Invited Talk with Maia García-Vergniory (March 13th)

BCMaterials is proud to host the very prestigious Basque researcher Maia García-Vergniory in a new invited talk to take plane in March 13^th. The talk is titled: “Topology is everywhere” and wil, start at 11:00 at the Martina Casiano auditorium (BCMaterials headquarters).

Topology is a mathematical field that examines properties that remain unchanged under continuous transformations, and it plays a crucial role in nature. Recent research reveals that almost all materials have topological states, challenging the previous belief that these properties were uncommon. This is significant because topological materials exhibit stable electronic properties, even when disturbed.

While topological phases in 3D materials were first discovered 15 years ago with only a few examples, analysis of around 38,000 materials now shows that over 50% are topological, with nearly 90% displaying topological states away from the Fermi level. About 2% are classified as "supertopological," meaning all electronic bands above the core electrons exhibit topological traits. Additionally, these properties are found in various systems beyond electronic materials, highlighting that topology is a widespread yet previously underestimated characteristic of matter. The talk will cover the current state of the field and explore future directions.

García-Vergniory is a professor at the Université de Sherbrooke (Canada) and researcher at the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC). Until 2024 she was a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for the Chemical Physics of Solids in Dresden (Germany). One of her other main achievements are the L’Oreal award for Women in Science in 2017 and the Ikerbasque award in 2019, in 2023 she was elected fellow of the American Physical Society.