Invited Speakers

He received his Diploma in Physics from Technische Universität Berlin in 2005 and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto in 2010. He subsequently held postdoctoral appointments at the Max-Planck-Institut for Quantum Optics in Garching (2010) and at the Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft in Berlin (2010–2013). He has been a Group Leader at the Fritz-Haber-Institut since 2014.

Atac Imamoglu received his PhD in 1991 from Stanford University for his work on electromagnetically induced transparency. After an ITAMP postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, he joined University of California, Santa Barbara as an assistant professor where he demonstrated the first solid-state single-photon source. In 2002, he moved to the Department of Physics at ETH Zurich, where he leads the Quantum Photonics group. His research focuses on quantum optics of two dimensional materials, with a strong emphasis on optical spectroscopy of strongly correlated electrons in van der Waals heterostructures.

Deep Jariwala is an Associate Professor and the Peter & Susanne Armstrong Distinguished Scholar in the Electrical and Systems Engineering as well as Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn). Deep completed his undergraduate degree in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Varanasi and his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. Deep was a Resnick Prize Postdoctoral Fellow at Caltech before joining Penn to start his own research group. His research interests broadly lie at the intersection of new materials, surface science and solid-state devices for computing, opto-electronics and energy harvesting applications in addition to the development of correlated and functional imaging techniques. Deep’s research has been widely recognized with several awards from professional societies, funding bodies, industries as well as private foundations, the most notable ones being the Optica Adolph Lomb Medal, the Bell Labs Prize, the AVS Peter Mark Memorial Award, IEEE Photonics Society Young Investigator Award, IEEE Nanotechnology Council Young Investigator Award and the SPIE Early career achievement award. He also a fellow of Optica and received the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship. He has published over 150 journal papers with more than 25000 citations and holds several patents. He serves as the Associate Editor for Nano Letters (ACS) and has been appointed asaDistinguished Lecturer for the IEEE Nanotechnology Council for 2025. His research has also led to a spin-out company Agni Semiconductor, based on ferroelectric nitride memory technology of which he serves a co-founder and technical lead.

Feng Ding is a Chair Professor at the Shenzhen Institutes of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and a Visiting Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Rice University. He previously served as a Distinguished Professor at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) and as a Group Leader at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Center for Multidimensional Carbon Materials. Earlier in his career, he held faculty positions at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and conducted research at Rice University.

Prof. Ding received his Ph.D. in Physics from Nanjing University, following his master’s degree from Fudan University and bachelor’s degree from Huazhong University of Science and Technology. His research focuses on theoretical and computational materials science, with particular emphasis on materials simulation, algorithm development for materials design, and the growth mechanisms, synthesis, and properties of carbon and low-dimensional materials, including graphene and carbon nanotubes.

He has made seminal contributions to understanding and controlling the growth of low-dimensional carbon materials, with publications in leading journals such as Nature, Nature Materials, and Science Advances. His work has played a key role in advancing the fundamental theory and practical realization of high-quality, structure-controlled carbon nanomaterials.

Dr. Haoning Tang is an incoming Assistant Professor at MIT Mechanical Engineering. She is currently an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at UC Berkeley. She was a Harvard Quantum Initiative Postdoctoral Fellow at the John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. She earned her Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University and her bachelor’s degree in Electronic and Computer Engineering from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Dr. Tang has received several prestigious awards, including the Rising Star of Light Award, the Harvard Quantum Initiative Fellowship, and the Harvard Hong Kong Jockey Club Fellowship. Her lab conducts interdisciplinary research at the intersection of nanophotonics, optical instrumentation, and device engineering, with a focus on metamaterials, quantum materials, and MEMS-enabled platforms. We develop innovative approaches to in situ tuning of mechanical, electrical, and optical properties of metamaterials and thin films, enabling hyper-reconfigurable light sources, strong light–matter interactions, and meta-optic sensors and modulators.

