CNAM hosting first annual Winter School on Fundamentals of Quantum Materials

​​The Fundamentals of Quantum Materials Winter School and Workshop, which begins Jan. 14, promises to be a unique event in North America, dedicated specifically to the synthesis, characterization and electronic modeling of quantum materials. It is organized by CNAM director Johnpierre Paglione; Assistant Professor Efrain Rodriguez of UMD's department of Chemistry; Dr. Nicholas Butch, NIST; and Professor Gabriel Kotliar of Rutgers University.

The FQM Winter School is aimed at providing fundamental training to our current and future generations of Quantum Materials scientists in synthesis and characterization techniques. It will bring together senior and junior scientists to address topics at the forefront of current research into quantum materials, while also providing pedagogical background and practical training for junior scientists. With an interdisciplinary and diverse crowd including physicists, chemists, and materials scientists, participants will gain a basic functional knowledge of how to plan and carry out synthesis relevant to the study of quantum materials, and will have a unique opportunity to interact with some of the top researchers in the field while networking with peers. The structure of the school will include mornings of pedagogical lectures by ten of the nation's top practicing quantum materials scientists, with afternoons devoted to practical demonstrations in laboratories in the University of Maryland's Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials. The school will also include a poster session that will be attended by senior scientists. The school received ~40 applications and seated 25 students.

The FQM Workshop, held the preceding weekend in collaboration with the BNL Center for Computational Design of Functional Strongly Correlated Materials and Theoretical Spectroscopy, covers both experimental and theoretical research on quantum materials, focusing on synthesis, characterization and computational approaches to research of quantum materials such as superconductors, strongly correlated electron systems and topological materials.

The event is sponsored by the Moore Foundation, ICAM, NIST, the University of Maryland's Office of Research and the College of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

Invited Speakers include:

James Analytis, University of California, Berkeley
Ryan Baumbach, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory Brookhaven National Lab
Paul Canfield, Ames Laboratory
Julia Chan, University of Texas, Dallas
Sang-Wook Cheong, Rutgers University
David Mandrus, University of Tennessee
John Mitchell, Argonne National Laboratory
Efrain Rodriguez, University of Maryland
Brian Sales, Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory
Ichiro Takeuchi, University of Maryland

Edward “Joe” Redish 75th Birthday Celebration & Golden Jubilee

Physics Professor Edward "Joe" Redish
75th Birthday Celebration and Golden Jubilee

Friday, March 31 – Saturday, April 1, 2017
University of Maryland

Schedule of Events

FRIDAY, MARCH 31
Physical Sciences Complex Lobby

4:30–6:30 p.m. "Physics as Learning and Learning Physics"

Speakers:
Royce Zia, professor emeritus of physics, Virginia Tech
Jack Wilson, president emeritus, University of Massachusetts
Lillian McDermott, professor of physics, University of Washington
Robert Hilborn, associate executive officer, American Association of Physics Teachers

SATURDAY, APRIL 1
Bioscience Research Building, Room 1101

8 a.m. Breakfast

8:30–10:30 a.m. "Connections: Biology, Physics, Education"

Speakers:
Todd Cooke, professor of cell biology and molecular genetics, University of Maryland
Katerina "Kaci" Thompson, director of undergraduate research and internship programs for the College of Computer, Mathematical, and Natural Sciences, University of Maryland
A. David Redish, Distinguished McKnight University Professor of Neuroscience, University of Minnesota
Deborah Redish Fripp, president, Darwin's Ark consultancy

10:30–11 a.m. Break

11 a.m.–1 p.m. "Social Issues in Physics Education Research: Community, Diversity, Ethics"

Speakers:
Chandra Turpen, assistant research professor of physics, University of Maryland
Richard Steinberg, program director of science education and professor of education and physics, City College of New York
Mel Sabella, professor of physics, Chicago State University
Ayush Gupta, assistant research professor of physics, University of Maryland

1–2 p.m. Lunch

2–4 p.m. "Physics Education Research Today"

Speakers:
Saalih Allie, associate professor of physics and academic development, University of Cape Town
Cedric Linder, professor of physics and astronomy and chair of physics education research, Uppsala University
Paula Heron, professor of physics, University of Washington
Michael Wittmann, professor of physics, University of Maine

4 p.m. Closing Reception

REGISTRATION

Register by March 24 at go.umd.edu/redishrsvp.

