Luis Cerdán, PhD

Profile: I hold a PhD in Physics and have accumulated almost 15 years of research experience in laser physics and materials. I have specialized in the use and development of analytical, statistical and numerical methods to extract as much information as possible from experimental data sets. With the aim of leveraging my data analysis skills and expanding my professional horizon, I have coursed a Master in Big Data Analytics.

Education: In 2006 I completed my studies on Physics at Universidad Complutense de Madrid (UCM). As part of my degree curriculum I chose mainly Material Sciences and Optics related courses. As a follow-up in my university education, I enrolled in the UCM Master in Fundamental Physics. In 2013 I obtained my PhD degree in Physics at UCM after 5 years of intense research on organic lasers at the Instituto de Química Física "Rocasolano" (IQFR), Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Madrid, Spain. With the aim of leveraging and consolidating my data analysis skills and expanding my professional horizon, I coursed the official Master in Big Data Analytics offered by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, which I successfully finalized in 2020.

Professional Experience: I was introduced to the scientific research while performing my first master degree studies under the supervision of Prof. R. Weigand, dealing with the theoretical and experimental investigation of the reduction in the group velocity of light signals by means of coherent population oscillations in saturable absorbers. Afterwards, I joined the Laser Materials and Interaction Laser-Materials Group at IQFR, to conduct research on organic lasers under the supervision of Prof. A. Costela and Prof. I. García-Moreno. During the PhD thesis period, the problem of the optimization and characterization of both the laser efficiency and photostability of solid-state dye lasers was tackled. As part of the doctoral training, I spent three months at the School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St. Andrews(UK), to undertake a collaborative research project with Prof. G. A. Turnbull on the fabrication and characterization of nanostructured organic lasers, and studies of novel dispersive optical effects in organic thin films. Thanks to my achievements during this time, I was awarded the "Extraordinary Doctoral Prize 2012-2013" by UCM.

After the consecution of the PhD degree in 2013, I became a postdoctoral research assistant and visitor at both IQFR and the Faculty of Chemistry at UCM. There I conducted research on dyes with novel and exotic laser properties. In addition, in 2013 I pioneered and spearheaded the discovery of the first laser borane, and I have been ever since involved on the analysis and characterization of the laser and photophysical properties of luminescent boranes. From 2018 onwards, I have been mostly involved in the simulation of complex laser dynamics in nanophotonic devices and the development of tools and protocols to analyze and characterize spectroscopic gain properties in active waveguides. My latest achievement in this ground has been the development of a new methodology, implemented in a Graphical User Interface (ASE Gain Labs) to ease its use, that allows retrieving from a single experiment what previously required three of them (Opt. Laser. Tech. 121, 105814 (2020)). Since April 2021, I have joined the Institute of Molecular Sciences (ICMOL) from Univ. of Valencia to apply Machine and Deep Learning to problems on quantum chemistry of the excited state.

In parallel, along the later years I have been involved in science spreading activities and have been building up a role as a scientific advisor, either acting as referee for several journals or serving as consultant to professionals in different fields (arts or education).