Supported by the International Fulbright Science and Technology Award, Peter Maurer began his Ph.D. in physics at Harvard University in fall 2008. His main areas of interests are quantum optics and atomic physics. Peter is currently working on a realization of optical magnetometry with sub wavelength spatial resolution using spin manipulation of nitrogen vacancy color centers in diamond. He completed his master’s degree in physics from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich in 2008. While being a student at ETH, Peter conducted a three-month research project at the University of Oxford, where he was working on a laser driven plasma accelerator. In addition Peter completed an internship at the Max-Planck-Institute for Solid State Physics in Stuttgart, Germany, where he investigated on correlated electron systems in transition metal oxides using neutron scattering and X-ray diffraction techniques. For his master’s thesis, Peter implemented a two-qubit tomography in circuit QED using a joined dispersive read out.

In 2004, Peter received the highest award for his research project on short periodic air pressure variations in relation to general weather conditions at the Swiss National Contest of Young Scientists (Schweizer Jugend Forscht), the oldest and largest contest of its kind in Switzerland.