Education

I did part of my undergraduate studies in Physics in south of France (Valence and Grenoble) and then in Paris (École Normale Supérieure/University Paris VII). I obtained my Master degree from the École Normale Supérieure in Paris in collaboration with the University Paris XI, and my PhD from the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). I am currently a post-doc in the Quantum Research group at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, leaded by Prof. F. Petruccione.

My research

During my PhD, my research was mostly focused on Quantum Metrology, where the objectives are to study the limitations inherent from quantum mechanics in the precision of estimation of dynamical parameters  (fundamental in any experimental measure and greatly illustrated in detection of gravitational waves). In parallel to that, strategies are setup to circumvent such limitations using quantum properties like entanglement or more generally quantum correlations.

While I am still active in this field, I am also increasingly active in quantum thermodynamics. One of the main challenges of this quickly growing field is to study how quantum properties can be harnessed to enhance the performance of thermal machines (almost universally used until today to produce useful energy or for refrigeration purposes). Part of my research is related to these essential questions for the future of energy production and management. In particular, I am studying how collective properties emerging from ensembles of quantum systems can be efficiently used to boost thermodynamic tasks.

Other aims of thermodynamics, originally created to study large ensembles, is to understand how it can be adapted to single quantum systems. The interplay with information theory and open quantum systems is also a fundamental aspect of quantum thermodynamics. An other part of my research is related this somehow more fundamental aspect, with questions related to the concept of work and heat in a quantum mechanical context, but also their intimate relation with entropy production, irreversibility, and performance of thermal machines.