Fabrizio Carbone
Fabrizio Carbone (born in Novi Ligure, Italy) is a Swiss and Italian physicist and currently an Associate Professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). His research focuses on the study of matter in out of equilibrium conditions using ultrafast spectroscopy, diffraction and imaging techniques. In 2015, he attracted international attention by publishing a photography of light displaying both its quantum and classical nature. Education and career. Fabrizio Carbone received his master's degree in quantum electronics from the University of Pavia in 2001, defending a thesis titled 'Characterization of all optical wavelengths converters for telecommunications applications'. He  was an industrial researcher at Pirelli Labs between 2000 and 2002, after which he returned to academia and obtained his PhD in condensed matter physics from the University of Geneva in 2007 defending a thesis titled 'Spectroscopic signatures of electronic correlations in superconductors and magnets' under the supervision of Dirk van der Marel. Carbone carried out his postdoctoral appointment at the California Institute of Technology in the group of Chemistry Nobel Prize laureate Ahmed Zewail. In 2010, he established the Laboratory for Ultrafast Microscopy and Electron Scattering (LUMES) at EPFL, where he was named Tenure Track Assistant Professor in 2011  and promoted to Associate Professor in 2018. Research. Early career. During his PhD in Dirk van der Marel's laboratory at the University of Geneva, Carbone analyzed the interplay between the electronic structure and the magnetism of manganese monosilicide by means of X-rays and neutron spectroscopy. He also studied the kinetic and potential energy changes associated to the superconducting phase transition in cuprates by measuring the material’s color changes across the critical temperature. As a postdoctoral researcher in Ahmed Zewail's laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, he developed new methods based on the use of ultrafast  electrons and laser pulses for the investigation of materials in out of equilibrium conditions. His most notable result was the demonstration of a new method to perform femtosecond-resolved electron spectroscopy in a Transmission Electron microscope. This technique opened a new field of research in the following years leading to several breakthroughs in the observation of materials, molecules and nanostructures under laser irradiation conditions. Current activities. Carbone currently heads the Laboratory for Ultrafast Microscopy and Electron Scattering (LUMES) at EPFL. The LUMES is active in various research fields: Recognition. Carbone was awarded the 2016 University Latsis Prize. He received a  Starting Grant (2010) and a Consolidator Grant (2017) from the European Research Council.