Hyeon Suk Shin is the director of IBS Center for 2D Quantum Heterostructures at SKKU and a professor at Department of Energy & Department of Chemistry, SKKU. Before joining IBS center and SKKU, he was a UNIST endowed chair professor at Department of Chemistry, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST), Korea. He received his PhD from Department of Chemistry at POSTECH in 2002. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at University of Cambridge, UK and subsequently as a research Professor at POSTECH, he joined UNIST in 2008 and recently moved to SKKU to become the director of the IBS center at SKKU in 2024. He received ‘Man Jung Han Academic Award’ (Korean Chemical Society) in 2025, ‘Scientist of the Month’ award (Ministry of Science and ICT) in 2023, Grand Academic Award (UNIST) in 2023, ‘Top 100 National R&D Outstanding Achievements’ award (Ministry of Science and ICT) in 2021, Sigma-Aldrich Excellent Chemist Award (Korean Chemical Society) in 2021, Basic Researcher of the Year award (Ministry of Science and ICT, Republic of Korea) in 2020, Creative Knowledge Award (Minster Award by Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning) in 2015, outstanding researcher award (Materials Chemistry Division, KCS) in 2015, the Faculty of the Year award of UNIST in 2014, and the Minister award of Ministry of Knowledge Economy, Korea in 2012. His current research focuses on 2D quantum (heterostructures) materials and their quantum phenomena as well as amorphous counterparts of 2D materials.

Ivan Sanchez Esqueda is an associate professor of electrical engineering at Arizona State University. His research focuses on semiconductor devices and on nanoelectronics. His work includes the development of logic, memory, and neuromorphic devices using emerging low-dimensional materials. His work also contributes to theoretical modeling/analysis of nanoscale devices including extreme environments (cryogenic, radiation, reliability). Prior to joining Arizona State University, he was a research scientist at the University of Southern California. Prof. Sanchez Esqueda is a senior member of the IEEE and serves as Associate Editor for the IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices.

Dr. Jacques Hawecker is a Post doctoral researcher at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology in Okinawa Japan, specializing in photoemission electron microscopy of two-dimensional materials. Dr. Hawecker received his Ph.D in Physics from Ecole Normale Supérieur in Paris France, where he investigated novel ultrafast spintronic terahertz sources and light-matter interactions. His current research explores the interplay between defect spatial distribution and moiré ferroelectricity.

Dr. Jonghwan Kim is an Associate Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH) and a faculty member of the Center for Van der Waals Quantum Solids at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in Korea. He received his Ph.D. in Physics from the University of California, Berkeley, where he specialized in ultrafast optical phenomena in two-dimensional materials. Before joining POSTECH, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Dr. Kim’s research focuses on quantum optics and strong-field light–matter interactions in van der Waals solids, with particular emphasis on high-harmonic generation (HHG), exciton dynamics, and ultrafast metrologies. He has co-authored over 30 publications in Nature, Science, Nano Letters, and other top journals, with over 16,000 citations to date. He is a recipient of the Il-Beom Chaired Professorship at POSTECH, the OSK Rising Stars 30 Award, and the TJ Park Science Fellowship.

Kaihui Liu is a Professor in the School of Physics at Peking University and has been a principal investigator there since 2014. He received his Ph.D. from the Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2009 under the supervision of Prof. Enge Wang, and completed postdoctoral research with Prof. Feng Wang at the University of California, Berkeley from 2009 to 2014.

Prof. Liu’s research centers on advanced experimental instrumentation and condensed matter physics, with a strong emphasis on the development of state-of-the-art scientific measurement platforms and their application to fundamental physical problems. He has led several major national research initiatives, including the National Major Scientific Research Instrument Development Project, key projects of the National Key R&D Program, and multiple high-level municipal and national science and technology programs.

His contributions have been widely recognized through numerous honors, including the First Prize of the Beijing Science and Technology Award, the Xplorer Prize, and recognition as one of the Top 10 Emerging Technologists in China. He has also received multiple awards for excellence in research, education, and innovation at both the national level and Peking University.

