Members

Dr. Hiroki Takahashi

The guy mainly in charge of Japanese paperwork. More details about this person can be found here.

Dr. Ezra Kassa

Born and bred in Ethiopia, I did my undergrad at Imperial College London. I then went to Brighton's University of Sussex to complete my PhD in Matthias Keller's group, working on trapped ions in optical cavities. I later joined Axel Kuhn's Atom-Photon Connection group in Oxford to comprehend life as a neutral-atom guy, look into fancy cavities and ended up learning about even fancier photons. I was getting rekindled with long-lived emitters after teaming up with Joe Goodwin in David Lucas's Ion Trap Quantum Computing group before I was seduced by a shisa chanting Sanshin folk in the fall of 2019.                                    

Dr. Diptaranjan Das 

I did my undergraduate studies at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India. Following my master’s degree studies at IISER Kolkata I set off to the US for my PhD at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, carrying out experimental studies of collective effects in spontaneous emission rates in cold atoms. I joined the Professor Takahashi’s group at OIST after a year of Postdoctoral work at Aarhus University, Denmark.

Dr. Shaobo Gao

Shaobo did his undergraduates and master's in National University of Defense Technology majoring in physics. He then tried his luck in UK for his PhD and managed to finish two projects in Oxford University. The first projects is quantum memories in atomic ensemble in Ian Walmsley's group while the second one is to integrate optical micro-cavity with ion trap in David Lucas's group. After graduation, with some general curiosity towards nature and humanity, he lived like a nomad in Southwest Chinese mountains for more than a year. He then decided to return to modern civilization and academia in fall 2022.

Dr. Vishnu Kavungal

Dr Kavungal completed his master’s from Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) in India and then moved to Technological University Dublin in Ireland to do his PhD. Since April 2022, he has worked as a postdoc at OIST, first in Light-Matter Interaction for Quantum Technologies Unit (LMI-QT) and then in EQuIP unit. During his PhD, his research was mainly about optical fibre-based whispering gallery mode (WGM) microresonators for sensing applications. The main aim of the research was to investigate and address several key aspects related to developing novel sensors and tunable devices based on cylindrical WGM micro-resonators to move such structures closer to practical applications. In EQuIP unit, Dr Kavungal is involved in the research and development of high-finesse optical cavities for Ion trap experiments.

Soon Teh

From the land of good food and "truly asia" - Malaysia, Soon obtained his bachelor degree in physics from University of Malaya, Malaysia. Soon's undergraduate dissertation investigate the properties of gold clusters by means of density-functional based tight-binding theory. Upon graduation, he spent some time at the Institute of Atomic and Molecular Science, Academia Sinica, Taiwan where he studied the spectroscopic and H-bond properties of methanol. Soon (pun intended), realized his calling in quantum information, is joining the unit as a PhD student.

Tatsuki Hamamoto

Co-supervised by Dr. Yuimaru Kubo

Tatsuki was born and grew up in Okinawa, Japan. He received his M.S. degree from the Grad. School of Frontier BioSciences, Osaka Univ. He spent six years dealing with E. coli and neurons in Osaka. Spins in a diamond and ions do not die, so you can experiment as much as you want. This fact changed his field of research from biology to quantum information. Tatsuki will research quantum transducers.

Morihiro Ohta

Co-supervised by Dr. Yuimaru Kubo

He was born in Nago City, Okinawa. After graduating from Nago High School, he studied physics at the University of the Ryukyus. He engaged in research about complex systems and got a master's degree at the end of March 2020. During his graduate studies, he worked as a research assistant in the Quantum Dynamics Unit (supervisor: Prof. Denis Konstantinov) at OIST. He is currently working on research of thermal maser with Dr. Kubo (Science and Technology Associate in OIST).
He has never lived outside of Okinawa before. He is proud to be the most local student in this global graduate school.

Tatsuya Yamazaki

I received my PhD in Engineering from Ibaraki University (Japan), 2013. I am interested in a variety of fields, mostly centered around condensed matter physics and materials science –in particular: heteroepitaxial growth, surface/interface structure, quantum beam science and semiconductor research. I am also interested in quantum computer science! I am interested to know more about the various experimental techniques that will help with studies and development of Trapped ion quantum computer. In my free time, I enjoy catching a game of football and having meaningful conversations with my friends over a few drinks, though I also enjoy reading and skiing.

Seigen Nakasone

I have experienced a few careers. Now I am glad to be a member in EQuIP Unit, OIST, writing some software to control some hardware as experiment instrument. I like it so much. In my leisure time, I like cooking, and hiking.

Ayano Sakiyama

I'm a local Okinawan. I enjoy working with OISTers from around the world! On weekends I love staying with my family (husband, daughter, and two Shiba-inus): trying nice cafes, relaxing on beaches, enjoying beautiful nature in Okinawa. I hope eveyone enjoys this wonderful island, Okinawa!  

Kei Goto

I joined OIST in February 2018, and it has been my pleasure to get to work with wonderful people from all over the world. I was born and raised by the mountains in Fukushima and I spent years at college in a big city of Tokyo before I moved to Okinawa. I love living on this beautiful island as I enjoy snorkeling, and dancing bachata, salsa, etc.