June 2025

July 2023

Principal investigator

Georgios Katsaros

georgios.katsaros@ist.ac.at

I completed my BSc in Physics at the University of Patras in Greece. After a one year research stay at NCSR Demokritos in Athens, I went to the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research to do my PhD thesis in the group of Klaus Kern. In 2006 I moved to the group of Silvano De Franceschi at CEA Grenoble for my postdoctoral studies. Since 2016, and after group leader positions at IFW Dresden and JKU Linz, I am the PI of the Nanoelectronics group at IST Austria.

Postdocs

Kevin Roux

kevin.roux@ist.ac.at

I completed my MSc in Physics at Université Paris Saclay and Institut d’Optique with a specialization in quantum physics; optics and condensed matter. After my master thesis at ETHZ in the group of Tilman Esslinger I started my PhD at EPFL under the supervision of Pr. J-P. Brantut where I build the first experiment combining strongly interacting fermions and photons in the strong coupling regime. Since Nov 2022 I work in the nanoelectronics group on cQED with holes in gate-defined quantum dots with the goal to use this system to simulate the physics of strongly correlated fermions with long-range photon mediated interactions.

Simon Robson

simon.robson@ist.ac.at

I completed my BSc in 2015, majoring in Physics and Computer Science at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Afterwards, I moved to the University of Melbourne and obtained my MSc in 2017 with a thesis on the deterministic implantation of single phosphorus ions into silicon. I then stayed on for my PhD and extended these studies to develop a method to create entangled donor nanoarrays in silicon for a flip-flop qubit architecture, along with investigating semiconductor device failure analysis using a near-surface focused ion probe. I joined the Nanoelectronics group in July 2023 with the goal to create large-scale quantum devices based on hole qubits in Ge/SiGe heterostructures.

Ming Ni

ming.ni@ista.ac.at

I completed my BSc in 2018 at Hefei University of Technology, majoring in Microelectronics and Solid State Physics. In September 2018, I joined the group of Prof. Guo-ping Guo at University of Science and Technology of China as a PhD student in a combined master’s and PhD program. During this program, I focused on silicon spin qubits based on Si MOS quantum dots, including experimental and theoretical investigations of two-qubit gates and device fabrication. Since August 2024, I am part of the Nanoelectronics group, working on hole spin qubit operations based on planar Ge quantum dots.

Anton Bubis

anton.bubis@ista.ac.at

Anton received his PhD in 2022 under the supervision of Albert Nasibulin (Skoltech) and Vadim Khrapai (ISSP RAS), with his research focused on electronic transport in HgTe quantum wells and InAs nanowires. After completing his doctorate, he became a postdoc in Andrew Higginbotham’s group at ISTA, working on microwave spectroscopy of Josephson junction chains. In June 2024, Anton joined Georgios Katsaros’ group as a postdoc, where he is currently investigating the superconducting proximity effect in Ge quantum wells.

PhD Students

Dina Sokolova

dina.sokolova@ista.ac.at

I obtained my bachelor’s degree in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in the summer of 2021, where I studied the properties of colloidal quantum dots. I completed my master’s degree in physics at Sorbonne University in the summer of 2023. Afterward, I joined the Nanoelectronics group as an intern in the winter of 2024, participating in the Germanium qubit project. In September 2024, I began my PhD studies at ISTA.

Kristen Williams Léonard

kristen.galvin@ista.ac.at

I completed my bachelor’s in physics at Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, USA in 2021, and wrote my bachelor’s thesis in the group of Katja Nowack. Afterwards, I moved to Austria to obtain a master’s in physics in 2023 from the University of Vienna. I conducted research and wrote my master’s thesis in the group of Andrew Higginbotham here at ISTA, and stayed on for an internship after completing my MSc. I joined the graduate program at ISTA in 2023, and I am excited to pursue my PhD in the Nanoelectronics group!

Devashish Shah

devashish.shah@ist.ac.at

I completed my bachelor’s in Engineering Physics at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, in 2024. There, I studied quantum transport in GaAs 2DEGs. Subsequently, I joined the Nanoelectronics group at ISTA to start my graduate studies; here, I will work on hybrid semi-superconducting devices on planar Ge, specifically, on realizing an Andreev spin qubit in Ge.

Yona Schell

yona.schell@ist.ac.at

I completed my bachelor in physics at University of Strasbourg in 2019. I obtained my master in nanophysics at University Grenoble Alpes and my master in physical engineering for photonics and microelectronics at Phelma in 2021. I joined the group in February 2021 as an intern for my master thesis on quantum devices in Ge quantum well. I started the PhD program in September 2021 where I am working on hole spin qubits.

Maksim Borovkov

maksim.borovkov@ist.ac.at

I obtained my Bachelor of Science degree from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in the summer of 2020 and a Master of Science degree from Princeton University in the winter of 2022. As an undergraduate student, I was an intern at the Nanoelectronics group at ISTA participating in both the Germanium qubit and the hybrid InAs/Al nanowires projects. Supervised by Prof. Bernevig at Princeton, I theoretically studied the Topological Heavy-Fermion model applied to the Twisted Bilayer Graphene. Now, returning back to ISTA as a graduate student, I am excited to explore the physics and technological prospects of hybrid semiconductor-superconductor structures based on Germanium, including but not limited by minimal Kitaev chains and Andreev qubits, with the ultimate dream of creating a topological qubit.

Giorgio Fabris

giorgio.fabris@ista.ac.at

I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Physics Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and I completed my Master’s degree in Quantum Engineering at ETH Zurich in May 2023.

I conducted my Master thesis at the University of Basel, where I focused on novel qubit platforms based on proximitized InAs 2DEGs within cQED architectures. I joined the Nanoelectronics group in September 2023 as a PhD student for working on spin qubits and hybrid semiconductor-superconductor devices based on Ge.

Paul Falthansl-Scheinecker

paul.falthansl-scheinecker@ista.ac.at

I obtained my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree at Graz University of Technology. I conducted my Master’s thesis on direct-write fabrication of plasmonic nanostructures. After joining ISTA, I worked with Andrew Higginbotham on hybrid superconudcor/semiconductor structures based on InAs, where we could utilize them as a Josephson parametric amplifier. In 2023, I joined the Nanoelectronics group exploring physics on hybrid super/semi structures based on Germanium.

Scientific Interns & Visitors

Federico Cantoro

starts on 1 October 2025
federico.cantoro@ista.ac.at

I obtained my Bachelor’s degree in Physics Engineering in 2024 and I am currently completing my Master’s degree in Physics Engineering at Politecnico di Milano. I joined the Nanoelectronics group at ISTA as an intern to pursue my Master’s thesis on quantum dot devices in planar Germanium.

—