HEMI Seminar: Prof. Tyrel McQueen

The Dawn of the Chemistry of Quantum Materials: Discovery, Synthesis, and Behavioral Insights

A quantum material is loosely defined as a material in which there are one or more highly correlated microscopic degrees of freedom that give rise to emergent behavior – actions that appear greater than the sum of the individual interactions. In this talk, I will discuss the current status of the field and present possible future visions for the discovery of new quantum materials, with a particular focus on the potential for synergistic advances across synthesis, characterization, theory, computation, and data collection and analysis. The importance of understanding and harnessing individual chemical steps to create tailored structures across different lengthscales will be highlighted. What are the prospects for systematic making and breaking of individual bonds in the solid state? What emergent phenomena – at the electron, atomic, or molecular scale – can we discover and harness? Particular attention will be put on the use of extreme conditions to create and discover new materials and phenomena.

The seminar will be lead by Tyrel McQueen. He is an associate professor of chemistry, physics and astronomy, and materials science and engineering at the Johns Hopkins University, and director of the PARADIM Crystal Growth Facility. McQueen is the recipient of numerous awards including the Packard Science and Engineering and Sloan Research Fellowships [and co-PI of a HEMI seed grant in 2016]. His research focuses on the synthesis, discovery, and analysis of new quantum materials, with a vision of their current and future utility.