Graduate Student

Jeongrak Son

I am a PhD student at NTU, Singapore working in Nelly Ng’s group. My PhD study aims to understand how auxiliary systems can enhance quantum information processing tasks, with the goal of leveraging this understanding to design improved protocols, particularly within resource theories and quantum algorithms. Highlights of my works include: closure of the gap between different thermodynamic resource theories using catalysis, establishing a no-go theorem for preparation-noise-robust catalysis applicable to a general class of resource theories, and proposing a quantum version of dynamic programming.

Before I came to Singapore, I worked as a research assistant at PCS IBS, Korea, during my Bachelor’s degree studies at Seoul National University and for a short time after graduation. My research there focused on the role of measurement strategies in quantum thermodynamics.

Outside of physics, I enjoy watching films where not much happens. I occasionally write about films on my personal website, and some of my reviews have been featured in Exposure (in-house publication of NTU film society) and Asian Cinema Digest (Asian Film Archive’s monthly newsletter). I love talking about films with anyone, but I might secretly judge you for your taste.

Personal website here

Taufiq Murtadho

Cartographer of low‑dimensional worlds, turning ultracold gases into hot new physics.

I am fascinated by how complex and orderly behavior in nature emerges from simple constituents following simple rules. This fascination has led me to join inQ as a PhD student in 2022, focusing on many-body physics. My research bridges theory, numerical simulation, and experiment in the field of low‑dimensional ultracold quantum gases. In particular, for my PhD, I am developing a novel measurement technique that can reveal their hidden quantum properties.

Before joining inQ, I completed my Bachelor’s degree in Physics (with a minor in Nuclear and Quantum Engineering) from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) in 2021. Then, I completed a Master’s degree at the Institute for Basic Science (IBS) in South Korea in 2022, with a thesis on the thermodynamics of synchronization in quantum systems.

Outside physics, I am active in advocating for a more thoughtful approach to politics as a writer and editor at What Is Up, Indonesia. I also enjoy landscape photography, hiking, and playing with cats.

Lim Zi Yao

Zi Yao grew curious about how the universe looks like on the most fundamental level and what can come out of it when he was a physics undergraduate student in NTU. Now as a PhD student, his current main focus of study is on open quantum system dynamics in non-Markovian regimes. He’s also interested in quantum foundations, quantum information, and their interplay with the open quantum system framework.

He enjoys reading, playing games, and Chinese calligraphy (he couldn’t say outside of physics because he realised all of his hobbies can somehow be linked to physics one way or another). Usually he can be found drinking coffee while listening to music in his office seat, adding emotes into his LaTeX documents, or wandering down the hallways while stretching his sore back.