Professor Hannah Price

Professor Hannah Price

School of Physics and Astronomy
Head of Research
Professor of Theoretical Physics

Contact details

Address
School of Physics and Astronomy
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT

Professor Hannah Price is a Professor of Theoretical Physics. Her research focuses on the creation and study of topological phases of matter in photonics and ultracold gases.

Qualifications

  • PhD in Physics, University of Cambridge, 2013
  • MSci in Natural Sciences (Physics), University of Cambridge, 2010

Biography

Hannah Price obtained her PhD from the University of Cambridge in 2013 for her research exploring topological phenomena in ultracold atomic gases. Her interests then expanded into photonics and quantum optics, first as a postdoctoral researcher, and then a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow at the INO-CNR BEC Center at the University of Trento, Italy. 

She joined University of Birmingham as a Royal Society University Research Fellow and a Birmingham Fellow in 2017. She become a Reader in 2020 and a Professor of Theoretical Physics in 2023.  

In 2018, she was awarded the Institute of Physics James Clerk Maxwell Medal and Prize, as well as a University of Birmingham Founders’ Award: The Aston Webb Award for Outstanding Early Career Academic. In 2025, she was a Finalist in the UK Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.

Research

Hannah's research interests focus on photonics and cold atoms, where she explores how to engineer such platforms to realise topological phases of matter and/or many-body phenomena, drawing on ideas developed to describe systems of electrons in condensed matter. 

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Chen, T, Huang, C, Velkovsky, I, Ozawa, T, Price, H, Covey, JP & Gadway, B 2025, 'Interaction-driven breakdown of Aharonov–Bohm caging in flat-band Rydberg lattices', Nature Physics, vol. 21, no. 2, pp. 221-227. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-024-02714-7

Barontini, G, Naniyil, V, Stinton, JP, Reid, DG, Gunn, JMF, Price, HM, Deb, AB, Caprioli, D & Guarrera, V 2025, 'Observation of Fermi Acceleration with Cold Atoms', Physical Review Letters, vol. 135, no. 2, 025201. https://doi.org/10.1103/nrjv-pwy1

Feis, J, Weidemann, S, Sheppard, T, Price, HM & Szameit, A 2025, 'Space-time-topological events in photonic quantum walks', Nature Photonics, vol. 19, no. 5, pp. 518-525. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-025-01653-w

Reid, DG, Oliver, C, Regan, P, Smith, A, Easton, T, Salerno, G, Barontini, G, Goldman, N & Price, HM 2025, 'Topological chiral edge states in a synthetic dimension of atomic trap states', Physical Review A, vol. 111, no. 3, 033301. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.111.033301

McCanna, B & Price, HM 2024, 'Curved vortex surfaces in four-dimensional superfluids. II. Equal-frequency double rotations', Physical Review A, vol. 110, no. 1, 013326. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.013326

McCanna, B & Price, HM 2024, 'Curved vortex surfaces in four-dimensional superfluids. I. Unequal-frequency double rotations', Physical Review A, vol. 110, no. 1, 013325. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.110.013325

Oliver, C, Mukherjee, S, Rechstman, MC, Carusotto, I & Price, HM 2023, 'Artificial gauge fields in the t - z mapping for optical pulses: Spatiotemporal wave packet control and quantum Hall physics', Science Advances, vol. 9, no. 42, eadj036. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.adj0360

Oliver, C, Smith, A, Easton, T, Salerno, G, Guarrera, V, Goldman, N, Barontini, G & Price, HM 2023, 'Bloch oscillations along a synthetic dimension of atomic trap states', Physical Review Research, vol. 5, no. 3, 033001. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.033001

Martello, E, Singhal, Y, Gadway, B, Ozawa, T & Price, HM 2023, 'Coexistence of stable and unstable population dynamics in a nonlinear non-Hermitian mechanical dimer', Physical Review E, vol. 107, no. 6, 064211. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.107.064211

Anandwade, R, Singhal, Y, Paladugu, SNM, Martello, E, Castle, M, Agrawal, S, Carlson, E, Battle-McDonald, C, Ozawa, T, Price, HM & Gadway, B 2023, 'Synthetic mechanical lattices with synthetic interactions', Physical Review A. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.012221

Price, HM, Wimmer, M, Monika, M, Peschel, U & Carusotto, I 2023, 'Theory of hydrodynamic phenomena in optical mesh lattices', Physical Review A, vol. 108, no. 6, 063517. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevA.108.063517

Conference contribution

Feis, J, Weidemann, S, Sheppard, T, Price, HM & Szameit, A 2024, Time Topology in Synthetic Photonic Lattices. in 2024 Eighteenth International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena (Metamaterials). International Congress on Advanced Electromagnetic Materials in Microwaves and Optics (METAMATERIALS), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), 18th International Congress on Artificial Materials for Novel Wave Phenomena, Metamaterials 2024, Chania, Greece, 9/09/24. https://doi.org/10.1109/Metamaterials62190.2024.10703190

Editorial

Zhang, B, Fleury, R, Price, H & Zhen, B 2024, 'Topological Photonics: introduction to the feature issue', Optical Materials Express, vol. 14, no. 9, pp. 2190-2191. https://doi.org/10.1364/OME.539364

Letter

Singhal, Y, Martello, E, Agrawal, S, Ozawa, T, Price, H & Gadway, B 2023, 'Measuring the adiabatic non-Hermitian Berry phase in feedback-coupled oscillators', Physical Review Research, vol. 5, no. 3, L032026. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevResearch.5.L032026

Preprint

Barontini, G, Naniyil, V, Stinton, JP, Reid, D, Gunn, JMF, Price, HM, Deb, AB, Caprioli, D & Guarrera, V 2025 'Observation of Fermi acceleration with cold atoms' arXiv. https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2503.09553

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