Hamoon Hedayat earned his Ph.D. in Physics with honors from Politecnico di Milano in 2015. Subsequently, as a Postdoctoral Researcher at Politecnico di Milano, he continued his work with Prof. Claudia Dallera, Dr. Ettore Carpene and in collaboration with Prof. Giulio Cerullo. He was awarded the Politecnico International Fellowship (PIF) in 2016. Following this, he served as a Senior Researcher at the Italian National Research Council until 2021. In 2021, he joined the University of Cologne as a Senior Researcher and Junior Group Leader in the Optical Condensed Matter Science group, led by Prof. Paul van Loosdrecht. His research involves investigating ultrafast interactions in strongly correlated materials using femtosecond laser pulses and various ultrafast optical spectroscopy techniques.
Dr. Anuja Sahasrabudhe is a postdoctoral researcher working on strongly correlated materials using a combination of steady-state and ultra-fast techniques like Raman scattering and magneto-optics. She obtained her PhD in 2024 with the thesis titled "Raman scattering on Kitaev magnet (alpha)-RuCl3 under high-magnetic field". She grew up in Mumbai, India, where she completed her undergraduate studies. She then moved to Germany to pursue a Master's in physics from the University of Bonn. She started working with the research group of Prof Paul van Loosdrecht for her master's research work. She studied magnetic perovskites using time-resolved Raman scattering. Then she continued working with the group as a Ph.D. student. Her current work focuses on investigating the quantum spin liquid candidates with Raman scattering in high magnetic field. 
Omar Abdul-Aziz obtained his Bachelor degree in General Physics (with honors) at the Lebanese University in 2019. Then, he joined the Bonn-Cologne graduate School (BCGS) program, here in Germany, to pursue his Master’s degree at the University of Bonn. During his master studies, he got interested in the field of ultrafast spectroscopy of semiconducting materials. Then, he joined the research group of Prof. Paul van Loosdrecht at the University of Cologne in 2021 for his master’s thesis work, and started working on understanding of the charge carrier dynamics and molecular arrangement of Squaraine pi-conjugated systems using ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy technique. During his bachelor and master studies, he held the scholarships “Walid Joumblatt Foundation for University Studies” (2017) and “German Academic Exchange Service DAAD” (2021). In June 2022, after completing his master’s degree, he started his research assistant position in the subgroup with the main focus on the investigating of the phonon response in the out-of-equilibrium state and carrier population dynamics of photoexcited “PdSe2”, a 2D transition metal dichalcogenides, using time-resolved Raman spectroscopy 
Danilo Comini earned both a Bachelor's degree in Physics and a Master's degree in Physics with a curriculum in Condensed Matter, graduating summa cum laude from the University of Trieste.
During his master's studies, he acquired both theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of surface science and UHV setups. In particular, his Master's thesis, titled "Carbonylation of a surface-supported bi-metallic porphyrin monolayer: an investigation from UHV to near-ambient pressure" focused on studying mono- and bi-metallic organic monolayer heterostructures by means of SFG spectroscopy in Ultra-High Vacuum conditions with the goal of probing the catalytic properties of the said systems.
As a doctoral student, he joined Paul van Loosdrecht's research group under the direct supervision of Dr. Hamoon Hedayat with the intention of furthering his knowledge in the field of magnetic phenomena (such as magnetic phase transitions, ultrafast laser induced (de)magnetization and spin dynamics) on 2D WdV anti-ferromagnets and TMDs heterostructures through the use of ultra-fast optical and magneto-optical spectroscopy techniques (time-resolved broadband MOKE and Transient Grating Spectroscopy).
Julian Wagner obtained his Bachelor of Science (2017) and Master of Science (2020) degree in physics at the University of Cologne. He held the scholarships “Deutschlandstipendium der Universität zu Köln” (2015) and “Bonn Cologne Graduate School (BCGS)” (2019). His master thesis was entitled “Transient Valley Grating Spectroscopy on Monolayer WSe2” under the supervision of Prof. Paul van Loosdrecht. Then, He started his PhD in the same group at the University of Cologne. His PhD research aims to understand and control non-equilibrium dynamics in solid-state materials using various time-resolved optical and magneto-optical spectroscopy techniques. Here, especially probing the dynamics in potential quantum spin liquid materials and their dynamical behavior after photoexcitation is the focus of his research. In addition, he is interested in optically driven phase transitions, seeking to understand the universality of the underlying dynamics. In his personal life, his passion is Ballroom dancing. He dances the Waltz, Tango, Viennese Waltz, Slow Foxtrott, Quickstep and many other dances on a competitive level. 
We investigate the complex dynamics of photoexcited carriers and excitons in 2D heterostructures, with a specific emphasis on interlayer interactions such as charge and spin transfer. Utilizing state-of-the-art ultrafast optical techniques, we systematically examine the proximity effects. We aim to reveal the fundamental mechanisms driving these interactions, thereby advancing our understanding of their potential applications in next-generation technologies.
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[1] Unveiling Ultrafast Spin-Valley Dynamics and Phonon-Mediated Charge Transfer in MoSe2/WSe2 Heterostructures under publication.
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[2] We use Transient grating spectroscopy to probe the exciton and spin diffusion in various heterostructures.
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[3] Our recent study on Graphene/WSe2 heterostructure
arXiv:2404.17416 (2024).
ORCID: Hamoon Hedayat