NITheP - National Institute For Theoretical Physics

Staff

• 
• Prof Frederik Scholtz
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083871
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Director
  
  Prof F G Scholtz obtained his Ph.D. in theoretical physics from Stellenbosch University in 1986. From May 1986 he was a researcher and senior researcher at the Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stellenbosch University. In January 1993 he was appointed as senior lecturer in the Physics Department at Stellenbosch University. In January 1994 he became an associate professor and in January 1998 he was appointed as full professor in Mathematical Physics in the Physics department of Stellenbosch University. From January 2002 until June 2004 and again from January 2006 to July 2008 he was Head of the Physics Department. In August 2008 he took the position as first Director of the National Institute for Theoretical Physics. He holds a number of awards, which include a von Humboldt fellowship, the Silver Medal of the South African Institute of Physics and the President award of the National research Foundation.
  
  His current research focuses on non commutative quantum mechanics and quantum field theory. A complete list of his publications is available upon request.
  

• 
• Prof Alexander Avdeenkov
• Phone: +27-(0)218082653
• Fax: +27-(0)218083862

• Senior Researcher
  
  Alexander Avdeenkov graduated in 1994 from the Institute of Atomic and Power Engineering(Obninsk, Russia). He received his PhD in 2000 at Join Institute of Nuclear Research (Bogolyubov Laboratory for Theoretical Physics, Dubna, Russia). Starting in 2000, he was a post-doc with Prof. John Bohn (JILA, University of Colorado).
  
  In 2004 he was appointed as a Senior Researcher at Laboratory of Theoretical Physics at Institute of Physics and Power Enginnerig (Obninsk, Russia). In 2006-2009 he was working as a researcher for Moscow branch of "Algodign" LLC(USA) and as senior researcher at Institute of Nuclear Physics (Moscow State University). In 2009, Dr. Avdeenkov was appointed as a Senior Researcher at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics and as Extraordinary Senior Lecturer of Theoretical Physics at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
  
  Areas of research:
  Cold quantum gases
  Scattering theory of ultracold atoms and molecules Theoretical investigation of properties of unstable nuclei
  
  
  
  
  

• 
• Dr Jeandrew Brink
• Phone: +27-(0)-8082653
• Fax: +27-(0)-8083862

• Researcher
  
  Jeandrew obtained a M.Sc. Degree in Applied Mathematics at the University of the Free State (South Africa) in 2000. Her thesis project was on modelling the deformation induced effects in a confined aquifer. She won the UFS Deans and Senate award for her work.
  
  A Fulbright travel grant and a two year Cornell University Fellowship allowed her to pursue her passion for physics at Cornell in Ithaca, New York (United States), completing a M.Sc. (2003) and Ph.D. degree (2005) in Theoretical Physics. Her thesis explored the Non-linear Couplings of Rossby-modes in neutron stars and was completed under the guidance of Saul Teukolsky and Ira Wasserman.
  
  A Sherman Fairchild Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship (2005) at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) gave her the freedom to pursue her curiosity about Einstein's field equations and their implications for Gravitational waves, in Kip Thorne's group. Her focus was on finding a way to map Spacetime around extremely compact objects using the Gravitational radiation emitted by an inspiraling compact object such as a neutron star.
  
  In 2010 she accepted a research position at the Stellenbosch node of NITheP. She is currently also closely connected with the numerical relativity group at Caltech and continues to work with them in the capacity of Visiting Associate.
  
  Her research interests include: Numerical and analytic relativity, gravitational waves, astrophysics, dynamical systems, in particular the integrable kind and fluid dynamics.
  

• 
• Prof Dr Michael Kastner
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083863
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Chief Researcher
  
  Michael Kastner graduated in 1997 from the Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen–Nürnberg (Germany) where he also received his PhD in 2000. Starting in 2001, he was a post-doc with Prof. Roberto Livi in Florence (Italy). In 2004 he joined the group of Prof. Helmut Büttner at the Universität Bayreuth (Germany) as an assistant professor and later as Privatdozent. In 2009, Dr. Kastner was appointed as a Chief Researcher at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics and as Extraordinary Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics at Stellenbosch University (South Africa).
  
  Areas of research:
  Statistical physics of phase transitions
  Energy landscapes and stationary points of classical many-body systems
  Thermodynamics of long-range interacting systems
  Equilibrium properties of cold atomic gases
  Geometry of quantum states
  Localization of energy in lattice systems
  
  
  Webpage: http://bit.ly/e605nt

• 
• Dr Teodora Kirova
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083866
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  Teodora Kirova is originally from Bulgaria. After completing her undergraduate studies at Sofia University in 1998, she enrolled in the graduate program of the Department of Physics, Temple University in Philadelphia, USA. She obtained her PhD degree in 2005 in the Molecular Quantum Optics group of A. Marjatta Lyyra with co-advisor Frank C. Spano from the Department of Chemistry.
  
