Tuesday, Oct. 13 | The Dance Hall, KIttery
Harnessing Quantum Materials for Technology
In partnership with Northeast Quantum Forum
Quantum materials don't play by the laws of classical physics that govern everyday objects. Instead, they follow the strange, counterintuitive rules of quantum mechanics, the same physics that governs atoms and subatomic particles. Learn about how these materials could power the next wave of cutting-edge technology: computers that run dramatically faster, quantum computers immune to errors, sharper optical sensors, and even trains that levitate above their tracks.
Doors open 5:30 p.m.; speakers 6:00 p.m.
The Dance Hall, 7 Walker St., Kittery, Maine
Speakers
Piers Coleman, professor of physics, Rutgers University
Shawna Hollen, associate professor of physics, UNH
Fazel Tafti, associate professor of physics, Boston College
Tickets are now by donation but require registration.
SPEAKER BIOS
Piers Coleman is a long-time member of the Center for Materials Theory at Rutgers University, New Jersey. He studied at Cambridge University and for his Ph. D., at Princeton University, where he worked with the pioneering physicist Philip W. Anderson. Piers is known for his innovative approaches to correlated electron physics. He has held positions at Trinity College, Cambridge, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics in Santa Barbara, and he currently holds a visiting position as Professor at Royal Holloway, University of London, U.K. Piers is also co-director of the International Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter. He is well known for his invention of the “Slave Boson”, a pioneering approach to strongly correlated metals, his interests in quantum criticality, heavy fermion superconductivity and topological Kondo insulators. In addition to his research, Piers is interested in physics outreach. He taught an interdisciplinary course, “Secrets of the Quantum Universe,” and he is working on a book associated with the course.
Shawna Hollen is a physicist at the University of New Hampshire who studies ultra-thin materials — sometimes just a single layer of atoms — using powerful microscopes that can probe individual atoms. She earned her Ph.D. from Brown University and did postdoctoral research at The Ohio State University studying graphene, a material made of a single layer of carbon. She is active in the broader physics community, including serving on the executive advisory board for the MonArk Quantum Foundry and the Northeast Quantum Forum.
Fazel Tafti is an associate professor of physics at Boston College. His research lab focuses on the discovery of new quantum materials with superconducting, magnetic, and topological functionality. Supported by National Science Foundation and the departments of Energy and Defense, his research program operates at the nexus of condensed matter physics and solid-state chemistry to design, synthesize, and characterize novel quantum materials for next-generation sensing and computing devices. Fazel completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto and held postdoc positions at the University of Sherbrooke and Princeton University. His lab at Boston College is interdisciplinary between physics, chemistry, and materials science.