Speakers

We're pleased to confirm the below invited speakers so far. The full scientific programme will be announced soon.

Subir Sachdev, Harvard University

Subir Sachdev is Herchel Smith Professor of Physics at Harvard University. He has been elected to national academies of science in India and the United States, and the Royal Society in the U.K. He is a recipient of several awards, including the Dirac Medal from the International Centre for Theoretical Physics, and the Lars Onsager Prize from the American Physical Society.

Sachdev has made extensive contributions to the theory of the diverse varieties of states of quantum matter, and of their behaviour near quantum phase transitions. Many of these contributions have been linked to experiments, especially to the rich phase diagrams of the copper-oxide high temperature superconductors. Sachdev's research has also exposed remarkable connections between the nature of multi-particle quantum entanglement in certain laboratory materials, and the quantum entanglement in astrophysical black holes, and these connections have led to new insights on the entropy and radiation of black holes proposed by Stephen Hawking.

Ryan Barnett, Imperial College London

Ryan Barnett is Reader in Condensed Matter Theory in the Department of Mathematics at Imperial College London. Before moving across the pond, Ryan received his PhD from Harvard Physics followed by postdoctoral positions at Caltech and the Joint Quantum Institute (University of Maryland/NIST). Ryan is the present Chair of the IOP special interest group: Theory of Condensed Matter (TCM), which promotes the TCM field and serves the TCM community in the UK.Ryan has carried out research on a broad range of topics in quantum TCM. His current interests focus primarily on dynamics of ultracold atomic gases and topological condensed matter systems.

Chris Bell, University of Bristol

Chris Bell is currently an Associate Professor at the School of Physics, University of Bristol, having joined Bristol in 2013. Previously he held research positions at Stanford, Tokyo, Leiden and Cambridge. His research is focussed on the physics and materials science of quantum materials. Chris uses thin films, nanofabricated bulk crystals, and devices to tune the materials’ structures and electronic properties. He studies superconductors and magnetic systems, as well as actinide materials, the latter using Bristol’s Facility for Radioactive Materials Surfaces, unique in the UK.

Natalia Berloff, University of Cambridge

Natalia Berloff is a Professor of Applied Mathematics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge where she leads the quantum fluids and physics-inspired computing labs. She is also a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge. Prior to becoming a faculty member in Cambridge in 2002, she was an assistant professor at the Department of Mathematics, University of California in Los Angeles. While on leave from Cambridge from 2013-2016, Natalia was a Dean of Faculty and then the Director of the Photonics and Quantum Materials Program at Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology. She was the visiting professor at Microsoft (2021-2023) and the Fellow of the Alan Turing Institute (2021-2023).

Piers Coleman, Rutgers University

Piers Coleman completed his undergraduate education at Trinity College, Cambridge; he later studied theoretical condensed matter physics at Princeton University with Philip Warren Anderson. He was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was a postdoctoral Fellow at the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Santa Barbara. He joined the faculty at Rutgers University in 1987. Since 2010 he has also held the position of University of London Chair of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at Royal Holloway, University of London. In 2011, Piers Coleman replaced David Pines as a co-director of the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter.

Coleman is known for his work related to strongly correlated electron systems, and in particular, the study of magnetism, superconductivity and topological insulators. He is the author of the popular text Introduction to Many-Body Physics.

Irene D’Amico, University of York, UK

Professor Irene D’Amico is the head of the Semiconductor Spintronics and Quantum Information group and the lead of the Quantum Science and Technology Group of the Physics, Engineering and Technology School of the University of York. Irene D'Amico has been a professional researcher for over 20 years (PhD awarded in 2000), has written more than 140 publications as articles for international journals and book chapters, and given more than 120 invited talks, seminar, colloquia and public lectures worldwide. Her research interests include many-body interactions in solid state systems; dynamics of spin chains for quantum computing; metric space approach to quantum mechanics; density functional theory; and quantum thermodynamics.

Marina Filip, University of Oxford, UK

Marina Filip is an Associate Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Oxford and a Tutorial Fellow in Physics at University College, Oxford. Before joining the Oxford Physics faculty in February 2020, Marina was a postdoctoral scholar in the Physics Department at UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2018-2020) and the Materials Department at the University of Oxford (2015-2018). Marina received her doctorate in Materials Science from the University of Oxford in 2016 (having defended 2015). Before this, Marina completed her undergraduate studies in Physics, at the University of Bucharest, Romania. Marina was recently awarded the 2024 IUPAP Early Career Scientist Prize in Semiconductor Physics, and a Somorjai Miller Visiting Professorship at UC Berkeley for Fall 2024. She was previously selected as part of the 2019 class of “Rising Stars in Physics”, and between 2015 and 2018 she was awarded a Junior Research Fellowship from Wolfson College Oxford.

