Victor Torres Company and Timur Shegai are winners of the European Research Council’s (ERC) Advanced Grants, one of the most prestigious and competitive funding schemes in the EU.
The funding, worth in total 721 million euro, will go to 281 leading researchers across Europe, thirteen of them being from Sweden. The Advanced Grant gives senior researchers the opportunity to pursue ambitious, curiosity-driven projects that could lead to major scientific breakthroughs. The new grants are part of the EU’s Horizon Europe programme.
The two researchers at Chalmers who are now receiving the grant share their research and explain what the grant means to them.
Will create high-performance photonic systems on a chip
Victor Torres Company, Professor in photonics at the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience is granted 3,49 million euros for the course of five years, for the project “ProSync: Precise optical synchronization of high-speed electronics with microcombs”.
What was your initial reaction when you received this excellent piece of news?
“I genuinely felt like crying. Although I’ve never run a marathon, there was an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and relief, like reaching the finish line after a challenging journey that I had heavily prepared for. Now that a few days have passed, I realize that it is not the end but actually just the beginning, so it is not a marathon but an ironman!”
What does this grant mean to you - personally and professionally?
“From a professional perspective, this grant provides great support to focus the next five years on challenging research questions that I feel passionate about. Personally, it is crucial to remember that these types of awards do not define us as individuals or scientists. This is true regardless of whether we experience success or setbacks.”
What will you be focusing on research wise during this funding?
"The project will explore three-dimensional integration of ultralow-loss silicon nitride with advanced materials, aiming to create high-performance photonic systems on a chip, laying the foundation for novel optoelectronic synchronization architectures in datacenters.”
About Victor Torres Company
Victor Torres-Company heads the Ultrafast Photonics group, focusing on advancing laser technology for the next generation of fiber-optic communication systems. His research spans photonic integration, nonlinear physics, and laser frequency combs, with notable publications in prestigious journals like Nature Photonics, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and Physical Review Letters. In 2021, Victor co-founded the startup Iloomina AB with two PhD students to expedite the market adoption of chip-scale frequency combs.
In addition to his research, Victor actively contributes to teaching in the Wireless, Photonics, and Space Engineering program. Recognized for his contributions, he has received a European Research Council consolidator grant in 2018, a VR Consolidator grant in 2020, and a Marie Curie Fellowship. Victor also serves as the director of the VR Research Excellence center on integrated metaphotonics, a collaborative initiative between the Department of Microtechnology and Nanoscience and the Physics departments. The center aims to bridge knowledge gaps between inverse design techniques and heterogeneous integration.
Previous reading about Victor Torres Company's research:
Investigates how the Casimir effect influences self-assembly in optical microcavities
Professor Timur Shegai at the Department of Physics is granted 2,48 million euros for the course of five years, for the project “CASAlibra: Casimir self-assembly out of equilibrium”.
Timur Shegai’s research group is investigating how nano-objects, such as gold flakes, interact in a salty aqueous solution. Due to the so-called Casimir effect, the gold flakes become balanced and position themselves opposite each other without sliding apart, creating a cavity between the gold mirrors. The cavity then functions as an optical resonator that provides many opportunities to explore various physical phenomena, such as the interaction between light and matter. Sensors, control of self-assembly, and/or surface interactions could be future uses of the platform.
Congratulations! How did you feel when you found out that you received the grant?
“Thank you! I was simultaneously extremely happy and honoured to hear this wonderful news. I am also excited and motivated to implement the research program. This grant will give our group an incredible opportunity.”
Can you tell us a little more about the project? Why do you think this project was selected?
“Sure. The project is about the self-assembly of optical microcavities. It will help understand the connection between ultrastrong light-matter coupling, ground-state energy modifications, and the Casimir effect. Furthermore, it will allow us to study the influence of the material composition of both the mirrors and the environment on the Casimir-Lifshitz forces and other interface nanoscale interactions. We have recently developed a platform that enables accurate quantification of interfacial forces in extended planar structures (levitating Fabry-Perot microcavities), which will allow us to measure these subtle interactions in the regimes and with the accuracy that was previously impossible. The method allows the construction of novel tunable optical microcavities, for example, including the twist degree of freedom. Finally, these cavities may be manipulated by multiple means, including external fields (such as radiation pressure), but also out-of-equilibrium phenomena, such as chemical and pH oscillators. Altogether, this platform is extremely rich and may lead to breakthroughs in our understanding of self-assembly.”
“Probably, the project was selected because it encompasses several rather diverse research frontiers, including strong light-matter coupling, self-assembly, Casimir effect, optical microcavities, colloidal chemistry, microfluidics, non-equilibrium phenomena, and nanotechnology at large.”
What does this grant mean for you and your research group?
“It means a lot. It is both an opportunity to realize an ambitious research program but also a recognition of the previous achievements of the group. Thanks to wonderful team members, both current and previous, and other collaborators and colleagues, this became possible. Over the years, I was very lucky to work with many exceptional individuals.”
What do you hope this grant will lead to in the longer term, for the research field and for society?
“I hope the Casimir self-assembly platform, or CaSA for short, will be able to significantly improve our understanding of the interfacial forces, and especially Casimir-Lifshitz forces. I also hope that it will be able to contribute to a better understanding of self-assembly at large, including that in biologically relevant conditions.”
About Timur Shegai
Timur Shegai conducts research in experimental nanophotonics and strong light–matter interactions and serves as the principal investigator of his research group. His work spans a range of topics, including Casimir physics, ultrastrong coupling, and plasmonics, with notable publications in high-impact journals such as Nature. In 2021, he founded a spin-off company, Smena Sense AB, focusing on the development of novel nanostructured 2D materials. In addition to ERC support, Timur Shegai is currently funded by the Swedish Research Council, Vinnova, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, and the Olle Engkvist Foundation. He is actively involved in teaching and PhD supervision, and also serves as Head of Unit at the Division of Nano- and Biophysics within the Department of Physics.
Previous reading about Timur Shegai’s research:
Contact
- Professor, Photonics, Microtechnology and Nanoscience
- Head of Unit, Physics