  In the fall of 2005 Teodora started a Marie-Curie Postdoctoral fellowship in the Molecular Beam Laboratory of Aigars Ekers at the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics, University of Latvia, which was later extended to a researcher position until summer 2009.
  
  Since January 2010 she is a postdoctoral fellow at NITheP.
  
  Teodora's research interests include developing theoretical models and simulation of experimental data in the field of laser-matter interaction, specifically-coherent effects in open molecular systems. She is currently studying collisions of ultracold polar molecules in external fields.
  

• 
• Dr Rytis Paskauskas
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083866
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  Rytis Paskauskas graduated with a Ph.D in physics from Georgia Institute of Technology (USA) in 2007, under supervision of Prof P. Cvitanovic. He studied chaos, dynamics, and applications to Rydberg atoms and chemical reactions. He held a physicist appointment at Sicrotrone Trieste (Trieste, Italy 2007-2010) where he focused on statistical physics and plasmas. In January 2011 he joined NITheP as a postdoctoral fellow. Among his interests are practical applications of nonlinear dynamics to various phenomena with irregular, or chaotic behavior. Numerics, or computation are among the appropriate keywords here. He currently works in statistics and dynamics of long-range interacting systems.
  
  Webpage: http://bit.ly/mCdK0a
  rytis.paskauskas@gmail.com
  

• 
• Dr Andrea Prinsloo
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083866
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  Andy Prinsloo completed both her undergraduate studies and an honours in Theoretical Physics at the University of Cape Town between the years of 2001 and 2004. She then moved north to pursue an MSc degree in Theoretical Physics, working with Prof Robert de Mello Koch at the University of the Witwatersrand. Her MSc thesis, which examines integrable deformations of a type IIB string theory, was awarded a distinction in June 2007. Andy returned to Cape Town in 2007 to begin her doctoral studies under the supervision of Dr Jeff Murugan. She completed her PhD thesis (entitled "Applications of the gauge theory/gravity correspondence") and graduated with a PhD in Applied Mathematics from the University of Cape Town in June 2010.
  
  In July 2010, Andy took up an NRF innovation fellowship for postdoctoral research, hosted by the Stellenbosch node of NITheP. She also continues to collaborate with the ACGC group at the University of Cape Town.
  
  Andy's research interests include:
  • gauge/string theory dualities, and applications to systems in high energy physics and condensed matter physics
  • integrability and spin chain models
  • conformal field theories
  
  and the current focus of her attention is on two main topics:
  • D-branes and giant gravitons in the ABJM duality
  • AdS/condensed matter physics
  

• 
• Dr Ameneh Sheikhan
• Phone: +27-(0)218083867
• Fax: +27-(0)218083862

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  Ameneh Sheikhan Soudani is born in Esfahan (Iran) in 1982. She received her B.S. at Sharif University of Technology (Tehran/Iran) in 2004 and her PhD in the same university in December 2009. Her thesis entitled “Anderson Localization of Electromagnetic Waves“ was under supervision of Prof M. R. Rahimi Tabar. Then she was in the National Institute of Fundamental Science (Tehran/Iran) as a visitor.
  From the beginning of the year 2011 she is postdoctoral Fellow at NITheP.
  
  The areas of her research are:
  
  Anderson Localization, Light Localization, Disordered Systems,
  Coherent backscattering of electromagnetic waves from random media,
  Graphene
  
  And her research interests are also:
  
  Stochastic Processes, Data Processing,
  Group Theory, Renormalization Group Theory,
  Collective Motion (Flocking)
  Topological Insulators
  
  

• 
• Dr Izak Snyman
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8083864
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Researcher
  
  After undergraduate and M.Sc. studies at Stellenbosch University, Izak Snyman obtained his Ph.D. in 2008 at Leiden University in the Netherlands with a thesis entitled "Scattering problems involving electrons, photons and Dirac fermions". In 2008 he was appointed as a researcher at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (South Africa) and as an extraordinary lecturer in the Physics Department at Stellenbosch University. His interest lies in the field of Condensed Matter Physics, more specifically Quantum Transport and Mesoscopic Systems. While pursuing his own research he also supervises graduate students and teaches Many-Body Quantum Mechanics at Stellenbosch University.
  
