Hanns-Christoph Nägerl studied physics in Göttingen, San Diego and Innsbruck. He received his doctorate with an experimental thesis on “Ion strings for quantum computation” from the University of Innsbruck in 1998. He then spent two years as a postdoc at the California Institute of Technology. In 2000, when the group “Ultracold Atoms and Quantum Gases” was established in Innsbruck, he joined Rudi Grimm as a university assistant. In 2006, he became associate professor at the University of Innsbruck. Highlights of Hanns-Christoph Nägerl’s early work include the realization of a Bose-Einstein of Caesium atoms, the production of ultracold samples of molecules on so-called Feshbach resonances, and the observation of the Efimov effect. In 2003, Nägerl won the prestigious START prize from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research, BMWF. In 2011 he received an ERC grant from the European Research Council. Hanns-Christoph Nägerl’s current research centers on experimental quantum many-body physics with systems of ultracold atoms and molecules. A central goal is to “quantum engineer” novel states of matter using the toolbox of quantum atom optics. At temperatures in the nanokelvin range, quantum mechanics dominates the individual and collective properties of the particles, giving rise to novel phases for quantum matter and to non-trivial phase transitions between the different quantum phases. His group investigates e.g. the properties of highly correlated many-body states that are generated when the particles are confined to periodic potentials or to lower dimensions. In his free time, apart from spending his time with his wife and three children, Nägerl likes to determine the shortest distance from mountain top to bottom with his snowboard, and, alternatively, to test the dynamics of rotating semi-rigid bodies on the dance floor.

Link to work group.