Winter 2023 Newsletter

Winter 2023 Newsletter


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A Message from the Chair

Greetings! I am looking forward to seeing many of you in Las Vegas as well as at the virtual March meeting two weeks later. As you’ll see below, DMP has organized an exciting program. DMP has a significant presence at the March Meeting through our many Focus Topic sessions. DMP Focus Topics gather contributed and invited talks together in sessions that target areas of current interest and importance. Please join me in thanking our Chair-Elect, Yuri Suzuki, and her team of Focus Topic organizers who worked very hard to assemble an excellent program. You will find more details about the Focus Topic sessions later in this Newsletter. Additionally, this is the time to propose new Focus Topics for next year’s March meeting (currently planned for March 4-8, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN). Please do so by contacting James Rondinelli, who will be the DMP Program Chair for the 2024, or our secretary Steven May using the instructions provided later in this Newsletter. Please consider suggesting invited speakers to these Focus Topics when the selections and organizers are announced. 

Our Vice-Chair, James Rondinelli, and our Past-Chair, Rachel Goldman have also organized three invited symposia, including: 

  • (F36) The DMP Past Chair’s Symposium on ‘Visualizing Epitaxy’ featuring Wissam A Saidi, Judith Yang, and Frances M Ross. 

  • (D36) The DMP Award session featuring the recipients of the James C. McGroddy Prize -- James Hone, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, and Emanuel Tutuc -- and the IUPAP C-10 Young Scientist Prize winner You Zhou

  • (Y36) ‘Physics For Everyone & Student Award Symposium’, featuring Emanuela Del Gado and Greene Dissertation Award winners Tiarnan Doherty and Suraj S Cheema. 

This year’s Adler award winner Elbio R Dagotto will present his talk in the DCMP Prize session on Wednesday (Q37). 

The annual DMP business meeting is scheduled on in Las Vegas on Tuesday evening March 7 6:15-6:45pm, followed by the award symposium and reception until 8:15pm recognizing our award winners (including student and post-doc travel awards) and fellows. Topics to be discussed include the Focus Topics for the 2023 March meeting. Please attend! This is your chance to provide direct input into the agenda for the 2023 March meeting. 

DMP also plays an important role in recognizing the stellar scientific achievements of our members through awards and election to APS Fellow. The two major awards are the David Adler Lectureship Award and the James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials; nomination packages for these are due 6/1/2023. Complete information on the nomination process is available online. I urge you to help us by nominating an excellent and diverse slate of colleagues who have advanced scientific frontiers in materials physics. 

As you might imagine, it takes many volunteers to keep all these DMP activities going. My contributions to the DMP Chair-line would have been impossibly difficult without the wisdom, advice, and helpful guidance of several members of the executive committee, particularly Rachel Goldman (Past-Chair), Steve May (Secretary-Treasurer), and Peter Schiffer (APS Councilor). Rachel and Steve will be leaving the DMP Executive Committee in March. Please join me in giving them a huge round of applause for her leadership! Thanks also go to DMP Executive Committee Members at Large who are completing their terms, Anand Bhattacharya, and Peter Fischer; they both helped enormously with the Focus Topic organization and service on other DMP committees over the past 3 years. 

I’ve been honored to serve as DMP Chair this past year, and I thank all of you for the opportunity to contribute to the Division. 

Vivien Zapf, DMP Chair 

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New Members of the Executive Committee

The following members were elected to serve on the DMP Executive Committee: 

  • Vice Chair: Junqiao Wu 
  • Secretary/Treasurer: Ni Ni

  • Member at Large: Paul Sokol

  • Member at Large: Bharat Jalan 

Junqiao, Ni, Paul and Bharat will join the Executive Committee following the March Meeting. We congratulate the new members of the Executive Committee and look forward to their participation and leadership! 

We thank Rachel Goldman, Anand Bhattacharya, and Peter Fischer for their leadership and service on the DMP Executive Committee over the last three years. We are grateful for all the time and effort they put into their roles in serving the materials physics community. 

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DMP Executive Committee Members for 2023-2024

The Executive Committee Officers and Members-at-Large for the 2023-2024 year, (who begin their terms begin following the March Meeting): 

Officers: 

Chair: Yuri Suzuki (03/23 - 03/24), Stanford University 

Chair-elect: James Rondinelli (03/23 – 03/24), Northwestern University 

*Vice-chair: Junqiao Wu (03/23 – 03/24), University of California, Berkeley 

Past Chair: Vivien Zapf (03/23 - 03/24), Los Alamos National Laboratory 

Councilor: Peter Schiffer, (01/21 - 12/23), Yale University 

*Secretary/Treasurer: Ni Ni, (04/23 - 03/26), University of California, Los Angeles 

Members-at-Large: 

Judy Cha, Cornell University (03/21 – 03/24) 

Jorge Muñoz, University of Texas at El Paso (03/21 – 03/24) 

Prineha Narang, Harvard University (03/22 – 03/25) 

Xiuling Li, University of Texas at Austin (03/22 – 03/25) 

*Paul Sokol, Indiana University Bloomington (03/23 – 03/26) 

*Bharat Jalan, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (03/23 – 03/26) 

*Newly elected

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Call for DMP Focus Session Topics for the 2024 APS March Meeting 

(March 4 - 8, 2024 in Minneapolis, MN) 

The Division of Materials Physics sponsors a wide range of focus topics as its primary structure for the March Meeting. Typically spanning several sessions throughout the March Meeting, focus topics allow an in-depth view of forefront materials physics research areas and connect invited speakers to associated contributed abstracts. 

Each year, the existing set of focus topics is evaluated for inclusion in the next year's program. In addition, new candidates for focus topics are considered based on timeliness, an assessment of the community interest, and uniqueness with the existing DMP program and those of sister units. Ideas coming from the DMP community at large are an extremely important part of this process. 

To that end, the DMP Executive Committee solicits your input for the 2024 focus topics slate. New focus topics should represent a significant topic that would support three or more March Meeting sessions (each session typically has one invited talk and 12 related contributed talks). 

Please send proposals for new focus topics to DMP Vice-Chair James Rondinelli or DMP Secretary/Treasurer Steven May by 5 p.m. EST on Wednesday, March 22, 2023. Please include: 

Descriptive title of the focus topic 

The nominator’s name, affiliation, and email address 

A brief abstract noting timeliness and uniqueness of the topic relative to the existing program 

A description of the intended audience that supports the size and scope of a focus topic 

Suggestions for possible organizers 

If you have any questions or would like assistance in the preparation of your proposal, please contact DMP 2024 Program Chair James Rondinelli. 

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DMP Focus Topics at the 2023 APS March Meeting 

07.01.01 Topological Materials: Synthesis, characterization and modeling 

07.01.02 Dirac and Weyl semimetals 

07.01.03 Topological superconductivity: materials and modeling 

07.01.04 Magnetic topological materials [same as 10.01.09] 

08.01.02 Dopants and Defects in Semiconductors 

08.01.04 Metal Halide Perovskites – from Fundamentals to Applications 

08.01.05 Multiferroics, magnetoelectrics, spin-electric coupling, and ferroelectrics [same as 16.01.29] 

09.01.01 Fe-based Superconductors [same as 16.01.27] 

11.01.01 4d/5d transition metal systems: Spin-orbit driven emergent phases and phenomena 

11.01.02 Light-induced structural control of electronic phases 

12.01.01 2D Materials: Formation Pathways and Mechanisms, Heterostructures, and Defects 

12.01.02 2D Materials: Multi-layer Moiré and Functionalities 

12.01.03 2D Materials: Advanced Characterization [same as 10.01.11] 

12.01.04 2D Materials: Correlated states: Superconductivity, Density Waves, and Ferroelectricity 

12.01.05 Computational Design, Understanding and Discovery of Novel Materials 

13.01.01 Nanostructures and Metamaterials 

13.01.02 Electron, Exciton, and Phonon Transport in Nanostructures 

13.01.03 Complex Oxide Interfaces and Heterostructures 

13.01.04 Materials for Quantum Information Science 

19.01.06: Tools and Techniques for Exploring Materials Physics at the Frontier of Time and Length Scales 

DMP also co-sponsors the following focus topics led by other APS units: 

01.01.02 Organic Electronics and Photonics (DPOLY, FIAP, DMP) [same as 02.01.30, 08.01.03] 

05.01.07 First Principles Modeling of Excited-state Phenomena in Materials (DCOMP, DCP, DMP) [same as 16.01.03] 

08.01.01 Optical Spectroscopic Measurements of 2D Materials (FIAP, DMP) 

09.01.03 Superconducting Qubits: Materials, Fabrication, and Design (DQI, DMP, DCMP) [same as 17.01.06] 

10.01.01 Magnetic Nanostructures: Materials and phenomena (GMAG, DMP) 

10.01.02 Emergent Properties of Complex Oxides Bulk, Thin Films, and Heterostructures (GMAG, DMP) 

10.01.03 Spin transport and Magnetization Dynamics in Metals-Based Systems (GMAG, DMP, FIAP) [same as 22.01.12] 

10.01.04 Chiral Spin Textures and Dynamics, Including Skyrmions (GMAG, DMP) 

10.01.06 Spin-Dependent Phenomena in Semiconductors, including 2D Materials and Topological Systems (GMAG, DMP, FIAP) 

10.01.07 Frustrated Magnetism (GMAG, DMP) 

10.01.08 Low-Dimensional and Molecular Magnetism (GMAG, DMP) 

16.01.01 Matter in Extreme Environments (DCOMP, DMP, GSCCM) [same as 18.01.01] 

16.01.02 Electrons, Phonons, Electron-Phonon Scattering, and Phononics (DCOMP, DMP) 

16.01.04 Machine Learning for Quantum Matter (DCOMP, GDS, DMP) [same as 23.01.25] 

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March Meeting: DMP/DCMP Business Meetings and Fellows and Awards Reception 

The 2023 APS March Meeting will take place in a hybrid format with the in-person component occurring in Las Vegas, NV. The in-person component of the meeting will be held March 5 – 10 while the virtual component of the meeting will be held March 20 – 22. Meeting details, registration and program can be found here. A list and schedule of DMP-sponsored sessions is here. 

A Joint Business Meeting (session L37) of DMP/DCMP followed by the New Fellows and Award Winners Reception will be held on Tuesday, March 7 from 6:15 – 7:45 pm, taking place in Room 233. This is your opportunity to interact with the Executive Committee and to become informed of the activities of the Division. 

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Award and Prize Winners

James C. McGroddy Prize for New Materials 

Emanuel Tutuc, University of Texas at Austin 

James Hone, Columbia University 

Kenji Watanabe, National Institute for Materials Science 

Takashi Taniguchi, International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics 

For seminal contributions to the synthesis and assembly of high quality 2D materials 

and their heterostructures. 

David Adler Lectureship Award 

Elbio Dagotto, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory 

For pioneering work on the theoretical framework of correlated electron systems and 

describing their importance through elegant written and oral communications. 

Mildred Dresselhaus Prize in Nanoscience or Nanomaterials 

Eva Andrei, Rutgers University 

For experimental exploration of the exotic properties of low-dimensional electron 

systems, including the discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene and the electronic structure of twisted graphene bilayers that led to the field of moiré materials. 

The Dresselhaus Prize is awarded jointly with DCMP. 

IUPAP Young Scientist Prize in the Structure and Dynamics of Condensed Matter (C10) 

You Zhou, University of Maryland 

For his contribution on discoveries of Wigner crystals in 2D materials and studies of their quantum phase transitions. 

Richard L. Greene Dissertation Award in Expt. Condensed Matter/Materials Physics 

Suraj Cheema, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

For atomic-scale design of ferroelectricity and negative capacitance in ultrathin HfO2-ZrO2 films on Si. 

Tiarnan Doherty, University of Cambridge 

For characterizing nanostructure and understanding its influence on phase stability and performance in halide perovskites. 

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2022 APS Fellows nominated through DMP 

  • Christoph Boehme, University of Utah For pioneering contributions to the understanding of spin-dependent electronic processes and spin transport in weakly spin-orbit coupled materials and the development of pulsed coherent condensed matter spin-spectroscopies. 

  • Angela R. Hight Walker, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) For pioneering advancements to the measurement science of Raman spectroscopy for quantifying light-matter interactions of low-dimensional materials, including nanoparticles, carbon nanotubes, graphene, and 2D materials, and outstanding mentorship of women in physics. 

  • James Hone, Columbia University For pioneering studies of two-dimensional materials and van der Waals heterostructures, including introducing hexagonal boron nitride as a complementary dielectric for graphene, and developing the methods used to created layered van der Waals heterostructures. 

  • Lena F. Kourkoutis, Cornell University For pioneering contributions to the development of atomic-resolution cryogenic scanning transmission electron microscopy as a quantitative tool for probing electronic phases in materials and processes at interfaces between solids and liquids. 

  • Ni Ni, University of California, Los Angeles For the synthesis and characterization of correlated and topological quantum materials in single crystal form, such as iron-based superconductors, magnetic topological insulators, and topological semimetals, and for the subsequent advances in condensed matter physics enabled by those efforts. 

  • Jiwoong Park, University of Chicago For the development of synthetic, imaging, and characterization techniques of atomically thin materials and the discovery of novel properties of van der Waals solids. 

  • Mark Steven Rzchowski, University of Wisconsin-Madison For pioneering discoveries and understanding of physical principles governing correlated complex materials and interfaces, including superconductors, correlated oxide systems multiferroic systems, and spin currents in noncollinear antiferromagnets. 

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Division of Materials Physics Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards 

The Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards were established to assist the career of student researchers. The awards are named after Stanley and Iris Ovshinsky, who had a very strong interest in, and commitment to, scientific education. The awards have been endowed by the Ovshinsky family, their colleagues at Energy Conversion Devices (ECD) companies and all their numerous friends from many social, intellectual and business relationships. 

We are extremely grateful to the Ovshinsky family for this award. Since the original launch of the award, the family have provided further gifts to endow the awards. 

The recipients of the 2023 Ovshinsky Student Travel Awards for Materials Physics are: 

• Raagya Arora, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research 

Sieun Chae, Cornell University 

Rashmi Choudhary, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 

Vahe Gharakhanyan, Columbia University 

Xingyue Han, University of Pennsylvania 

Ke Huang, Pennsylvania State University 

Zengle Huang, Rutgers University 

Zheting Jin, Yale University 

Roshell Lamug, Oregon State University 

Hong Li, Boston College 

Cequn Li, Pennsylvania State University 

Alexander Lygo, University of California, Santa Barbara 

Miguel Abraham Mojarro Ramirez, Ohio University 

Kathleen Mullin, Northwestern University 

Karl Olson, Northwestern University 

Vivek Pareek, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University 

Christopher Parzyck, Cornell University 

Tiema Qian, University of California, Los Angeles 

Surasree Sadhukhan, Indian Institute of Technology Goa 

Yi Zhang, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities 

Ruinan Zhou, University of California, Berkeley 

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Division of Materials Physics Post-Doctoral Travel Awards 

The DMP Post-Doctoral Travel Awards were established to recognize innovative materials physics research by Post-Doctoral researchers that will be presented at the APS March Meeting. The Awards are supported through the Division of Materials Physics. 

The selection of the recipients of the DMP Post-Doctoral Travel Awards is based on the research quality, the impact of the research at the March Meeting and the innovative contribution of the post-doctoral researcher. 

The recipients of the 2023 DMP Post-Doctoral Travel Awards are: 

Keenan Avers, University of Maryland 

Kuan-Wen, University of Michigan 

Jinho Lim, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign 

Brenden Ortiz, University of California Santa Barbara 

Ramakanta Chapai, Argonne National Laboratory 

Peng Chen, University of Arkansas 

Gianmarco Gatti, University of Geneva 

Khusboo Rana, Iowa State University and Ames National Laboratory 

Maria Munoz, National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Tehseen Adel, National Institute of Standards and Technology 

Jinyu Liu, University of California, Irvine 

Zheng Ren, Rice University 

Ganesh Ji Omar, National University of Singapore 

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March Meeting: DMP Sponsored Symposia & Special Events 

DMP Invited Symposia 

Monday, March 6, 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM, D36. DMP Award Symposium: McGroddy Prize for New Materials [James Hone, Takashi Taniguchi, Kenji Watanabe, Emanuel Tutuc], IUPAP C-10 Young Scientist Prize [You Zhou]. 

Tuesday, March 7, 8:00 AM – 10:24 AM, F36. DMP Past Chair Symposium on Visualizing Epitaxy: [Wissam Saidi, Judith Yang, Frances Ross, and Federico Panciera]. 

Friday, March 10, 8:00 AM – 10:24 AM, Y36. Physics for Everyone & Student Award Symposium [Jennifer Dunn, Emanuela Del Gado], Greene Dissertation Award [Tiarnan Doherty, Suraj Cheema] 

DMP Short Course: Techniques for Condensed Matter and Material Science 

DMP is pleased to sponsor two short courses at the 2023 March Meeting. One is focused on instruction related to techniques in condensed matter physics. The short course runs on Sunday, March 5 from 9 am – 5:30 pm, taking place at Room 215. The speakers are Xiao-Xiao Zhang, Marcelo Jaime, Alan Tennant, Claudio Mazzoli, and Donald Evans. 

The second course offers instruction on magnetic topological materials. This course will also run on Sunday, March 5 from 10 am – 4 pm, taking place in Room 213/214. The instructors are Claudia Felser, M. Zahid Hasan, and Kang-Lung Wang. 

Graduate Student Lunch with the Experts 

Tuesday, March 7, 12:30 - 2:00 pm at Forum Plaza. 

Students may participate in an informal discussion with an expert on a topic of interest to them. DMP Supported Tables include: 

• Peter Fischer, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, “Opportunities and challenges to do materials science research at a National Laboratory” 

• Anand Bhattacharya, Argonne National Lab, "Thin Films and Interfaces of Quantum Materials" 

• Prineha Narang, UCLA, “Theory and Quantum Materials” 

• Judy Cha, Cornell University, “Career paths in Academia versus Industry” 

• Ross McDonald, Los Alamos National Lab, “National Laboratories and High Magnetic Field Research” 

• Jorge Munoz, University of Texas, El Paso, “Career Paths in Computational Materials Physics” 

Meet the Editors of Physical Review Reception 

The editors of the Physical Review journals invite you to join them for conversation and networking on Tuesday, March 7, 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm at Summit Plaza (Session 14L). The editors will be available to answer questions, hear your ideas, and discuss your comments about the journals. Light refreshments will be served. 

The Physical Review editors will also be holding a Tutorial for Authors and Referees. This event is Wednesday, March 8, 8:00 am – 9:30 am in Room 232, Caesars Forum. 

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