  Current areas of research:
  - Polarons in carbon nanotubes
  - The quantum Hall effect in carbon nanotubes and graphene
  - The role of disorder in the anomalous Hall effect
  - Disorder in the Dirac equation
  
  

• 
• Ms Monique Louw
• Phone: +27-(0)21-8082649
• Fax: +27-(0)21-8083862

• Senior Financial Administrator
  
  Monique Louw matriculated in 1998 at De Kuilen High School, Western Cape. She graduated with a Management Diploma at Cape Town Peninsula University of Technology in 2001. In 2003 she went to further her studies in the United Kingdom and returned to South Africa in 2007. In March 2008 she started working for Stellenbosch University Human Resource department. In December 2008 she was employed by NITheP. Her functions within the Institute include Financial Administration and Bursary registrations. She also arranges various workshops and functions and general Office Management. Monique also plays Western Province netball and has recently been selected for the Western Storms Netball Squad.

• 
• Mrs Rene Kotze
• Phone: +27-(0)218082653
• Fax: +27-(0)218083862

• Public Relations
  
  With a BA degree in Psychology and Industrial Psychology, René has worked in a wide range of fields. The last 7 years were spent as a Human Resources Manager for a listed company. René started with NITheP in mid 2010 and is responsible for all outreach and liaison on behalf of the Institute.

Staff

• Prof Joao Rodrigues
• Phone: +27-(0)117176837
• Fax:

• NITheP Deputy Director

• 
• Dr Alan Cornell
• Phone: +27-(0)11-717-6819
• Fax: +27-(0)11-7176879

• Originally from Australia, Alan obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne in March of 2003, and has had three post-doctoral positions: the first in the Korea Institute for Advanced Study, the second in the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics (Kyoto University), and finally in Institut de Physique Nucleaire (Universite de Lyon 1). He now holds a senior researcher position in the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (Gauteng node, University of the Witwatersrand). To date his research interests have focused on the phenomenological implications of Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) physics, and can be divided into two parts. The first is concerned with the flavour structure of quarks and leptons, which is one of the main puzzles in particle physics, whilst the second is concerned with the ways in which collider produced black-holes (BHs) may arise and decay in various extra-dimensional scenarios.

• 
• Lu-Xin Liu
• Phone: +27-(0)11-7176955
• Fax: +27-(0)11-7176838

• PhD, Purdue University, USA, 2009
  
  Research Interest:
  
  Theoretical High Energy Physics, including:
  Particle Physics;
  Extra Dimension Physics;
  Neutrino Physics;
  SUSY Theory & Phenomenology;
  Brane-World Scenarios etc.
  

• 
• Mrs Maddalena Teixeira
• Phone: +27-(0)11-7176838
• Fax: +27-(0)11-7176879

• Mrs Maddalena Teixeira
  University of Witwatersrand
  School of Physics
  Jan Smuts Avenue
  Braamfontein
  JHB
  
  Maddalena Teixeira is the Secretary for the Gauteng Node of NITheP in Johannesburg.
  
  
  She provides admin support to Prof Joao Rodrigues as well as Secretary for the WITS School of Physics.
  

Staff

• 
• Prof Francesco Petruccione
• Phone: +27-(0)31-2602770
• Fax: +27-(0)31-2608090

• NITheP Deputy Director
  
  Prof. Francesco Petruccione
  South African Research Chair
  in Quantum Information Processing and Communication
  School of Physics - Quantum Research Group
  University of KwaZulu-Natal - Westville Campus
  Private Bag X54001
  Durban 4000, South Africa
  
  Office: H-Block, Room H3-24
  
  http://quantum.ukzn.ac.za
  
  Secretary: Mrs Diane Sivil
  tel: +27 (0)31 260 7994
  
  Francesco Petruccione was born in 1961 in Genova (Italy). He studied Physics at the University of Freiburg i. Br.(Germany) and received his PhD in 1988. He got his ?Habilitation? (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) from the same University in 1994 and worked there as Associate Professor of Theoretical Physics until 2003. In 2004 he was appointed Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. In 2005 he was awarded an Innovation Fund grant to set up a Centre for Quantum Technology. In 2007 he was granted a South African Research Chair for Quantum Information Processing and Communication from the National Research Foundation. He is the Deputy-Director of the National Institute of Theoretical Physics. Since March 2008 he is a member of the Board of the UKZN Innovation Company.
  
  
  Prof. Petruccione has published more than 90 papers in refereed journals. He is the co-author of a monograph on ?The Theory of Open Quantum Systems?, that was published in 2002, reprinted as paperback in 2007, and is being translated in Russian at the moment. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal "Open Systems and Information Dynamics". He is the editor of several proceedings volumes and of special editions of scientific journals. He has been invited to deliver more than 50 talks.
  
