ERC FUNDED PROJECTS

The continuing increase in Internet data traffic is pushing the capacity of single-mode fiber to its fundamental limits. Space division multiplexing (SDM) offers the only remaining physical degree of freedom – the space dimension in the transmission channel – to substantially increase the capacity in lightwave communication systems. The microresonator comb is an emerging technology platform that enables the generation of an optical frequency comb in a micrometer-scale cavity. Its compact size and compatibility with established semiconductor fabrication techniques promises to revolutionize the fields of frequency synthesis and metrology, and create new mass-market applications. I envision significant scaling advantages in future fiber-optic communications by merging SDM with microresonator frequency combs. One major obstacle to overcome here is the poor conversion efficiency that can be fundamentally obtained using the most stable and broadest combs generated in microresonators today. I propose to look into the generation of dark, as opposed to bright, temporal solitons in linearly coupled microresonators. The goal is to achieve reliable microresonator combs with exceptionally high power conversion efficiency, resulting in optimal characteristics for SDM applications. The scientific and technological possibilities of this achievement promise significant impact beyond the realm of fiber-optic communications. My broad international experience, unique background in fiber communications, photonic waveguides and ultrafast photonics, the preliminary results of my group and the available infrastructure at my university place me in an outstanding position to pioneer this new direction of research.

2 259 523 €

Start date: 2018-05-01, End date: 2023-04-30

This project is the first to apply an inclusive, internationally comparative, multi-methods approach to families to reveal the complex processes that result in a gendered division of work. We do this by comparing different-sex couples (DSC) to same-sex couples (SSC) focusing on the transition to parenthood and its career related consequences based on unique, population register data, census data and surveys, as well in depth interviews with couples. Three sub-projects emerge. In GENPARENT NORTH, longitudinal analyses of register data for the full population in the Nordic countries enable unique studies of the division of work and care in DSC and female SSC in a most similar-case comparison where the couples are matched on important background characteristics. In GENPARENT REGIME, the Nordic countries, the Netherlands and the US are compared in cross-sectional, quantitative analyses of female and male SSC and DSC with biological or adoptive children, their division of paid/unpaid work and the resulting career trajectories. Preliminary analyses indicate that family leave policies apply to some but not all families and this clearly structures the division of work and earnings in them. In GENPARENT VOICE, in-depth interviews with female and male SSC (planning for or having children) and adoptive DSC parents are carried out in order to explore the reasoning and expectations that precede the realized divisions of child care and paid work. In addition, the legal and social issues facing these families is highlighted. Interviews are conducted in Sweden and the Netherlands and for these countries, we have unique, longitudinal in-depth interviews with DSC expecting and having their first child. By comparing SSC to DSC and combining cross-sectional and longitudinal quantitative analyses with in-depth interviews, the GENPARENT project critically evaluate and develop theories on the gendered transition to parenthood, while expanding on and updating the welfare regime framework.

1 999 910 €

Start date: 2018-08-01, End date: 2023-07-31

More than 100 million people per year are affected by hydrological extremes, i.e. floods and droughts. Hydrological studies have investigated human impacts on droughts and floods, while conversely social studies have explored human responses to hydrological extremes. Yet, the dynamics resulting from their interplay, i.e. both impacts and responses, have remained poorly understood. Thus, current risk assessment methods do not explicitly account for these dynamics. As a result, while risk reduction strategies built on these methods can work in the short-term, they often lead to unintended consequences in the long-term. As such, this project aims to unravel the mutual shaping of society and hydrological extremes. A combined theoretical and empirical approach will be developed to uncover how the occurrence of hydrological extremes influences society’s wealth, institutions and population distribution, while, at the same time, society in turn alters the frequency, magnitude and spatial distribution of hydrological extremes via structural measures of water management and disaster risk reduction. To explore the causal mechanisms underlying this mutual shaping, this project will propose explanatory models as competing hypotheses about the way in which humans drive and respond to droughts and floods. These alternative explanations will be developed and tested through: i) empirical analysis of case studies, and ii) global investigation of numerous sites, taking advantage of the current unprecedented proliferation of worldwide datasets. By combining these different methods, this project is expected to address the gap of fundamental knowledge about the dynamics of risk emerging from the interplay of hydrological extremes and society.

1 835 361 €

Start date: 2018-04-01, End date: 2023-03-31

The cloud computing infrastructure that logically centralizes data storage and computation for many different actors is a prime example of a key societal system. A number of time-critical applications deployed in the cloud infrastructure have to provide high reliability and throughput, along with guaranteed low latency for delivering data. This low latency guarantee is sorely lacking today, with the so-called tail-latency of slowest responses in popular cloud services being several orders of magnitude longer than the median response times. Unfortunately, simply using a network with ample bandwidth does not guarantee low latency because of problems with congestion at the intra-and inter-data center levels and server overloads. All of these problems currently render the existing cloud infrastructures unsuitable for time-critical societal applications. The reasons for unpredictable delays across the Internet and within the cloud infrastructure are numerous, but some of the key culprits are: 1) slow memory subsystems limit server effectiveness, and 2) excess buffering in the Internet further limits correlation of data requests. The aim of this project is to dramatically change the way data flows across the Internet, such that it is more highly correlated when it is to be processed at the servers. The overarching goal is to enforce a large degree of correlation in the data requests (logical units of data), both temporally (across time) and spatially (as server work units require correlation to achieve high cache hit rates). The result is that the logical units of data will be processed at almost the maximum processing speed of the cloud servers. By doing so, we will achieve an ultra-low latency Internet. This project will produce the tools and knowledge that will be key to dramatically reducing the latency of key societal services; these include cloud services used by a large number of users on a daily basis.

2 000 000 €

Start date: 2018-06-01, End date: 2023-05-31