Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez wins FOM Physics Thesis Prize 2015
This year's FOM Physics Thesis Prize has been won by Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez. He receives the prize worth 10,000 euros for his thesis: 'Coupling Light and Matter in Metallic Nanoparticle Arrays'. In the thesis Rodriguez describes a number of studies that have increased our understanding of the interaction between light and matter. Rodriguez focuses on the light-matter interaction at the minute scale of nanometres (billionths of metres).
Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez was awarded his doctorate cum laude, for his work in a AMOLF research group at Eindhoven University of Technology, under supervision of Jaime G ó mez Rivas. His research was part of an Industrial Partnership Programme between FOM and Philips Research. Many of the concepts that Rodriguez examined are therefore not only of fundamental importance but are also contributing, amongst other things, to the development of LED lighting.
For example, Rodriguez and his colleagues from AMOLF designed a new type of nanoscale antennae for light, in the form of pyramids. The slanting shape increases the interference between the magnetic and electrical fields of light. Consequently the antennae are capable of amplifying different colours of light and emitting these in opposite directions. The discovery could make LEDs more efficient. This, and other application-oriented solutions, ensured that the research of Rodriguez resulted in four patents in collaboration with Philips Research.
Fundamental knowledge, valorisation and outreach
Rodriguez demonstrated his multitalented abilities during his doctoral research. Together with his colleagues, he published an impressive 18 articles in scientific journals, including three in Physical Review Letters, one in Physical Review X and two in Nano Letters. Furthermore, Rodriguez gave numerous lectures to researchers in his discipline on national and international podia. And Rodriguez knew how to share his work with a wider public via various national media as well. The evaluation committee of the FOM Physics Thesis Prize therefore stated that it was highly impressed by Rodriguez's superb fundamental research, the valorisation and his outreach activities. "This thesis is the work of a highly professional, all-round scientist," said the committee.
Rodriguez is currently working as a Marie Curie Individual Fellow at the CNRS Laboratory for Photonics and Nanostructures in France. "I want to make an experimental quantum simulator of interacting photons with which I can study the quantum properties of light," says Rodriguez.
Rodriguez will receive the FOM Physics Thesis Prize on 19 January 2016 during the annual congress Physics@FOM Veldhoven.
Contact information
Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez, +33 754 83 45 59.
Referentie
The prize-winning thesis can be found on the website of Eindhoven University of Technology.
See Said Rahimzadeh-Kalaleh Rodriguez's personal website as well.