TALK: Time-resolved simulations of ultrafast phenomena in quantum materials

Alejandro Molina-Sánchez is Profesor Titular at the University of Valencia. He has Ph.D. in Physics. His research is focused on the optical excitations, magnetic properties and ultrafast dynamics of two-dimensional material, generally using ab initio methods.He is now the leader of the Optics and Magnetism of Quantum Materials group based at the Institute of Materials Science of the University of Valencia. His group applies theoretical physics and computational approaches to study of optics, magnetism and electronics of quantum materials applied to quantum computation, ultrafast optics, spintronics and optoelectronic devices.

TALK: Fast 4D STEM Characterization Applied to Layered Materials

Daniel G. Stroppa holds a bachelor degree in Engineering Physics for UFSCar – Brazil and a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Unicamp – Brazil. He continued his research on TEM characterization as a Research Fellow at the Ernst-Ruska Centre (ER-C) at Forschungszentrum Juelich – Germany and as a Researcher at the International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL) – Portugal. Following these academic experiences, Dr. Stroppa joined FEI / Thermo Fisher Scientific – Netherlands and more recently DECTRIS – Switzerland as Applications Scientist. His current focus is to support the development of new TEM technologies and to explore them together with academic and industrial collaborators.

TALK: Spin-orbit torque switching of magnetic tunnel junctions for memory and computing applications

Dr. Kevin Garello is a CEA research engineer working at the Spintec laboratory since June 2020. He actively contributed to the discovery of spin-orbit torques (SOT) MRAM and its technological maturity development. In 2010, he participated to establish for the first time the possibility of using SOTs as a writing mechanism and demonstrated the SOT-MRAM concept. He also developed an activity at ETH-Zurich in the lab of Pr. Pietro Gambardella, dedicated to the characterization of SOT which helped in understanding fundamental phenomena involved in SOT devices. In March 2016, he joined IMEC (Belgium) where, in particular, he demonstrated for the first tome large-scale SOT-MRAM integration using CMOS-compatible processes. He is co-author of over 50 scientific papers and 12 patents. He is also contributing to various society organization such as MRAM Global Innovation Forum, MRAM technical group (MTG), and he leads the PEPR Electronique / EMCOM project from French national strategy.

TALK: The use of large-scale research infrastructures for the characterisation of advanced materials: the capabilities of the ALBA Synchrotron

Bárbara Calisto, obtained her Ph.D. degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain), and then joined the Structural Biology group of the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (Grenoble, France) as post-doctoral fellow. She has 10 years of experience working on large-scale Research Infrastructures (RIs), namely accelerator-based photon sources. Currently, she manages the access and provides full service to the ALBA Synchrotron (Barcelona, Spain) Industrial users, and is part of the Coordination Board of the LEAPS consortium, the League of European Accelerator-based Photon Sources.

Dr. Grigore (Greg) Moldovan is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at point electronic GmbH – a supplier of electronics and software for electron microscopy, from standard parts to bespoke high-performance systems. Greg is a scientist and a microscopist with experience in electron microscopy for more than 20 years. He has previously worked for Oxford Instruments NanoAnalysis, University of Oxford and University of Cambridge, and he holds a PhD from University of Nottingham on Materials Science and Electronics Engineering. At point electronic GmbH, Greg manages technology development and new product introduction. His recent projects have delivered products for in-situ microscopy and electrical analysis. He has a personal interest to promote free development in microscopy, with open innovation, development toolkits and standard interfaces.

TALK: Probing the interface in Magnetoelectric Fe/PMN-PT Heterostructures

Kristiaan Temst obtained his PhD in Physics at KU Leuven (Belgium) in 1994. He has (co-)authored about 280 papers in peer-reviewed journals and is frequently invited speaker at symposia and conferences. His current (March 2024) h-index is 34. He has been the promoter of 21 PhD theses and serves/d in the PhD committees of 75 PhD students (about 15 of them outside of KU Leuven). At KU Leuven he teaches introductory physics in the Faculty of Medicine and specialized master courses (Advanced Experimental Techniques, Clusters and Nanoparticles, Historical and Social Aspects of Physics) in the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Engineering Science. He received several educational grants and teaching excellence awards. In 2001 he was the laureate of the scientific prize of the Center for Nuclear studies (SCK-CEN) in Mol, Belgium. In 2016 he was laureate of the Science Communication Award of the Royal Flemish Academy of Sciences of Belgium. Currently he is the director of the Quantum Solid State Physics division at KU Leuven.

TALK: Orbitronics in 2D materials

Tatiana G. Rappoport is a Principal Investigator at the Universidade do Minho in Portugal and an Associate Professor at the Physics Institute of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. As a condensed matter theoretician, her research focuses on spintronics, orbitronics, and the electronic properties of novel two-dimensional materials, as well as topological states of matter. She is an advocate for science outreach, co-founding the "Tem Menina no Circuito" project to encourage young girls to pursue careers in science.