Dr. Yan Li received her Ph.D. degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Northwestern University, U.S.A. in 2006, and her M.S. and B.S. degree in Physics from Peking University, China. After more than 17 years in Intel Arizona focusing on advanced packaging technology developments, she recently joined Samsung Advanced Packaging group in San Jose as a Principal Engineer. Dr. Li has been an active member of Minerals Metals and Materials Society (TMS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), American Society for Metals (ASM), and Electronic Device Failure Analysis Society (EDFAS). She has been appointed as TMS and International Symposium for Testing and Failure Analysis (ISTFA) annual conference organizer since 2011, and EDFAS board member since 2019. Dr. Li has published over 20 papers and two patents in the microelectronic packaging area. She is the co-editor of three semiconductor industry highly recognized books on 3D Microelectronic Packaging and Autonomous Vehicles.

Chen Huanyang received the B.S. and Ph.D. degrees in physics from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai in 2005 and 2008, respectively. From 2006 to 2009, he was a research assistant and a postdoctoral fellow with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong. He was a professor with Soochow University, Suzhou from 2009 to 2016. He has been a professor with Xiamen University since 2016. His research interests cover photonic/phononic crystals, metamaterial designs, and transformation optics/acoustics. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 papers with more than 11000 total citations and an H-index of 47. His work on transformation acoustics and cloaking was selected into the list of “Best of 2008” by Institute of Physics (IOP).

Darren Ong is Professor of Mathematics at Xiamen University Malaysia. He earned his PhD in mathematics from Rice University in the United States. His research focuses on spectral theory and mathematical physics, with particular interest in mathematics modelling quasicrystals and quantum walks.

Title: Quantum walk models corresponding to exotic spectra.

Abstract: Quantum walks are a quantum mechanical analogue of random walks that have drawn a lot of recent interest in physics and computer science. In this talk we introduce new quantum walk models that in some sense are unitary analogue to the Almost Mathieu Operator. For example, we will see how the spectrum of the quantum walk operators generate a unitary version of the famous Hausdorff butterfly image. These quantum walk models are generated using patterns inspired by quasicrystal structure. This talk is based on joint work with Chris Cedzich, Jake Fillman, Long Li and Qi Zhou.

Dr. Chong Hon Yew

Yen-Kheng Lim is from the Department of Physics, XMUM. From 2010 to 2018, he worked as a teaching assistant and subsequently an instructor at the National University of Singapore, where he received his PhD in December 2015. His research interests are in black holes and general relativity, particularly in seeking exact solutions in various gravity theories and their orbital dynamics. Recently he has also been exploring mathematical concepts like algebraic geometry and tropical geometry, and applying these ideas in solving problems in statistical mechanics, quantum mechanics, and gravity.

Title: Light-ring pairs from A-discriminantal varieties

Abstract: (Joint work with Mounir Nisse from Dept of Mathematics, XMUM)
When geodesic equations are formulated in terms of an effective potential U, circular orbits are characterised by U=∂ₐU=0. In this talk, I will discuss the case where U is an algebraic function. Then the condition for circular orbits defines an A-discriminantal variety. A theorem by Rojas and Rusek, suitably interpreted in the context of effective potentials, gives a precise criteria for certain types of spacetimes to contain at most two branches of light rings (null circular orbits), where one is stable and the other one unstable. We identify a few classes of static, spherically-symmetric spacetimes for which these two branches occur.

Dr. Siaw Foon Lee obtained the first degree in Physics at the University of Malaya, Malaysia in 1997. After graduating, she worked as a tooling design supporting the research and development activities at Matsushita Air-conditioning Technology Centre (MACTEC), Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for two and a half years. She pursured her PhD degree in material science in the Department of Physics, University of Loughborough, England in 2000 where she was also a teaching fellow. She was granted the PhD degree in December 2002. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Structural Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway from 2007 to 2010.

Currently she is a research scientist in the Eduardo Torroja Institute for Construction Science, Spanish National Research Council (IETcc-CSIC), focuses mainly on the steel corrosion in concrete and the photocatalyst application in environmental remediation.

Dr. Kianinia is currently vice chancellor research fellow at UTS, following his research in quantum optics and quantum technologies. Previously he held a postdoctoral and research position with the quantum optics group at UTS and TMOS Center of Excellence. He conducted unique experiments on quantum emitters in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) and developed a new fabrication method for indistinguishable photons from solid state sources, and spin defects in 2D materials. The end goal of his research is developing technologies based on 2D materials for applications in quantum computation, quantum communication and quantum sensing.