  
  The miniaturization of technological devices necessitates the manipulation of objects at the nanoscale level at which coherent quantum mechanical processes start to dominate the physical properties.
  
  The unavoidable interaction of these systems with their environment gives rise to dissipative mechanisms and a strong loss of quantum coherence, i.e. decoherence. Since perfect isolation of quantum systems is not possible, it is of central importance to incorporate the methods and tools of the theory of quantum systems in the exploration of quantum technologies. Prof. Petruccione has contributed to the development of the theory of open quantum systems, which is at the basis of recent quantum information technological applications
  
  
  The basic concept of Quantum Information Processing and Communication (QIPC) is that information is actually stored, processed and communicated according to the laws of quantum physics: the classical "bit" is replaced by the quantum mechanical "qubit". This "quantum" dimension enables Quantum Computers to perform tasks we will never achieve with ordinary IT. For example, quantum computers hold the promise for solving efficiently some computationally hard problems, like e.g. large integer factorisation or the simulation of quantum systems. Although this field is relatively new and in rapid development research clearly indicates that a whole new quantum information technology (QIT) is emerging.
  
  
  The most advanced new quantum technology is Quantum Cryptography. Thanks to a generous grant of the Innovation Fund the Research Group of Prof. Petruccione is realizing a quantum key distribution system. Following a quantum protocol a cryptographic key is encoded into the polarization states of single photons (qubits). The security of the transmission of the key between two parties is guaranteed by the laws of quantum mechanics. The realization of the project involves the development of quantum devices such as single photon sources and detectors. The flagship project of the Research Group is the realization of a quantum network in the optical fiber network of the Ethekwini Municipality. This quantum network allows the secure exchange of communication between four parties. The project has been generously sponsored by the Ethekwini Municipality and will be launched at the SmartCity conference in October 2008. This will be worldwide the first such network operating in a Municipality and will make Durban the first Quantum City.
  
  
  The vision behind these efforts is to kick start the development of a Quantum Information Processing and Communication industry in Durban and KwaZulu-Natal. This is well in line with the national initiatives promoted by the DST to support Photonics and Nanotechnology developments in the Country. In fact QIPC offers the unique opportunity to exploit the synergy of both Nanotechnology and Photonics. The first milestone on the industrialization road map is to spin-off of a company from the UKZN Research Group and embed it into the strategic plans of the existing KZN ICTE Cluster. Plans in this direction are well under way.
  

• 
• Dr. Filippo Giraldi
• Phone: +27-(0)31-260-1578
• Fax: +27-(0)31-260-8090

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  Filippo Giraldi has received his PhD in Physics from the University of North Texas in 2005. He is currently a Post-Doctoral research fellow at the NITheP node of the University Of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban.
  
  His areas of research are Open Quantum Systems and Decoherence processes, particularly the construction and the analysis of master equations driving anomalous dynamics through the Theory of Special Functions.
  

• 
• Dr Anne Ghesquiere
• Phone: +27-(0)31-2607570
• Fax: +27-(0)31-2608990

• Postdoctoral fellow at NITheP
  
  After obtaining her Bachelor in Science in the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, Anne started her PhD in the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies under the supervision of Professor Tony Dorlas. She obtained her PhD in the summer of 2010 and came to work in the Durban node of NITheP under the supervision of Professor Francesco Petruccione. She works mostly on quantum open systems.

• 
• Dr Ilya Sinayskiy
• Phone: +27-(0)31-2608133
• Fax: +27-(0)31-2608090

• Researcher
  
  Ilya Sinayskiy graduated in 2003 from the Samara State University (Russian Federation) where he also received his PhD (candidate of science in physics and mathematics) in 2006. Starting in 2008, he was a post-doc with Prof Francesco Petruccione in Durban (South Africa). In 2009, Dr Sinayskiy was appointed as a Researcher at the National Institute for Theoretical Physics (KwaZulu-Natal node).
  
  Areas of research:
  Open quantum systems
  Quantum Information Processing
  
  website: http://quantum.ukzn.ac.za/members/dr-i-sinayskiy
  

• 
• Ms Nelisiwe Mncube
• Phone: +27-(0)31-2607570
• Fax: +27-(0)31-2608990

• Ms Nelisiwe Mncube
  National Institute for Theoretical Physics
  University of KwaZulu-Natal
  Private Bag x54001
  Durban
  4000
  South Africa
  
  Administrative Assistant.
  
  With a B. Com degree in Marketing and Information Systems & technology.She has worked for the University of KwaZulu-Natal at the School of Physics as an administrative assistant .In 2007 she jointed NITheP,her duties include financial administration, liaising with bursary holders and organizing of seminars and workshops as well as general office management.