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 100 publications, including 17 in the Nature family of journals, which have been cited over 22,000 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 both for quantum technology and fundamental science, and advancing theoretical tools to understand such systems. Currently, a main research focus of the group involves the search for novel emergent and strongly correlated phenomena in quantum atom-light interactions, going beyond traditional regimes of collective spin phenomena. The group has made pioneering contributions to several fields including quantum optics with atom arrays, atom-nanophotonics interfaces, and levitated optomechanics. The group also works closely with leading experimental groups worldwide, to bring their theoretical ideas toward reality.