Hae-Young Kee, University of Toronto

Hae-Young Kee is a Professor of Physics at the University of Toronto, a Canada Research Chair in Theory of Quantum Materials, and a Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research in Quantum Materials. As a theoretical physicist, she specializes in the condensed matter physics of quantum materials, including quantum spin liquids, topological phases, high-temperature superconductors, and frustrated magnets. She has been honored with several prestigious awards, including a Sloan Fellowship in 2003, designation as an American Physics Society Fellow in 2018, and the Canadian Association of Physicists Brockhouse Medal in 2023.

Christopher Marrows, University of Leeds

Christopher Marrows is Professor of Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Leeds, and was previously a Reader in the same subject, a lecturer, and before that an 1851 research fellow, funded by the Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851 following his PhD in 1997.

His research programme concerns materials and devices for future information technology, in particular devices based on electron spin - so-called spintronics. This involves a wide-ranging investigation of nanoscale and thin film magnetic artificial structures, prepared largely by sputter deposition. Such materials are useful in the quest for ever more complex spin electronic devices - systems where the spin, as well as charge, of the electron is used in the storage and processing of information. Current areas of interest are chiral magnetism and magnetic skyrmions, spin torques in magnetic nanostructures, artificial frustrated systems, and the quantum spin Hall effect.

Natalia Martsinovich, University of Sheffield

Dr Natalia Martsinovich is a Senior Lecturer in Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Sheffield, UK. She obtained her undergraduate degree from the Belarusian State University, followed by a PhD in Theoretical Chemistry from the University of Sussex. She was a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics at King’s College London and the Department of Chemistry at the University of Warwick. Natalia was appointed Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Sheffield in 2013 and promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2023. She is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Institute of Physics, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Natalia’s research uses computational methods to study the properties of materials for applications in photocatalysis, sensors and nanotechnology. She works in close collaboration with experimentalists, using modelling to explain experimentally observed trends and predict properties of new materials.

Zi Yang Meng, The University of Hong Kong

Prof. Zi Yang Meng is a computational condensed matter physicist, and his research focuses on developing and employing large-scale numerical simulation techniques to investigate quantum many-body systems and materials. He obtained Ph.D. from University of Stuttgart in Germany in 2011, and was postdoctoral fellow at Louisiana State University and University of Toronto from 2011~2014. In 2014, he became an Associate Professor with tenure at Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing and promoted to Full Professor in 2018. He became affiliated with Department of Physics, The University of Hong Kong (HKU) as an Associate Professor in 2019 and a Full Professor from 2023. He works on model design and algorithmic development for quantum many-body physics research and made contributions to topological quantum matter, frustrated magnetism, quantum phase transitions and critical phenomena. More details can be found in his webpage https://quantummc.xyz/

Amalia Patanè, University of Nottingham

Amalia Patanè studied at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” where she received her MSc in Physics (1994) and PhD (1998). She then moved to the School of Physics and Astronomy at Nottingham where she has been Professor of Physics (since 2011) and Director of Research (2019-23). Her research achievements in semiconductor physics were recognized by the Sir Charles Vernon Boys Medal and Prize of the Institute of Physics (2007), an EPSRC Advanced Research Fellowship (2004-09), a Leverhulme Trust Research Fellowship (2017-19), a Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) President’s International Fellowship Award (2018-19), and an honorary professorship at the Institute of Semiconductors, CAS, Beijing (since 2019). Since 2015, Patanè is the UK Director and Council member of the European Magnetic Field Laboratory, a national facility of the EPSRC for development and use of magnetic fields. Also, she leads at Nottingham the EPI2SEM facility, a now a hub for development of next generation atomically-thin semiconductors for science and technologies.

Carla Perez Martinez, University College London

Carla Perez Martinez is a UKRI Future Leaders Fellow at the London Centre for Nanotechnology at University College London. Carla obtained her BS, MS and PhD degrees from MIT in 2011, 2013 and 2016, respectively. For her undergraduate and graduate research, Carla worked with Prof Paulo Lozano in the MIT Space Propulsion Lab, developing ionic liquid ion sources. After her PhD, she moved to the UK to take up a postdoctoral position in the group of Prof Susan Perkin in the Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford, where she was also appointed Junior Research Fellow at Trinity College. At Oxford, Carla studied ionic liquids and electrolytes under nanoconfinement, in particular, the response of these substances when subjected to electric fields. In January 2020, Carla moved to the London Centre for Nanotechnology with funding from UKRI to set up her own group, to develop new nanomanufacturing technologies based on ionic liquid ion sources. Current research interests include charged particle optics, focused ion beams, material irradiation, and device engineering.

