Dr. Falko Schmidt has a background in applied physics with specialisations in active matter and optofluidic manipulation of nanoscale systems. He obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden in 2021. During this time he has co-founded his startup Lucero Bio which develops optical manipulation tools of 3D cell cultures for early-stage drug discovery. Since then Lucero has become a part of AstraZeneca’s BioventureHub and is part of several European collaboration with the pharmaceutical, optical and medical industry. Recently, Lucero got awarded the EIC Transition grant to improve personalised healthcare with the aid of optical tweezers and microfluidics.
Between 2021-2023, Falko Schmidt held a position as research coordinator for a large scientific network on quantum technologies and was actively researching on 2D materials as single photon sources at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. He is currently working as a PostDoctoral Researcher at ETH Zurich in Switzerland.
He is an active member of OPTICA and DPG and was a founding member of the OPTICA student chapter at Gothenburg University. He has been invited to talk about entrepreneurship at several webinar series such as “From PhD to CEO”, organised by other ambassadors. In 2022, he was also nominated as My Green Lab Ambassador because of his strong commitment to more sustainable lab practices.
In my free time I love to explore nature with kayaks, climbing in caves and hiking through rivers. My all time sport companion though is Yoga that keeps me grounded even in the toughest of periods.