The Fundamentals of Quantum Materials Winter School and Workshop, held January 14-19, 2017 at the University of Maryland’s College Park campus, is a unique event in North America, dedicated specifically to the synthesis, characterization and electronic modeling of Quantum Materials. It is organized by CNAM Director Johnpierre Paglione; Prof. Efrain Rodriguez of UMD’s department of Chemistry; Dr. Nicholas Butch, NIST; and Prof. Gabriel Kotliar of Rutgers University.

The FQM Winter School is aimed at providing fundamental training to our current and future generations of Quantum Materials scientists in synthesis and characterization techniques. It will bring together senior and junior scientists to address topics at the forefront of current research into quantum materials, while also providing pedagogical background and practical training for junior scientists. With an interdisciplinary and diverse crowd including physicists, chemists, and materials scientists, participants will gain a basic functional knowledge of how to plan and carry out synthesis relevant to the study of quantum materials, and will have a unique opportunity to interact with some of the top researchers in the field while networking with fellow peers. The structure of the school will include mornings of pedagogical lectures by ten of the nation's top practicing quantum materials scientists, with afternoons devoted to practical demonstrations in laboratories in CNAM. The school will also include a poster session that will be attended by senior scientists. The school received ~40 applications and seated 25 students.

The FQM Workshop, held the preceding weekend in collaboration with the BNL Center for Computational Design of Functional Strongly Correlated Materials and Theoretical Spectroscopy, covers both experimental and theoretical research on quantum materials, focusing on synthesis, characterization and computational approaches to research of quantum materials such as superconductors, strongly correlated electron systems and topological materials.

The event is sponsored by the Moore Foundation, ICAM, NIST, the University of Maryland’s Office of Research and the College of Mathematics and Natural Sciences.