News & Media
TQM is made up of a team of dynamic individuals, who participate both in the scientific community at large, and the thriving one at ISTA. Browse the articles below to keep up with our latest appearances in the news & media.
February 22-23, 2023
The Ladies of TQM Attend the 1st Symposium on Correlated Quantum Materials & Solid State Quantum Systems
(from left to right) Valeska Zambra, Kim Modic and Shiva Safari enjoy the 1st Symposium on Correlated Quantum materials & Solid State Quantum Systems in Vienna., the kick-off event of the SFB Q-M&S, which is funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). It featured keynote and invited talks by speakers from both fields, short presentations of the 10 PIs of the SFB, and flash presentations by some of their team members.
November 22, 2022
ISTA Researchers are Awarded European Research Council Grants
TQM at the Microscale was awarded the Starting Grant for 2.32 Million €! Our project TROPIC is developing a new technique to study the dynamic response of quantum spin liquids and topological superconductors in magnetic fields up to 100T. We will expand our lab and purchase three more magnets, one of which is a capacitor bank-driven pulsed field magnet that will go to 40T.
June 21, 2022
PhD Student Vale Zambra Wins DOC Fellowship
Our PhD student Valeska Zambra won the DOC fellowship! She will tackle many open questions in the pyrochlore titanate compounds (Yb,Tb)2Ti2O7 by enabling studies of their magnetotropic coefficient down to temperatures of 300 mK. This prestigious fellowship funds Valeska’s work at TQM for two years of her PhD!
May 2022
Postdoc Muhammad Nauman wins the ESPRIT fellowship, funded by the FWF
Congratulations to our postdoc Muhammad Nauman for winning the ESPRIT fellowship for his plans to develop a new probe to study multipolar physics in the praseodymium-based compounds PrV₂Al₂₀ and PrTi₂Al₂₀. This fellowship, funded by Der Wissenschaftsfonds FWF, will support a new collaboration with Stanford University and fund Muhammad’s research for the next three years!
January 2022
TQM Graduate Student Valeska Zambra wins best Master’s Thesis Award in Physics from Universidad de Chile
We’d like to congratulate our very own graduate student, Valeska Zambra, on receiving an award for the best Master’s Thesis in Physics from her previous university, Universidad de Chile.
Her Master’s Thesis was entitled “Vortices Induced by Electric and Magnetic Field and Topological Transitions in Out-of-Equilibrium Systems”, where she studied the behaviour of vortices in Nematic liquid crystals. As a result, she obtained 3 papers and had 2 proceedings published, with the main result being that topological phases (also called “exotic states”) were found, in out-of-equilibrium systems. View the gorgeous, colorful photos above for an example of this – these correspond to vortices in la nematic liquid crystal. Vortices are singularities (we can think of them like swirls) that are generated in this material when an electric field is applied. We found that at low frequencies of an oscillating voltage, different vortices structures are formed in this material, as we see in these pictures (you can also view a photo of Valeska with her Master’s experiment above). Every structure corresponds to a topological phase.
Vale gave an acceptance speech back on November 30th on behalf of all of the winners of the Best Master’s Thesis awards in every category – and while we have no idea what she’s saying in Spanish, we’re incredibly proud of her hard work and great presentation. You can view her full Master’s Thesis here. Give her speech a listen, and congratulations Valeska!
January 2022
IST Austria is part of FWF’s Special Research Programmes, now awarded almost 15 million euro
Our team is so excited to be a part of a Special Research Programme at IST Austria that’s been awarded almost 15 million Euro to 4 multidisciplinary research projects, bringing together two subfields of quantum physics: exotic forms of correlated quantum matter and quantum devices. Read more here >
2020
Kimberly Modic featured on 2020 Annual Report Cover
Thermodynamics of Quantum Materials at the Microscale’s own Kimberly Modic, and Mikhail Lemeshko from Theoretical Atomic, Molecular, and Optical Physics & the Lemeshko Group were both featured on IST Austria’s 2020 Annual Report cover this year. Here’s an excerpt about TQM from the report:
“From the stone tools of the Stone Age to the semiconductor devices of our modern information age, societies are defined by their materials. The next generation of materials, such as superconductors and spin liquids, will exploit the quantum mechanical nature of matter and drive future technologies, such as quantum computation.
Read the rest of the annual report here >
auf Deutsch
March 2021
WoMen in Science
Kimberly Modic, our group leader, participated in a silent interview about experiences, gender equity, and balance, captured by photographer Peter Rigaud. Read more about the exhibition here >
2020
Class Ring: created by EVERYTHING IS VALUES & Kimberly Modic
The EVERYTHING IS VALUES Class Ring was made in collaboration with Dr. Kimberly Modic with contributions from Dr. Scott Waitukaitis, Todor Asenov, Dora Des and Eva van Kempen, 2020. View artist Marilyn Volkman’s work here.
October 2020
Wanted: A new phase of matter
The principles of quantum mechanics are the gateway to a faster and more secure means of computing. These quantum computers are far from reaching their full potential, but they are already one of the 21st-century breakthroughs. Read more here >
October 2020
Scientists find evidence of a spin liquid state in candidate material for quantum computers
A new experimental technique allowed physicists to precisely probe the electron spins of an intriguing compound and uncover unexpected behavior. Read more here >
Spot an article or feature on us?
We love hearing about our work out in the world, so if you’ve seen an article about any of our group members that you think should be featured on this page, send it our way via the form below or email it to agnieszka.rowinska@ista.ac.at. Thank you!