SUPPORT EXCELLENCE IN PHYSICS EDUCATION
In lieu of gifts, the Redishes ask that you consider supporting the E.F. Redish Endowed Professorship in Science Education at UMD. Donations can be made online at go.umd.edu/redishfund.

PLAN YOUR VISIT
A limited number of hotel rooms are available for Friday and Saturday nights at the College Park Marriott Hotel & Conference Center by calling the hotel at 301-985-7300 and asking for the "Joe Redish Celebration" room block. You may also book your group rate online.

DRIVING DIRECTIONS AND PARKING INFORMATION

Parking is available on Friday and Saturday in the Regents Drive Parking Garage. Parking is free on any level of the garage excluding the roof after 4 p.m. on Friday and all day Saturday.

Driving directions to the Regents Drive Parking Garage:

  • Take the Capital Beltway (I-495). 
  • From I-495, take Exit 25, Route 1/Baltimore Avenue South toward College Park.
  • Proceed approximately 2.2 miles on Route 1 South.
  • Turn right onto Campus Drive, the main entrance to the campus.
  • Proceed to traffic circle with the "M" in flowers and turn right onto Regents Drive.
  • Go to second stop sign and turn left onto Stadium Drive.
  • Make an immediate left turn into the Regents Drive Parking Garage.                                                                                                                     

Getting to the Physical Sciences Complex (for Friday events):

  • Exit the parking garage in the center of the north side of the garage's 1st level.
  • The Physical Sciences Complex is directly across the street and can be reached via crosswalk.

Getting to the Bioscience Research Building (for Saturday events):

  • Take the walkway on the southwest corner of the parking garage's 3rd level to Hornbake Plaza.
  • When you reach the plaza, turn right and walk past the Biology-Psychology building to the entrance of the Bioscience Research Building                                          

Map

QUESTIONS?
Please contact Jennifer Casaregola at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or 301-405-4324.

 

PhysCon 2016 Travel Award Recipients

Travel Awards in the amount of $200 were provided to help fund SPS members presenting their research interests and outreach activities at PhysCon 2016. Six of these awards are recipients from UMD.

CMTC to kick off annual research symposium

This week, the Condensed Matter Theory Center hosts its annual symposium, which brings attendees up to speed on the Center's latest research interests. The symposium, which features 11 technical talks spanning two days, begins Dec. 7, 2016  and is open to all.

This year's talks cover a range of topics in condensed matter theory, reflecting the diverse interests of CMTC faculty, postdocs and students. These include Weyl semimetals, many-body localization and Majorana fermions—particles that played a leading role in a workshop that CMTC hosted at the end of October.

"CMTC wants to work on the most exciting frontier topics in the field because that's what excites and enthuses the young researchers," says Sankar Das Sarma, the director of CMTC and a JQI Fellow. CMTC, which has held a symposium every year since 2006, invites all of its members to present their latest work, provided that the results have been written up in a research paper.

The symposium follows on the heels of CMTC's October Majorana workshop, which brought together nearly 40 experts on the physics of certain semiconductor-superconductor junctions. Attendees critically examined the experimental evidence for Majorana quasiparticles at the ends of nanowires in such systems, concluding that no other explanation of experimental results seems consistent. The quasiparticles predicted to live in these systems could be useful for building a future quantum computer. Das Sarma says that the workshop was a success and hopes that CMTC can host a similar meeting in future years.

Related articles from the Joint Quantum Institute:

A warm welcome for Weyl physics
Disorder grants a memory to quantum spins
Novel gate may enhance power of Majorana-based quantum computers

Scientists are close to building a quantum computer that can beat a conventional one

It's a Sunday afternoon in September, and the two co-founders of ionQ, a quantum computing startup, are meeting for a strategy session with their first hire: their new CEO. Sitting in comfy leather chairs in the Physical Sciences Complex at the University of Maryland (UMD) in College Park, the two founders are experiencing a touch of culture clash. Lifelong research scientists, UMD physicist Chris Monroe and Jungsang Kim, an electrical engineer at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, are relaxed and talkative about their company's plans, even in the presence of a reporter. They tick off reasons why trapped ions, their specialty, will make for a great quantum computer—perfect reproducibility, long lifetimes, and good controllability with lasers.  Read the original story in Science magazine.