BBQ Lab

We are thrilled to share that the BBQLab presented 5 posters and a talk at the 11th Single Photon Workshop (SPW)—the world’s largest international conference dedicated to single-photon generation, detection technologies, and their applications.

Last winter, after being hosted in various locations around the world, Heriot-Watt University and the University of Glasgow had the honour of organizing this prestigious event in Edinburgh. The conference brought together over 400 delegates from across the globe, representing 43 organizations, for five days of groundbreaking research presentations, insightful discussions, and unparalleled networking opportunities. In this opportunity, the event also came with a uniquely Scottish touch—plenty of bagpipes—and an exciting appearance by the European Quantum Light Tour, which showcased a traveling single-photon source secured in a briefcase.

We are proud to have contributed to this incredible event and look forward to seeing how the ideas exchanged at SPW continue to shape the future of quantum photonics!

We are currently advertising a 4-year PhD studentship and a 4-year CDT studentship.

We are also looking for two Postdoctoral Research Associates to join our group.

If you are interested in joining us, please look at our Openings page for more information. The PhD Studentship and two postdoc positions will be open for applications until January 31st, 2025. The CDT Studentship is open for applications until February 7th, 2025

We warmly welcome our newest PhD student, Miguel Villalobos, to our team!

Miguel hails from Bogota, Colombia. After receiving his Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering and Physics at Universidad de Los Andes, he moved to Italy for his Masters in Engineering Physics at Politecnico di Milano. There, he worked on the design and characterization of a path-to-polarization converter for quantum communications with an integrated photonics platform.

He looks forwards to delving deeper into quantum information theory and photonics, and we do too!

Someone recently asked me what I was most proud of this year. Without a doubt, it was the two incredible PhDs who graduated from my research group at Heriot-Watt University! Dr Suraj Goel successfully defended his thesis on “Quantum Optical Circuits with Structured Light” and Dr Sophie Engineer, a University of Bristol QET Labs CDT student, successfully defended her thesis on “Characterising Quantum Phenomena: Entanglement, Channels and Measurement.”

A huge congratulations to you both!!

BBQ Lab members Dr. Will McCutcheon and Mariana Annameng Ma had the exciting opportunity to meet UK Science Minister Lord Patrick Vallance, along with a cohort of early career researchers from the Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences (IPaQS) at the Heriot-Watt University, here in Edinburgh. They presented our group’s research on the development of high-dimensional quantum technologies.