Gonzalo Muga, researcher at the University of the Basque Country in Spain, is the new editor-in-chief of EPL, the journal of physics letters owned by the EPS and 16 other national physical societies.

He first served the publication as a deputy editor for 4 years. This mandate, as a support to the editor-in-chief, allowed him to better know the intricacies of the journal. Now at the head of more than 60 co-editors and 3 deputy editors, Gonzalo Muga wishes to « improve the journal in all aspects, which may sound obvious but it really implies hard work » . He will continue the improvements  started by his predecessor Bart van Tiggelen on the setup of Scholar One, a digital publication tool. He also aims at making sure the new classification PhySH (Physics Subject Headings) replacing the PACS (Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme) runs smoothly.

Other goal is to push further the « Perspectives ». Launched in 2014 by EPL, they are « mini reviews » with a letter format. This publication gives the authors a wide range of possibilities on how to cover a subject. Their reflection can concentrate on their own work or address an entire field. The scheme has encountered quite a success up to now and also brought new readers.

The way to physics

As a teenager, Gonzalo Muga was fascinated by biology. His interest for this field lead him to study chemistry, which at its turn lead him to physical chemistry and in the end brought him to defend a thesis in quantum mechanics, a pure physics domain. He considers all this way a logical track to follow, driven by the will to understand.

Gonzalo has explored since then different topics, in particular non-Hermitian physics and asymmetric devices, such as atom diodes and Maxwell demons,  or the formalisation of time observables in quantum theory.

In the last twelve years  he specialised in shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA), a set of techniques pioneered by his group that are instrumental in implementing new quantum technologies by speeding up processes (for example transport of particles, cooling, or quantum gates) to mitigate or avoid decoherence.  

He is a theoretical physicist oriented towards possible applications. He conceives models and works with laboratories where these models have a chance of being developed and of serving fundamental science, industry or medicine. He believes for instance that investigating in valves (asymmetric devices) at a microscopic level will one day be useful : « I feel like an explorer discovering an uncharted territory. Science should be fun, it should be an adventure. »

Physics in times of SARS-COV-2

When mentioning the pandemic that started in 2020, Gonzalo Muga is clear about the consequences it had on his work. During the first months of lockdown in Spain, he could concentrate on the writing of papers, taking advantage of extra time and a quiet environment. In the long run, he realised however that the productivity went down and that the exchanges with his peers were precious.

Now he combines both ways of working: he continues to write articles while remote working and he spends the rest of the time at University. For him, researchers need to discuss, exchange ideas and they progress much faster when they meet face-to-face : « Scientists need interactions ! » 

More info

• Editorial by Gonzalo Muga in the EPL journal
• STA: shortcuts to adiabaticity
• Time in Quantum Mechanics, Springer, by Gonzalo Muga: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-540-73473-4 and https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-642-03174-8
• View the editorial board of the EPL journal
• Submit your manuscript to EPL :)