Team
The Group - Fall 2022
Principal Investigator
James McIver
Assistant Professor of Physics, Columbia University
Max Planck Research Group Leader, MPSD
jm5382@columbia.edu | james.mciver@mpsd.mpg.de
Columbia University
705 Pupin Hall, New York, NY 10027, USA, Mail Code: 3347
Office: Northwest Corner Building 1108
Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter
Luruper Chaussee 149, Building 99, 22765 Hamburg , Germany
Office: O2.069
James McIver received his PhD in 2014 from Harvard University, where he investigated the nonlinear optical and optoelectronic properties of topological insulators. He then joined the Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter (MPSD) as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow, during which time he developed ultrafast circuitry to probe the topological transport properties of photon-dressed Floquet states in graphene. In 2020, he was appointed as an independent Max Planck Research Group Leader at MPSD. His group is part of the Max Planck — NYC Center for Nonequilibrium Quantum Phenomena, a collaborative research initiative between the Max Planck Society, the Flatiron Institute and Columbia University. In 2022, he was appointed as an Assistant Professor of Physics at Columbia University as part of the Center. In 2023, he received the Early Career Award from the US Department of Energy to investigate light-induced topological transport in quantum materials.
Postdocs
Benedikt Schulte
Lab Manager
Benedikt earned his PhD in the group in 2022, graduating summa cum laude for his work on probing the transport signatures of topological Floquet states in graphene. Now a postdoc, he is investigating ultrafast transport phenomena in quantum materials at mK temperatures and in strong magnetic fields.
Hope Bretscher
Hope joined the group in 2021. She is an expert in the physics of excitonic insulators and is exploring new possibilities for ultrafast conductivity measurements. In November 2021 Hope received the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship and in September 2022 the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship.
Matthew Day
Matt joined the group in 2021. He is an expert in nonlinear multidimensional spectroscopy and is applying these ideas to chip-scale spectroscopic probes of quantum materials. In September 2022 he accepted the Humboldt postdoctoral fellowship.
Alexander Potts
Alex joined the group in 2024. He is an expert in femtosecond electronics and the THz dynamics of superconductors. His current research focus lies in the spectroscopy of vdW heterostructures and the electrodynamics of topological edge states.
PhD Students
Gunda Kipp
Gunda joined the group in 2019 as a Master’s student and won the Otto Stern Prize for best Master’s thesis. Now in her PhD, she is investigating van der Waals heterostructures using on-chip THz spectroscopy.
Kateryna Kusyak
Kateryna joined the group in Fall 2019 as a student assistant. She won the prize the Klaus von Klitzing and Jean Marie Lehn Prize for best Master’s thesis. In her PhD she is investigating the ultrafast transport of Floquet states in topological materials.
Yunfei Huang
Yunfei joined the group in Fall 2022. He is investigating ultrafast transport phenomena in magnetic quantum materials.
Xinyu Li
Xinyu joined the group in Fall 2021. He is working with the on-chip THz team investigating van der Waals heterostructures as part of the new fast-track program of the University of Hamburg.
Felix Sturm
Felix joined the group in Summer 2020. He is working with the ultrafast transport team investigating Floquet states in quantum materials. In April 2022 he received the Stefan Hell Prize for best Bachelor’s degree.
Post-Baccalaureate Students
Master’s Students
Sivasruthi Kesavan
Sivasruthi joined the group in Spring 2022. She is investigating van der Waals heterostructures while working with the on-chip THz team.
Jesse Hagelstein
Jesse joined the group in Spring 2022. He is working with the on-chip THz team investigating van der Waals heterostructures.
Bachelor’s Students
Sara Langner
Sara joined the group in Summer 2023. She is working with the on-chip THz team building 2D heterostructures.
Zoë I Tremitiere
Zoë joined the group in January 2024. She is working with the on-chip THz team building 2D heterostructures.
Kayla Pham
Kayla joined the group in January 2024. She is working with the on-chip THz team building 2D heterostructures.
Former group members
- Gregor Praedel, MSc
- Dorothee Hermann, MSc
Former group photos
Summer 2022
Fall 2021
