#NCCRWomen - Géraldine Haack (UNIGE)

7/2/23

Interviewed people :

Géraldine Haack is a FNS Assistant Professor at UNIGE in the Department of Applied Physics. She is a theoretical physicist, expert in quantum thermodynamics and quantum transport in nanoscale devices. Her research focuses on understanding how quantum coherent effects and quantum correlations can be exploited in out-of-equilibrium quantum systems towards energy harvesting, heat management and quantum information processing. Her research has been supported by a FNS PRIMA grant since November 2018, and she joined SwissMAP in January 2020.

Why did you choose a scientific career?

As a kid and teenager, I was always eager to provide clear explanations to questions I had or was asked. Science enabled me to do this, and I had the chance to really enjoy the mathematics, physics and biology classes. In time, it became increasingly obvious to me that I wanted to study mathematics and physics.

If you weren't a physicist, what would you be?

A doctor! I have always enjoyed contact with other people, and I admire doctors who are able to combine scientific and human skills. It is however interesting to realize that physicists at universities need a wide range of human skills, and this is sometimes forgotten by the general public. For physicists, human skills are essential for teaching, leading research groups, and presenting scientific results. All these activities constitute a good part of our daily work.

January 2019: QSIT Women Lunch Meeting at ETH Zurich.

Are you involved in outreach activities?

Physics is often viewed by non-scientists (adults and kids!) as a very difficult topic, which cannot be understood by someone who did not enjoy it as a child. There has been a clear development in outreach activities by international and national institutions over the past decade, for example, CERN and the University of Geneva in our immediate vicinity. I am convinced that these activities are of utmost importance to change how physics is perceived and to attract more women into fundamental science. In the past years, I have been participating in several activities, in the form of either visits or popular articles in scientific and university journals, or events and seminars for instance. This NCCR campaign can also be seen as an outreach activity I suppose! I particularly enjoy the “Journée internationale des femmes et des filles de science”, which takes place every year. Female scientists visit primary school classes and introduce some of the topics they are working on to kids between 7 and 12 years old. During these visits, we clearly play the role of models and hopefully this will leave some footprints!

February 2021: Drawings following Géraldine's visit to a 4th-grade class at a primary school for the "Journée internationale des femmes et des filles de science"

What was your most exciting scientific discovery so far and your favourite thing about research?

My most exciting scientific discovery so far happened last year when we evidenced with my colleagues the presence of exceptional points in a quantum thermal machine made of two artificial atoms, modelled as quantum bits. These exceptional points are mathematical singularities, which are very well known by mathematicians, by engineers and in classical physics. Indeed, they correspond to the regime of critical damping in a damped harmonic oscillator. In applied sciences, this regime plays a crucial role to avoid unwanted oscillations (as they typically dissipate energy) in electrical circuits or in mechanical devices. With my colleagues, we could evidence these mathematical singularities for the first time in an open quantum system working as a machine, and demonstrates that its dynamics at these points is similar to critically damped classical systems. This work was published in PRX Quantum and was very well received by the community. I am particularly enthusiastic about it as it combines both mathematics and physics, allows for analogies between the classical and quantum worlds and opens many fascinating questions for the coming years about topological properties, sensing applications and quantum control. In my research, I am always very enthusiastic while working on projects at the crossroads between different fields or research directions.

What would you like to say to your younger self about a scientific career?

Stay curious and enthusiastic! An academic career has multiple facets, research, teaching, dissemination of results, writing, discussions, outreach activities, and this makes the job so exciting! It is not always easy and the path to a permanent position is sometimes too long. In the university system, researchers tend to be stabilized with fixed positions at later ages, which makes it difficult to balance work with family life and does not really favour women. However, different tools are being developed, in Switzerland and abroad, to account for these difficulties. Having used these tools personally, I have found them to be extremely helpful in supporting my academic career. I hope they will develop further, that they will benefit more people (women and men) and that they will contribute to a more balanced academic environment.

2016: Géraldine as a Postdoc, with her first daughter.

Phase I & II research project(s)

Quantum Systems

Program(s)

#NCCRWomen - Rahel Baumgartner (UNIGE, J. Sonner's Group)

Interview with Eva Miranda about the importance of organizing a women workshop