Kenji Yasuda is an assistant professor in the School of Applied and Engineering Physics at Cornell University. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics in 2018 from the University of Tokyo and completed his postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2023, where he pioneered the field of artificial ferroelectrics based on van der Waals heterostructures. His research interest lies in designing quantum nanomaterials and heterostructures to explore novel physical properties and functionalities.

Sebastien completed his PhD (2019–2023) in the LEM and GEMaC laboratories in Paris, France. He then conducted a postdoctoral fellowship at the LPCNO in Toulouse, France (2023–2025), before joining the FSU team at OIST in Japan as a postdoctoral researcher in September 2025. His research focuses on excitons, defects and ferroelectricity in 2D materials and their heterostructures. To study these areas of physics, he uses experimental techniques such as time-resolved cathodoluminescence, photoluminescence, and, most recently, time-resolved ARPES.

Serkan Ateş is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Sabancı University, İstanbul, Türkiye, where he leads the Quantum Photonics Systems Laboratory. His primary research focuses on solid-state quantum optics and nanophotonics, including the optical properties of defects in hexagonal Boron Nitride and their application in quantum key distribution. Before joining Sabancı University, he was an Associate Professor at İzmir Institute of Technology, Türkiye, for ten years. Dr. Ateş completed his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Stuttgart, Germany, in 2011, focusing on resonance fluorescence and stimulated light emission from coupled semiconductor quantum dot cavity systems. After PhD, he has held research roles at the Quantum Cryptology Division at TÜBİTAK BİLGEM (Türkiye), NIST (USA), and the Technical University of Denmark. He is also the Founder of QLocked Quantum Technologies. His work has been recognized with the Presidential Young Researcher Award (TÜBA-GEBİP) in 2017, and the Young Scientist Award in Physics (BAGEP) in 2019.

Takashi Taniguchi is a NIMS Fellow at the National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan, and a globally recognized leader in the synthesis of ultra-high-quality hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) single crystals.

He pioneered high-pressure crystal growth techniques that enabled the realization of high-purity hBN using optimized barium-based solvents, establishing a reliable route to bulk single crystals with exceptional structural and optical quality. These hBN crystals exhibit bright band-edge deep-ultraviolet emission near 220 nm and have become the benchmark insulating substrates for two-dimensional materials, including graphene.

Taniguchi’s hBN crystals are now widely used by the international research community, with samples distributed to more than 500 research institutions across over 30 countries. His work has played a foundational role in advancing two-dimensional electronics, quantum devices, spintronics, and quantum photonics.

Dr. Tongcang Li joined Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 2014 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2023. He has served as Director of the NSF IUCRC Center for Quantum Technologies (CQT) and as an Associate Editor for Photonics Research. Dr. Li has received multiple prestigious awards, including the Moore Foundation Experimental Physics Investigators Award and the NSF CAREER Award. Dr. Li is an expert in quantum sensing and optomechanics. He has published one book and over 70 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals including Science and Nature. Recently, his group achieved single nuclear spin detection and control in hexagonal boron nitride [Nature 643, 943 (2025)]. His work on GHz rotation of an optically levitated nanoparticle was recognized as one of the ten “Highlights of the Year” across all fields of physics in 2018 by the Physics magazine of the American Physical Society, and his research on on-chip optical levitation with a metalens was featured among the 30 breakthroughs in “Optics in 2022” by Optics & Photonics News.

Young Duck Kim is an Associate Professor of Physics at Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea. His research focuses on two-dimensional quantum materials, especially hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and moiré superlattices. His group explores defect-based quantum emitters, deep-UV electroluminescence, and advanced optical spectroscopy for quantum photonics and sensing applications.

Yueh-Chun Wu received his Ph.D. in 2023 from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where he studied the optical spectroscopy of many-body excitons in van der Waals heterostructures. He is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, where he investigates solid-state defects as quantum sensing probes. His research focuses on developing quantum sensing techniques to understand emergent charge and spin orders in quantum materials, particularly two-dimensional magnets and correlated electron systems in van der Waals heterostructures.