Mirza Akbar Ali

Mirza is a doctoral researcher at the QUEST (Quantum Engineering and Space Time Research) Institute, established at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (National Metrology Institute), Germany. His research focuses on quantum atom optics and ion trapping, with a particular emphasis on atomic optical clocks. He is contributing to the improvements of Germany’s—and Europe’s—first  27Al+ ion clock. 

In 2024, he earned a joint master’s degree in Advanced Quantum Physics (AQP) and Quantum Technologies and Engineering (QUANTEEM) from the Technical University of Kaiserslautern, Germany, and the University of Burgundy, Dijon, France, funded by the Erasmus Mundus scholarship. During his master’s, he developed a phase-contrast imaging setup to continuously monitor clouds of ultracold quantum gases for studying self-organized criticality (SOC) while bypassing the measurement-induced quantum state destruction. 

He previously obtained his Bachelor’s degree in Physics (2022) from COMSATS University Islamabad and completed his higher secondary education (2017), both under the Science Talent Farming Scheme (STFS Batch-I), a joint initiative of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Pakistan Science Foundation (PSF), and Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan.