New frontiers in topological materials

Professor Bohm Jung Yang is a theoretical condensed matter physicist interested in the study of emergent physics in quantum materials with nontrivial topology and correlative effect. He is interested in (1) the symmetry-based classification of topological phases, (2) the unconventional topological phase transitions and critical phenomena, (3) the search of novel topological superconductors, and (4) the quantum geometry driven physical properties in quantum materials.

Päivi Törmä is a professor in the Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, Finland, and has a MSc degree from the University of Oulu, Finland, a Master of Advanced Study degree from the University of Cambridge, UK, and a PhD in 1996 from the University of Helsinki. Her research ranges from theoretical quantum many-body physics to experiments in nanophotonics. Her work has revealed a new connection between quantum geometry and superconductivity that explains why flat bands can carry supercurrent, which is essential in the search for superconductors that work at high temperatures. In her experiments, Päivi has worked on the strong coupling of surface plasmon polariton modes and molecules and her group succeeded in realising the first plasmonic Bose-Einstein condensate.

After a PhD in semiconductor spectroscopy on  the study of quantum wires, Jacqueline Bloch received a permanent position at CNRS in 1994.

She initiated a research program on semiconductor microcavities. In 1998-1999, she worked for one year at Bell Laboratories (USA) in the field of  ultra-fast spectroscopy in the group of Jagdeep Shah. She defended her habilitation in 2009 and was promoted as CNRS Research Director in 2010.

Jacqueline Bloch is presently leading a research group of 8 persons at Laboratory of Photonics and Nanostructures (LPN), in Marcoussis, France. Her group is among the leaders in the field of cavity polaritons with a unique expertise in the study of polariton condensates in microstructured resonators.

Jacqueline Bloch is responsible for Nanophotonics at LPN. She is a member of the Research National Panel (Comité National) in charge of the evaluation, promotion and recruitment of CNRS researchers. She is also a member of an ERC panel.

Jacqueline Bloch is author of more than 125 publications including 80 peer reviewed articles.

Mikael Rechtsman is a Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University in the USA, and currently the visiting QuantAlps professor of physics at the Néel Institute of the CNRS in Grenoble, France. His research group carries out both experimental and theoretical research in nonlinear, quantum and topological photonics. He is perhaps best known for the first demonstration of a topological insulators for light.

Claudia Felser studied chemistry and physics at the University of Cologne, completing her diploma in solid state chemistry (1989) and her doctorate in physical chemistry. After postdoctoral fellowships at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart (Germany) and the CNRS in Nantes (France), she joined the University of Mainz in 1996 as an assistant professor. In 2003, she became a full professor at the University of Mainz and is currently the Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden.

Claudia Felser in a fellow of the IEEE Magnetic Society, American Physical Society, and Institute of Physics. She is a member of the Leopoldina, the Germany National Academy of Sciences, and acatech, the German National Academy of Science and Engineering. Her research focuses on the design and synthesis, and physical characterisation of new quantum materials, particularly Heusler compounds and topological materials for energy conversion and spintronics. She was inducted into the Hall of Fame of German Research in 2023, and has received several prestigious awards, including the Liebig Medal of the German Chemical Society, the Max Born Prize of DPG and IOP, and the APS James C McGroddy Prize, and the Von Hippel Award.

Frank Pollmann’s research focuses on a variety of problems in the field of solid state theory. His main focus lies on the study of collective phenomena which arise due to quantum mechanical effects in systems of correlated electrons. He studied physics at Technical University Braunschweig and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. After completing his PhD at the Max Planck Institute for the Physics of Complex Systems (MPIPKS), Dresden, in 2006, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. From 2011 he headed a junior research group at the MPIPKS. In 2016 he took up an associate professorship appointment at the Technical University Munich.