I joined the Optics Group at Glasgow in September 2005. I grew up in Grünstadt an der Weinstrasse and in Braunschweig. After some undergraduate studies at the University of Hannover I left Germany for the sunny climate of Western Scotland. There, at Strathclyde University, I did an MPhil in Theoretical Quantum Optics with Prof. Stephen M. Barnett. I then abandoned the two level atom in order to build an atom trap during my PhD at Innsbruck with Prof. Anton Zeilinger. My thesis is on "Magnetometry with cold Lithium atoms". In 1998 I returned to Strathclyde University, working first as a Postdoc, then as a Royal Society of Edinburgh Research Fellow in the Quantum and Nonlinear Optics Group. I was awarded a Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship in 2003 and an RCUK Academic Fellowship in 2005.

If a career in physics isn't challenging enough I can always rely on my 3 children...

Research interests

• angular momentum of light: nature of orbital and spin angular momentum of light, fundamental quantum tests, transfer of angular momentum between light and matter;
• phase dependent atom optics: closed loop atomic systems, phase dependent dynamics, magnetometry, experimental atom optics;

Academic activities

• lecturing: Modern and Nonlinear Optics; Frontiers of Optics; lecture notes on Moodle
• First Year Lab Deputy Head;
• UK correspondent for Physik Journal;

Selected publications

• Franke-Arnold, S; Allen, L; Padgett, M, Advances in optical angular momentum, Laser & Photonics Reviews 2, 299-313 (2008)
• Franke-Arnold, S; Leach, J; Padgett, MJ; Lembessis, VE; Ellinas, D; Wright, AJ; Girkin, JM; Ohberg, P; Arnold, AS, Optical ferris wheel for ultracold atoms, Opt. Express 15, 8619-8625 (2007).
• Kajari-Schröder, S; Morigi, G; Franke-Arnold, S; Oppo, GL, Phase-dependent light propagation in atomic vapors, Phys. Rev. A 75, 013816 (2007).
• Franke-Arnold S; Barnett SM; Yao E; Leach J; Courtial J; Padgett M, Uncertainty principle for angular position and angular momentum, New J. Phys. 2004, Vol 6, 103
• Franke-Arnold, S; Barnett, SM; Padgett, MJ; Allen, L, Two-photon entanglement of orbital angular momentum states, Phys. Rev. A 65, 033823 (2002).