Students

PhD Students

Carlo Duva

Research Postgraduate

Carlo Duva joined Echoes Lab as a PhD student at Imperial College London in October 2023. His research focuses on understanding the impact of organic ligands on charge transport and photocurrent generation in layered Perovskites, with the goal of combining stability and efficiency in perovskite solar cells.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Carlo earned his Master of Physics Honours degree (MPhys(Hons)) from the University of Manchester (UoM). During his undergraduate studies, he spent a year at the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB). He conducted his Master's project under Dr. Laura Fumagalli in the condensed matter physics department at UoM. The project, under the co-supervision of Dr. Simone Benaglia and Dr. Harriet Read, centred on utilizing temperature-dependent Atomic Force Microscopy to investigate the thermodynamical properties of biological membranes, modelled using supported lipid bilayers.

Carlo spent his childhood in Italy before moving to Denmark for a few years, before finally moving to London, where he completed the International Baccalaureate Diploma Program. Having grown up abroad, he has developed a keen interest in world politics, a pastime not recommended for stress relief. As a means of relaxation, he enjoys taking short trips, both locally and abroad, to explore new places and unwind.

As the first PhD member of this group, he is dedicated to fostering a welcoming atmosphere for both present and prospective members, where everyone can identify with the core values of Echos Lab.

Pablo Vaquer de Nieves

Research Postgraduate

Pablo joined Echoes Lab as a PhD student in March 2026, thanks to an MSCA fellowship, where he works on organic semiconductors. His research, within the FADOS project, focuses on understanding how to dope these materials to achieve high charge densities without compromising charge-carrier mobility, combining experimental and theoretical approaches to study electronic interactions in disordered systems.

He completed a BSc in Physics at Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, during which he spent an Erasmus+ year at Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg. He did his BSc thesis with Hermann Suderow on Hall measurements, 4-probe method and STM on topological insulators. Afterwards, he completed his MSc studies in Physics with degrees at Sapienza Università di Roma and Université Paris-Saclay within the QUARMEN Erasmus Mundus joint program. In Paris-Saclay, he did an internship at École Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay with Jean-François Roch on diamond NV- centers and he did his MSc thesis with Thierry Gacoin and Clément Livache at École Polytechnique. There, he synthesized and studied colloidal halide perovskite QDs to be used as a gain medium in a potential new generation of lasers. Before arriving to London, Pablo spent a year back at Autónoma studying non-resonant spin-memory of room-temperature exciton-polaritons based on stacked 2D perovskites.

Outside of academia, Pablo likes sports (with a soft spot for windsurfing), travelling, sharing a drink with friends and a good meal with family. He also enjoys learning a bit about the humanities, particularly languages and history, and he currently takes some subjects (although slowly) of the online economics BSc at Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia, whenever time allows him to.

 

 

 

 

 

Master Students

Shizheng (Pascal) Hu

MRes Student

Project: Impact of molecular orientation at donor-acceptor interfaces on photocurrent generation