Baptiste Coquinot is a NOMIS–ISTA Fellow at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), working closely with the research groups of Mikhail Lemeshko (Theoretical Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics), as well as external collaborator Nikita Kavokine (Quantum Plumbing Lab, EPFL).
Coquinot obtained a double master’s degree in fundamental physics (Ecole Normale Supérieure-PSL University, Paris, France) and fundamental mathematics (Sorbonne Université, Paris, France) in 2021. As a theoretical physicist keen to make an impact on society, he joined Lydéric Bocquet at Micromégas — a nanofluidics lab whose research spans from theory to innovative outputs. Coquinot completed his PhD in nanofluidics, supported by the Foundation CFM for Research in 2024.
During his doctoral studies, Coquinot focused on fluctuation-induced couplings at the solid–liquid interface, arising from fluctuations in the microscopic degrees of freedom of both the solid and the liquid. He described in which contexts these couplings dominate solid–liquid friction, subsequently impacting hydrodynamics at the nanoscale, and how they can be used to engineer the friction coefficient. He showed that the solid modes are impacted by a flow at their surface, driving them out of equilibrium, modifying the friction and generating electric currents. Moreover, he also showed that it is possible to transfer a flow throughout a solid and thus to make flows forbidden by standard hydrodynamics. Finally, he proved that this interaction converts the friction force into an electrical power, thus using these couplings to make a promising hydroelectric generator.
As a NOMIS–ISTA Fellow, Coquinot is turning to quantum liquids to explore the nonequilibrium properties of superfluid helium within nanoconfined environments, combining recent advances in superfluidity and nanofluidic research. He will investigate the structure and transport properties of confined quantum liquids, focusing on the behavior of helium superfluid in nanotubes. Moreover, he will develop the theory for fully quantum nanofluidics and extend the current models for superfluid helium to nonequilibrium states. His research aims to provide a fundamental basis for the use of superfluid helium as a quantum solvent to study the spectroscopic properties of molecules of interest for solid–liquid heterogeneous catalysis.