5 February 2024

Aisha Aqeel is awarded Emmy Noether Junior Research Group Funding

Dr. Aisha Aqeel, MCQST START Fellow at the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has been awarded the prestigious Emmy-Noether grant from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the German Research Foundation. The €1.9 grant will facilitate the establishment of a research group focused on “Spintronics with chiral helimagnetic insulators” at the University of Augsburg.

Aqeel's research group will focus on the investigation of helimagnets, which offer tunability of magnetization dynamics within an experimentally accessible range, and explore dynamics in a quasi-antiferromagnetic limit. By leveraging cutting-edge techniques in crystal growth, nanostructuring, and interface engineering, the team aims to investigate the magnetization dynamics of novel helimagnetic materials. The overarching objective is to cultivate high-quality magnetic materials with reduced damping and large spin current efficiencies across a broader spectrum, thereby advancing towards the exploitation of the unique properties of quantum systems.

Aisha Aqeel was awarded the MCQST START Fellowship in 2022 to establish her own research group. In 2021, she received her first seed fund, enabling exploration into unconventional ideas of spin transport. Originally from Pakistan, Aqeel completed her master’s degree in nanoscience at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2012. In 2017, she obtained her doctorate from the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials at the University of Groningen, focusing on complex spin systems.

As the researcher embarks on this exciting journey, she encourages others to "Dream big, prepare well, and go for it with a big smile."

Congratulations!