Rémi Goerlich
Doctor of the Université de Strasbourg (2022)
I joined the MCN master in 2019, together with the fundamental physics magistère and it was a very fulfilling year. The first semester is devoted to theoretical classes with a rather high density of courses. I greatly appreciated the balance between a few central mandatory courses which revolves around the main aspects of condensed matter physics (statistical mechanics, quantum physics and light-matter interactions) and the large choice of elective courses, covering broad topics. These elective courses allowed me to orient the master towards my own projects and preferences, even if at the time I was quite unsure of any long-term plans. I followed classes on soft matter, but also hydrodynamics, complex fluids and polymer physics. I felt that these elective classes were very good and definitely up-to-date additions to the fundamental aspects of statistical mechanics. The choice of elective classes was broad enough so that I could also follow classes on open quantum systems and two-dimensional materials.
The international character of the master was for me one of its brightest side. Students joined Strasbourg from across the world to study together and -also maybe due to our shared effort to complete the master- we all became close, creating a fulfilling social atmosphere. Most labs are international, and experiencing this already during my master felt very good. All classes are taught by local researchers keeping a connection between the course content and modern research done in the lab next door.
The second semester is devoted to a research internship. I joined an experimental lab (LIMACS team of ISIS), in collaboration with a theoretical team (QDyno team of IPCMS), both located in Strasbourg, to work on Brownian motion in optical tweezer. I pursued with the same teams for my PhD, working on the optical control of Brownian motion to study non-equilibrium thermodynamics and quantum-classical analogues. I graduated in October 2022 and, in January 2023, I moved to the university of Tel Aviv for my postdoc, working on active matter and information thermodynamics, still using optical tweezers, as well as macroscopic stochastic systems.
PhD defense 29/09/2022, see here
More informations https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Remi-Goerlich