About the Editors
Nature Physics is staffed by a dedicated team of professional editors, with relevant research and editorial backgrounds. It is led by David Abergel, and includes Richard Brierley, Elizaveta Dubrovina and Leonardo Benini (all based in London), Stefanie Reichert, Bart Verberck, Debarchan Das, and Sonal Mistry (all based in Berlin), and Lishu Wu (based in Shanghai).
Chief Editor: David Abergel, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Before joining Nature Physics in 2017, David carried out theoretical research on graphene and other two-dimensional materials, and topological materials. He completed a Ph.D at Lancaster University in 2007, and then did post-doctoral work at the University of Manitoba (Canada) and the University of Maryland (USA) before undertaking an Assistant Professorship at Nordita, the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Stockholm, Sweden. David is based in our Berlin office.
Senior Editor and Team Leader: Stefanie Reichert, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Stefanie joined Nature Physics in 2018. She obtained her PhD from the University of Manchester, where she studied transitions between particles and their respective anti-particles at the LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. She then joined the LHCb group at the Technical University Dortmund as post-doc, where she worked on several decay channels on the quest for finding new physics. Stefanie is based in our Berlin office.
Senior Editor: Richard Brierley, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Richard joined Nature Physics from Nature Communications in 2020. He received his PhD in condensed matter theory from the University of Cambridge, studying the theory of polariton condensates. After a year as a Junior Research Fellow in Cambridge, he moved to Yale University as a postdoctoral fellow working on superconducting quantum computing and phase transitions in strongly correlated systems. Richard is based in the London office.
Senior Editor: Elizaveta Dubrovina, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Elizaveta re-joined Nature Physics in January 2022 from Nature Communications. Prior to joining the Nature Portfolio in 2016, she specialised in the applied mathematics of fluid flows as part of her studies at the University of Cambridge. She then obtained her PhD from Imperial College London, where she worked on the fluid dynamics of lab-on-chip devices, with a focus on analytical and numerical methods. Elizaveta is based in our London office.
Senior Consulting Editor: Bart Verberck, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
After 10 years in academia, Bart originally joined Nature Physics in 2013, where he handled topics including condensed-matter physics and plasma physics. He also launched a column called ‘Measure for Measure’ on aspects of metrology. In 2017, Bart moved to Berlin to become Regional Executive Editor for the newly established Nature Portfolio office in Germany, which he helped develop as an editorial and publishing hub. Since 2021, he combines that capacity with the role of Senior Consulting Editor at Nature Physics, where he covers soft-condensed-matter physics and has a consulting role for Nature Communications.
Senior Editor: Leonardo Benini, PhD, Springer Nature, UK
Leonardo joined Nature Physics in July 2021. He received a B.Sc. in Physics and a M.Sc. in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Bologna, Italy, working on disordered Kitaev chains with long-range pairing. He moved to the University of Warwick in the UK for his PhD studies, conducting research on a variety of topics related to localization effects in strongly disordered many-body systems. Leonardo is based in the London office.
Senior Editor: Debarchan Das, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Debarchan joined Nature Physics in January 2023. He received a Ph.D in Physics from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, working on iron pnictide and heavy fermion superconductors. He then completed post-doctoral research at the Institute of Low Temperature and Structure Research in Wrocław, Poland and at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland. He is an expert in transport and muon spin rotation experiments on strongly-correlated materials. Debarchan is based in the Berlin office.
Associate Editor: Lishu Wu, PhD, Springer Nature, China
Lishu joined Nature Physics from Nature Reviews Electrical Engineering in January 2025. She received her first degree in materials physics from Sichuan University in China in 2015. She earned her PhD in physics and applied physics from Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, where she studied the optical properties of two-dimensional (2D) materials and their heterostructures. After graduation, she went on to work as a postdoctoral researcher at School of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE), NTU, exploring photonic and electronic devices based on 2D materials. Lishu is currently based in the Shanghai office.
Associate Editor: Sonal Mistry, PhD, Springer Nature, Germany
Sonal joined Nature Physics in February 2025. She conducted her doctoral studies at the Daresbury Laboratory in the UK working on photocathode development for electron accelerators. She then moved to the HZB facility in Berlin where she joined the High Brightness Beams group working towards delivering multi-alkali antimonide photocathode electron sources to drive the SEALAB/bERLinPro accelerator project. Sonal handles the journal's optics and photonics content and is based in the Berlin office.
The Research Cross-Journal Editorial Team supports the Nature-branded research journals, with a focus on handling primary research manuscripts.
The Reviews Cross-Journal Editorial Team handles Research Briefing articles for the Nature-branded research journals.
