Mid-PhD Evaluation of Lucas Ansia

Earlier this month, our PhD student Lucas successfully completed his mid-PhD evaluation (Comissão de Acompanhamento de Tese – CAT) at Técnico Lisboa — a key checkpoint in the Portuguese PhD track.

Lucas presented two years of research on how non-thermal electron distributions relax in warm and high-density matter — a crucial aspect of modeling out-of-equilibrium plasmas. He also highlighted the often-overlooked role of shake-off processes in XFEL-driven Warm Dense Matter (WDM).

This work advances our understanding of how matter behaves under extreme conditions and brings us closer to interpreting cutting-edge experimental data from X-ray free-electron lasers.

We also want to thank the jury: Prof. Frederico Fiuza, Prof. Hugo Terças, and Dr. Gareth Williams.

Congrats, Lucas!