Paolo G. Radaelli, University of Oxford

Paolo G. Radaelli obtained a Laurea degree Summa cum Laude in 1986 from University of Milan. Between 1988 and 1989, he worked as a research associate at the ITM institute of the National Research Council (Italy) in the field of High-temperature superconductivity. In 1989, he was awarded a travel scholarship by Pirelli Cavi e Sistemi and moved to the Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago) where he later completed a PhD under the academic supervision of Carlo Segre, and working in close collaboration with James D. Jorgensen and David Hinks at Argonne National Laboratory. After a post-doc in Jorgensen's group between 1992 and 1993, he moved to Grenoble, first as a post-doc with Massimo Marezio at the Laboratories de Cristallographie of the Centre national de la recherche scientifique, then as a scientist at the Institut Laue–Langevin. In 1998, he became Instrument Scientists and later Crystallography Group Leader at the ISIS neutron source at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot, England. Since 2008, he is the Dr Lee's Professor of Experimental Philosophy (Physics) at the University of Oxford, and he is also a Professorial Fellow of Wadham College, Oxford. Radaelli was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Star of Italy (2017) and received the Occhialini Medal and Prize (2023), jointly awarded by the Institute of Physics (UK) and the Società Italiana Fisica.

Throughout his career, Radaelli authored 250 publications. His main interest has been the study of compounds displaying novel physical phenomena, such as high-temperature superconductivity, “colossal" magnetoresistance or multiferroics behaviour, with the potential of device applications. He has made leading contributions to the physics of transition metal oxides and related compounds, using neutron and X-ray scattering and spectroscopy as primary tools. In recent years, Professor Radaelli has established a new field of research in photo-induced magnetism and real-space antiferromagnetic topology.

Susannah Speller, University of Oxford

Susie Speller is a Professor of Materials Science at the University of Oxford where she leads the Superconducting Materials research group and co-directs the Oxford Centre for Applied Superconductivity. Over the last 20 years, she has worked on a wide variety of superconducting materials, ranging from superconducting solders for persistent mode joints to high temperature superconducting cuprates and iron-based materials. Her research focuses on correlating processing with microstructure and superconducting properties using advanced microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. She is currently undertaking a 5 year EPSRC Fellowship to study irradiation damage of coated conductors for compact fusion applications. Her group has carried out pioneering in situ experiments to measure the effects of cryogenic irradiation on superconducting properties, as well as investigating the nature of irradiation-induced defects using the combination of atomic-resolution electron microscopy, synchrotron x-ray absorption spectroscopy and density functional theory. She enjoys working closely with industrial collaborators and national laboratories, including Tokamak Energy, United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA), Oxford Instruments and Siemens Healthineers, on industrially-relevant projects. Susie is currently the Letters Editor for Superconductor Science and Technology and has recently published a book for the general audience: “A materials science guide to superconductors: and how to make them super”.

Nandini Trivedi, Ohio State University

Nandini Trivedi is a Professor of Physics and a Distinguished Professor of the College of Arts and Sciences at the Ohio State University.

Trivedi got her undergraduate degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and a Ph.D in physics in 1987 from Cornell University. After post-doctoral research at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and State University of New York, Stony Brook, she joined Argonne National Laboratory as a staff scientist. In 1995 she joined the faculty of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Since 2004 she has been a professor of physics at the Ohio State University.

Trivedi’s research is in understanding emergent phases in quantum matter due to strong correlations and topology.

Fu-Chun Zhang, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Fu-Chun Zhang is Director of Kavli Institute for Theoretical Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences. He received Ph.D. at Virginia Tech. in 1983. He was a postdoctoral fellow at University of Minnesota, University of Maryland and ETH-Zurich, before he took a professorship position in University of Cincinnati 1988. He moved to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) as Chair Professor in 2003, and to Zhejiang University in 2014. He has been in the present position since 2017.

Zhang is elected APS Fellow, and received Distinguished Research Professorship in University of Cincinnati, and Distinguished Achievement Award in Research and endowed Zhou Guangzhao Professorship in HKU. Zhang is a condensed matter theorist, and has been interested in unconventional superconductivity including cuprates and nickelates, and possible Majorana zero modes in condensed matter systems among various topics.