Darrick Chang is an ICREA Research Professor at ICFO. He obtained his bachelor's degree in physics from Stanford University in 2001, and his PhD in physics from Harvard University in 2008. Subsequently, he held a prize postdoctoral fellowship at the California Institute of Technology. In 2011, Darrick joined ICFO as the leader of the Theoretical Quantum Nanophotonics group. He was awarded an ERC Starting Grant in 2015, and an ERC Consolidator Grant in 2021. He has been involved in many previous/current international projects, including as a PI and scientific coordinator of European FET-Open projects GRASP and DAALI, as a PI in the Quantum Flagship project QIA, QuantERA project QuSiED, and EIC Pathfinder project PANDA, and as a foreign collaborator in US MURI projects QOMAND and Photonic Quantum Matter. He has approximately 90 publications, including 17 in the Nature family of journals, which have been cited over 20,000 times (Google Scholar).

The research of Prof. Chang and his Theoretical Quantum Nanophotonics group at ICFO focuses on developing novel techniques to manipulate quantum interactions between light and matter, and advancing theoretical tools to understand these phenomena. This work covers both technological applications, such as quantum information processing and nonlinear optics at the single-photon level, and fundamental science. Currently, a main research focus of the group involves the search for novel emergent and strongly correlated phenomena in quantum atom-light interactions, but their research more broadly spans quantum optics, atomic physics, nanophotonics, optomechanics, quantum information science, and 2D materials. The group also works closely with leading experimental groups worldwide, to bring their theoretical ideas toward reality.