18 April 2024

Mari Carmen Bañuls accepts a permanent W2 position

Mari Carmen Bañuls, MCQST RU-B co-coordinator and group leader in the Theory Department, takes up a permanent W2 position at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics. W2 positions mark an important scientific recognition and grant the permanent right to independent research. With this scientific promotion, the institute's management seeks to express its special appreciation of Dr Bañuls' work on the understanding of complex quantum systems. Her research – now as an official W2 research group – focuses on the development and application of tensor network methods for the numerical simulation of quantum many-body systems and quantum dynamic phenomena beyond equilibrium.

„I am very thankful for this new position and the recognition it represents, and feel very lucky to be able to continue the research that I am so passionate about at MPQ“, says Mari Carmen Bañuls.

Currently, four PhD Candidates are working under the supervision of Mari Carmen Bañuls in her research group. Further information about the research group can be found on the Tensor Network website.

© J. Greune / MPQ

About Mari Carmen Bañuls

Mari Carmen Bañuls, born in 1973, studied physics at the University of Valencia, where she completed her doctorate in particle physics in the group of Prof. José Bernabéu in 2000. She then moved to the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, where she carried out research at the Technological Institute for Computer Science (ITI) in the field of computer science on distributed systems. At the same time, she enrolled as a doctoral student under Prof. Pablo Galdámez and obtained her second doctorate in computer science in 2006.

In 2005, she joined the Theory Department of Prof. Ignacio Cirac at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, where she has been leading a research group since 2013. In 2015, she received the Order of Merit "Orden del Mérito Civil" from the Spanish King Juan Felipe alongside 37 other Spanish citizens.

Source: MPQ website