In my opinion, the most important one is to find an effective description of transport in porous media in the continuum limit. We have such a description for solids: elasticity theory, and fluids/gases: hydrodynamics – but not for porous media, or rather, not yet. I will focus my talk on this question.            

Vegard Gjerde

Postdoc, Department of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen (UiB)

Vegard Gjerde is a postdoctoral fellow in physics didactics at the University of Bergen (UiB) with experience in teaching mechanics and physics at the university level.

He has published research on learning strategies in physics and developed digital resources to promote student learning. Gjerde's work combines insights from cognitive psychology, physics education research, and motivational research to develop teaching methods adapted to the brain's mechanisms for learning and understanding.

  Employee profile at the University of Bergen (UiB)

Lecture: Physics learning based on how the brain works

Abstract: How can we adapt physics teaching to the brain's natural learning processes? This presentation will discuss how effective learning strategies can be systematized to help students go from knowing nothing to solving complex problems.

Drawing on research in learning strategies and cognitive psychology, I will discuss how the brain processes and stores physics knowledge, why physics principles should be at the center, and how artificial intelligence can support the learning process. I will also highlight common fallacies that hinder deep understanding, and how instruction can be designed to strengthen both conceptual understanding and problem-solving skills.

Sol Jacobsen

Researcher at Quantum Spintronics (QuSpin) SFF at NTNU

Sol H. Jacobsen is a senior researcher at the QuSpin Center for Quantum Spintronics, NTNU, where she leads a group that examines the fundamental physics of how superconductors interact with light and matter. She received the University of York (U.K.) Goodwin Prize for Physics, and an Australian Endeavour scholarship for her Ph.D. at the University of Tasmania.

In 2019, she was awarded a Young Research Talents grant by the Research Council of Norway (RCN), and was selected as an Outstanding Academic Fellow of NTNU. The U.K. Journal of Physics named her as an Emerging Leader in Condensed Matter Physics of 2023. Her new RCN FRIPRO-project for experienced researchers, SuperFlex, will investigate the role of strain and curvature in superconducting structures. She is this year’s recipient of the Australian Institute of Physics Women in Physics Lecturer Federal Medal.

  Employee profile at NTNU

Lecture: Interacting with superconductors

Abstract: Five Nobel prizes have highlighted advances in understanding the fundamental physics of how some materials – superconductors – can transport currents without heat loss. Despite this, there is still so much we don’t understand about how these materials interact with other states of matter, or external impulses.

Here we’ll explore some of these fundamentals, and how certain interactions can let us harness their properties for pioneering quantum technologies.

Per Barth Lilje

Professor at the Department for the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo (UiO)

Per Barth Lilje is professor and former Head of Department for Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at Universitetet i Oslo. He received his PhD degree in astronomy from University of Cambridge in1988, continuing as a postdoctoral researcher fellow at the Canadian Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics in1988 – 1989 and as a NORDITA-fellow in Copenhagen from 1989 to 1992. Since 1992 he has been permanently affiliated with the University of Oslo.

Per Barth Lile’s main academic interests covers cosmology, large-scale structures in the universe, the cosmic background radiation and astrophysical space projects.

He is a delegate to the European Space Agency Science Programme Committee, member of Board of Directors, Astronomy and Astrophysics (journal) and member of the Governing Board of NORDITA and he is leading the Norwegian participation in the international space project Euclid, with wide international participation.

  Employee profile at the University of Oslo (UiO)

Lecture: The Euclid space mission and the accelerating expansion of the Universe

Abstract: In our daily life, gravity is always an attractive force. After Hubble discovered the expansion of the Universe in 1929, it has been usual to think that the expansion of the Universe must be decelerating, although there have also been other ideas. In fact, Einstein first in 1917 inserted the “cosmological constant” in his equations, as a kind of universal repelling force,  to allow a static universe, something he later called his greatest blunder. This cosmological constant has come back.

In 1998 it was clear from observations of exploding stars, awarded with the Nobel Prize, that the Universe in fact is accelerating and not decelerating, and that the data fits well with Einstein’s cosmological constant. However, the existence of a cosmological constant is perhaps the greatest mystery of current theoretical physics, as theory would predict a cosmological constant more than 60 magnitudes larger than given by the data. Is it really Einstein’s cosmological constant we are seeing, or some kind of dynamic field, dubbed “dark energy”, or is something wrong with general relativity?

To get a handle on this, the European Space Agency in 2011 selected Euclid as a future mission. Euclid was launched on the 1st of July 2023 and is now surveying the sky to get a detailed picture of the expansion history of the Universe, to try to give a better explanation of what is causing the expansion of the Universe to accelerate. In this talk, I will describe the Euclid mission and its background.