In this inaugural lecture, I invite you on a journey across six continents, each representing a chapter in my scientific life and my contributions to experimental neutrino physics. Europe marks my journey toward the research I pursue today—from academic studies through early work in exotic atom spectroscopy, and into the world of neutrino physics. I stay grounded in Europe, having recently joined Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where I’m thrilled to be part of a vibrant neutrino physics community. Africa represents the Sun—radiant in both beauty and intensity—and solar neutrinos, born in the Sun’s core, lie at the core of my scientific work. My journey with the Borexino experiment spanned from the beginning to the end of its data taking, culminating in the precision spectroscopy of pp-chain neutrinos and the groundbreaking detection of CNO-cycle neutrinos. The Americas, shaped over eons by powerful geological processes, connect to my background in geology and its unexpected link to neutrino physics through geoneutrino research. In Borexino, we succeeded in observing geoneutrinos—a powerful tool for understanding Earth's energetics and formation processes. Asia, fast-moving and future-focused, represents the JUNO experiment in China—the main project of my research group. Based on the same liquid scintillator technology as Borexino but scaled up by a factor of 70, JUNO stands out as a unique next-generation neutrino experiment, now in its commissioning phase. It will be central to my research in the coming years, allowing me to apply years of experience toward discoveries across multiple scientific goals. Australia, geographically remote yet globally connected, symbolizes the importance of collaboration and interdisciplinarity in neutrino physics. My journey—from geology to neutrino research—taught me the value of crossing scientific boundaries. At Mainz, the PRISMA++ Cluster of Excellence offers a strong platform for scientific integration. Antarctica, like the dream-fulfilling sailing journey to its icy shores, symbolizes the vision and determination that drive us—from personal goals to ambitious scientific quests. Through this world tour, I share not only my research but also how science—like travel—thrives on curiosity, courage, and the pursuit of the unknown, exactly where ancient maps warned: hic sunt leones.

Status & Outlook of Belle II and some fun with Neutrinos The Belle II experiment is preparing for an intensive seven-month data-taking run beginning in November 2025, marking the next major step in our quest to uncover physics beyond the Standard Model. Through high-precision studies of heavy-flavor decays, tau decays, and dedicated searches for light, feebly interacting particles, Belle II targets some of the most pressing open questions in fundamental physics. While the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has discovered the Higgs boson, it has so far not revealed additional new particles that could explain the dominance of matter over antimatter, the nature of dark matter, the origin of neutrino masses, or the intricate features of strong interactions. Belle II, operating at the SuperKEKB accelerator in Tsukuba, Japan, offers a complementary approach by recording an unprecedented sample of beauty- and charm-quark decays in the clean environment of electron–positron collisions, with data taking planned through the 2040s. Following the recent long shutdown and a successful upgrade of the vertex detector, the upcoming run will be an important milestone to push forward precision tests of the Standard Model. I will also briefly highlight the FASER experiment at CERN, which complements Belle II by probing forward physics at the LHC, including neutrino interactions and searches for long-lived particles.

I will explore various facets of photonic quantum systems and their application in photonic quantum technologies. I will start with quantum interference, a key element in photonic quantum technologies. I will then discuss photonic quantum computing, specifically focusing on the building blocks of photonic quantum computers. I will explore photonic quantum networks, covering both hardware aspects and applications. Finally, I will outline how photonic integration facilitates the scalability of these systems and discuss the associated challenges.