Katja Höflich is head of the Joint Lab for Photonic Quantum Technologies at Ferdinand-Braun-Institut in Berlin. She received her diploma (German equivalent to Master’s degree) in physics from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in 2005 and her PhD in natural sciences from Martin Luther University Halle in 2011, both in Germany. From 2012, Katja was a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Light in Erlangen and moved to Helmholtz-Zentrum-Berlin (HZB) in 2015 on a Helmholtz postdoctoral fellowship.

Since 2020, she has been at the Ferdinand Braun Institute, where she continues to work closely with HZB and oversees ion microscopy, including user services.

Her current research interests focus on the design, nanofabrication, and characterization of integrated photonic and plasmonic components for enhanced light-matter interaction. These include chiral plasmonic devices, low-loss on-chip components, and nanostructured van der Waals materials.

Fabrication is performed by direct writing with focused electron and ion beams, combined with physical and chemical deposition, and exfoliation and dry transfer techniques. Analytical calculations and numerical techniques, such as finite element or finite difference time domain, are used to model and optimize the optical response of the components.

Her accomplishments include the fabrication and complete theoretical (analytical) description of helical plasmonic antennas, the first realization of gas phase direct electron beam writing of silver, and, as work in progress, the development of a Python-based toolbox to generate, optimize, and automate patterns for direct writing.

Katja is a co-proposer and leader of the application working group of the European COST Action fit4nano.

Denys Makarov received his Master Degree (2005) at the National University of Kyiv in Ukraine, followed by a Ph.D. in physics (2008) from the University of Konstanz in Germany. Currently, he is head of department “Intelligent materials and systems” at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and leads the Helmholtz Innovation Lab FlexiSens. With his activities, Denys Makarov made a decisive contribution to the development of the field of curvilinear magnetism and stimulated research on spintronics on flexible, bendable and stretchable surfaces. Mechanically flexible and skin-conformal magnetic field sensors enable new application scenarios for human-machine interfaces, eMobility and medicine. These activities are supported via major national and European projects. Denys Makarov is Senior Member of the IEEE and Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe. Web-page

Joan Vila-Comamala is a tenure-track scientist at Laboratory for X-ray Nanoscience and Technologies of the Paul Scherrer Institut (Switzerland). He studied physics at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and received his PhD in Physics for the development of high resolution diffraction X-ray lenses from the same university in 2008. In his research, he combines the state-of-the art micro and nanofabrication methods for the production X-ray lenses and instrumentation aiming at pushing the limits of X-ray science and X-ray imaging, specially for those experiments involving large scale facilities such as synchrotrons and free electron lasers. Web-page

Nicola Poccia is a Group Leader of the “Superpuddles Lab” at the Institute for Metallic Materials of the IFW-Dresden. He received his "Laurea" in physics at the Sapienza University of Rome and received his Ph.D. in Physics from Sapienza University. He was Marie Curie Fellow at the University of Twente and at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility in Grenoble, then joined as postdoctoral fellow the Department of Physics at Harvard University. His laboratory focuses in the two-dimensional materials and heterostructures of superconductors in complex quantum matter. In our lab we synthetize and isolate atomically thin superconductors, assemble these materials into novel multicomponent system and quantitatively interrogate them by means of electronic quantum transport and synchrotron radiation microscopies. Web-page

Bio - Regina investigates and develops microsystems for medicine and biology with integrated bio-inspired functionality enabled by nanolithography. She studied Applied Sciences in Germany and worked as an engineering researcher at Institut für Mikrotechnik in Mainz for nearly five years prior to starting her PhD studies in Microsystems Technologies at Imperial College, London, in 1999. In 2003 she received her PhD from the University of London on the development of fabrication technology for micro-optical scanners. Switching her research interest to microfluidics applications, Luttge went on to work at the University of Twente’s MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, The Netherlands. Initially as a senior scientist and later, when she received a Veni award by The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) as an Assistant Professor. She received her second personal award (ERC Starting grant) by the European Research Council in 2011, which empowered her to set up her own research line in microsystems for medicine and biology as a PI at University of Twente. In 2013, she moved her research line to the just started Microsystems group at TU/e, where she was also appointed Associate Professor in the same year. Since 2018, she continuous her research activities within in the Microsystems section as Chair of Neuro-Nanoscale Engineering. Currently, she is the leader of CONNECT, a 5 years EU funded project conducting research to better understand Parkinson’s disease by means of Organ on a Chip (OoC) technology. Besides education and research, Regina is passionate about spinning off new businesses, encouraging her students at all levels of their educational program to take part in the innovation chain.