Advent calendar - December 12th - Alexey Kuevda

In the Zernike Institute Advent Calendar, we are presenting 24 short spotlights in December. In these specials, we highlight PhD students, postdocs, support staff and technicians of our research groups and team - providing a glimpse in their typical day at work. In Episode 12 meet Alexey Kuevda, PhD research student in the Optical Condensed Matter Physics group.

I am a PhD research student in the Optical Condensed Matter Physics group of Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials. Our research team works with ultrafast lasers, and my research aims to study light-harvesting materials. In particular, we study self-assembly of synthetic molecules replicating natural photosynthetic complexes.

My typical day at the university starts with preheating a powerful ultrafast laser, followed by a cup of coffee and discussions with my wonderful colleagues. After that I conduct experiments including measuring colorful luminescence signals from various molecules. If there are no experiments planned, I analyze the data, supervise students or help my fellow PhD students with their experiments.

Also, my work includes collaborating with other groups from Zernike and other Dutch and German institutes. Some of them are providing theoretical calculations bolstering our experimental work, while others are chemists, synthesizing new molecules with magic-like properties, which we study and model. Collaborators at theory side are from Thomas Janssen group at Zernike, while chemists are from Freie Universität Berlin.

Overall, my PhD journey has been a wonderful, knowledge-filled experience. Beyond academic work, I often join my colleagues for movies, squash, chess competitions, and BBQ parties — especially when the Dutch weather blesses us with sunshine!

See all Advent Calendar items 2024 here!