Caspar van der Wal (Netherlands, 1971) obtained his PhD degree in 2001, in the group of Prof. Hans Mooij at Delft University of Technology for research on quantum coherent dynamics of superconducting circuits. This was followed by a postdoc position of two years in the labs of Prof. Misha Lukin and Dr. Ron Walsworth at Harvard University (USA), where he did research on quantum optics with atomic vapours. At the end of 2003, he started working as an assistant professor at the University of Groningen in the Physics of Nanodevices Group. In 2009, he obtained here a permanent position as associate professor in Physics of Quantum Devices, which became a full professor position in 2015. The research of his team focuses on exploring spintronic and quantum information functionalities with electron spins and nuclear spins in semiconductor devices, using both quantum optical methods and electron transport methods. The research has a basis in expertise on conventional semiconductors such as GaAs, but currently the team mainly explores new material systems such as colour centres in wide-band-gap materials (e.g. SiC), 2D materials, and organic or hybrid organic-inorganic molecular systems. For his current research he obtained the NWO-Vidi Grant (2005) and the ERC Starting Grant (2011). For his teaching in Physics and the Nanoscience Top Master he received teaching awards in 2012 and 2015. For the years 2016-2022 he was scientific director of the Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials, and member of the CogniGron Program Board CogniGron. In recent years he was member of the NWO Table Physics, the ARCNL Governing Board, the NNV-AMO National Board, and chair of the AMOLF Advisory Council.

The three top publications 2016-2022

Spin-relaxation times exceeding seconds for color centers with strong spin-orbit coupling in SiC,
Carmem M. Gilardoni*, Tom Bosma*, Danny van Hien, Freddie Hendriks, Björn Magnusson, Alexandre Ellison, Ivan G. Ivanov, N. T. Son, Caspar H. van der Wal,
New J. Phys. 22, 103051 (2020);
https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/abbf23


Symmetry regimes for circular photocurrents in monolayer MoSe₂,
Jorge Quereda, Talieh S. Ghiasi, Jhih-Shih You, Jeroen van den Brink, Bart J. van Wees, Caspar H. van der Wal,
Nature Communications 9, 3346 (2018);
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-05734-z

Identification and tunable optical coherent control of transition-metal spins in silicon carbide,
Tom Bosma*, Gerrit J. J. Lof*, Carmem M. Gilardoni, Olger V. Zwier, Freddie Hendriks, Alexandre Ellison, Björn Magnusson, Andreas Gällström, Ivan G. Ivanov, N. T. Son, Remco W. A. Havenith, Caspar H. van der Wal,
npj Quantum Information 4, 48 (2018);
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41534-018-0097-8