About

Hello! I'm an undergraduate student in physics at the University of British Columbia currently working in the group of Dr. Andrea Alù at the Photonics Initiative at the City University of New York. I've also held positions at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia.

Outside of physics, I perform music on a few different instruments, try to learn some languages and occasionally do a bit of graphic design. I've included some of my more interesting endeavours in Projects.

If you'd like to discuss my research or otherwise have a chat, please reach out in Contact and I'd be happy to talk!

Research

My research focuses on photonics and metamaterials, allowing us to better understand and use light-matter interactions. I currently work with Dr. Andrea Alù at the Advanced Science Research Center at the City University of New York.

I currently explore photonics in both the optical and radio frequency (RF) wavelengths, mainly in simulating, fabricating and characterising metamaterials: structures that have intended properties that largely arise from their often periodic and sub-wavelength synthetic structures. One of my research pathways explores time-varying optical metamaterials in pump-probe spectroscopy experiments. By altering the spatial and temporal profiles of ultrafast laser pulses, we can observe changes in the response of these metamaterials. I also investigate RF metamaterials for exploring other electromagnetic phenomena, such as negative refraction, complex frequencies and plasmonic cloaking.

While I am now an experimental physicist, my research aims were not always in physics. I began academic research in my first year of university, joining a microbiology lab to explore genetic engineering and synthetic biology. I began to get involved in analytical and interstellar chemistry research, where I then pivoted to physics and have stayed in various subfields of atomic, molecular and optical physics ever since. Please see below for a list of research labs I have been associated with, with publications below. If you are interested in a full CV, please contact me.

Research Labs

Present
2025.01 		City University of New York, Advanced Science Research Center
Visiting Research Scholar, Photonics Initative (Dr. Andrea Alù)
2024.12
2024.05		 Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society
Visiting Researcher, Von Helden Group
2023.08
2023.05		 University of Toronto, Department of Physics
NSERC USRA Researcher, Majoribanks Lab for Quantum Optics
2022.09
2022.01		 University of British Columbia, School of Biomedical Engineering
Research Assistant, Yachie Lab of Synthetic Biology

Internships and Volunteer Positions

2023.11
2022.05 		University of British Columbia, Department of Chemistry
Volunteer, UBC Astrochem Lab (Dr. Ilsa Cooke)
2023.01
2020.11		 University of British Columbia, Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Team Member at UBC iGEM, Hallam Lab
2022.08
2022.05		 University of British Columbia, Department of Chemistry
Volunteer, Huan Lab
2022.03
2021.10		 University of British Columbia, Department of Physics & Astronomy
Mentee to Chris Waddell
2022.03
2021.10		 University of British Columbia, Department of Medical Genetics
Mentee to Evan Gibbard

Publications

  • Torres-Boy, A.Y.; Taccone, M.I.; Ober, K.; Osenton, M.B.T.; Meijer, G.; von Helden, G.; Martínez-Haya, B. (2025). Spectroscopic investigation of proton bonding at sub-kelvin temperatures. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. DOI: 10.1039/D4CP04058A

Projects

Construction underway.

Attributions

  • Morgan Arnold, Boris Li and Romain Tirole, amongst others for providing website inspiration
  • Sephai Nagareboshi and Dhruv Rawat for being my personal stack exchange
  • HTML5 UP for code foundations
  • Formspree for form hosting