Mario A.
Ciampini

About me

I am an experimental physicist and Senior Scientist in the group of Markus Aspelmeyer at the Faculty of Physics of the University of Vienna.

In the lab, I trap glass nanoparticles in tightly focused laser beams in ultra-high vacuum and try to make them behave quantum mechanically. I shape their optical potential in space and time, control their motion with real-time feedback, and use them as a clean test bed for a question I find fascinating: what does it cost, physically, to process information?

I trained in quantum optics at Sapienza University of Rome, where I did my PhD with Paolo Mataloni on hyperentangled photons and multiqubit quantum information on integrated photonic chips. I moved to Vienna in 2018, first as a postdoc with Nikolai Kiesel, then as an FWF Lise Meitner Fellow, and since 2023 as a Senior Scientist.

Beyond research, I enjoy teaching, mentoring students and bringing physics to the public, from school experiments with cheap optics to the Long Night of Research.