Jonathan Schwinger
Nationality:
Germany
Faculty and Department:
Centre for Quantum Technologies
Year of Study:
1
Undergraduate University:
Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), Germany
Why did you choose to do a PhD?
Doing a Ph.D. is an integral part of getting to know what it means to be a scientist and becoming one. It allows you to dive deep into your field of interest and learn more about aspects of it than possibly anyone else on the planet. Along the way, it allows you to pick up a diverse skill set, applicable to almost any situation in life.
Finally, it allows you to be surrounded and work with many brilliant minds, humbling and inspiring you every day.
Why did you choose to do graduate education at NUS? If you received offers from other universities, why did you pick NUS?
My choice of doing my Ph.D. in CQT was motivated by the aspect of being able to work in an Institut. Instead of having only a single group working on a topic, one has many like-minded people around. This allows e.g. learning about many related and possibly for your own research important developments over a cup of coffee.
How does graduate school compare to your undergraduate experience?
To me, Undergrad and Grad school are somewhat like day and night.
In undergrad, one is guided by shepherds, telling you what to study. You are working of, in my experience, a rather rigid culmination of subjects which put together make up your degree.
In Grad school, you are finally given the freedom to pursue not only what really interests you, but it aims to equip you with the skills to develop your own theoretical ideas into something concrete and publishable. While my grad school journey is far more challenging than my undergrad, it is equally more fulfilling.
Briefly share about your research or thesis (i.e. dissertation topic for Masters by Coursework students).
My first experiment is in some sense a spin-off of Schrödinger’s famous Gedankenexperiment of putting a cat into a box. Only that I will put three cats into three different boxes and align their fate through quantum entanglement.
Or, to be less dramatic, controlling electromagnetic modes in a superconducting aluminum box.
Briefly share a highlight from your graduate school journey.
Nothing is more fulfilling than having this eureka-like moment. Mashing your brain over a certain problem for days and suddenly the answer is in front of your eyes. Grad school will allow you to have many of these moments, naturally as you will have many problems to solve along the way.
Secondly, I am blessed with an awesome group. Allowing many insightful discussions and making day-to-day life in the lab a joy.
A concrete highlight would certainly be the assembly of our fridge, allowing us to reach temperatures just barely above absolute zero and measuring the first qubit.