Congratulations to Faran Irshad!

Faran has successfully defended his thesis in the group of Prof. Stefan Karsch. 

We're delighted to share that Faran Irshad has successfully defended his PhD thesis on "Bayesian Optimization of Laser Wakefield Accelerators"! 

Faran’s PhD in the group of Prof. Stefan Karsch focused on advancing Laser Wakefield Accelerators (LWFAs) which are compact, high-gradient accelerators with significant potential for applications in science and industry. LWFAs are powerful but difficult to control, so Faran developed new machine-learning–based optimization methods, including Trust-MOMF, a multi-objective, multi-fidelity Bayesian optimization framework.

This approach enabled much faster optimization, high-quality electron beams with fewer laser shots, and reproducible energy tuning in both simulations and experiments on the ATLAS petawatt laser system leading to three first-author publications in high-impact physics journals. The work demonstrates how automated, data-driven control can significantly improve LWFA stability and usability, moving the technology closer to real-world deployment.

Congratulations! We wish you all the best for your future endeavors!