Andrea Damascelli
Creating a new superconducting material
New materials engineered by Dr. Andrea Damascelli and his research team at the University of British Columbia could be used in the future to make faster transistors, more sensitive sensors, and novel quantum devices.
Graphene is an ultra-thin and strong material made from a single layer of carbon atoms. By adding a coat of lithium, Dr. Damascelli has induced superconductivity in graphene for the first time – a step forward in the global effort for an all-graphene-based electronics.
Dr. Damascelli, director of UBC’s Quantum Matter Institute, is the lead investigator of the team that received a Canada First Research Excellence Fund in 2015, for the program Quantum Materials and Future Technologies.
Find out more: University of British Columbia >
* Andrea Damascelli was one of 14 Innovators to Know invited to Ottawa by Universities Canada on Feb. 24, 2016 to meet with high school students, science policy makers and Parliamentarians.
Putting Canada on the map for quantum materials
Text on screen: [Celebrating Canada’s Research Excellence: Putting Canada on the Map for Quantum Materials]
Andrea Damascelli: If we think of quantum materials, Canada has had a long tradition in the field. In addition to our institute, I like to mention another institute which is the University of Sherbrooke which, most recently, together with us received large funding from the federal government and that institute is focussed on quantum information. So again, two areas which are closely connected.
So what is interesting about the fact that the two universities have a leadership in the area of quantum materials and quantum information is that both universities are very strongly connected to the quantum materials program of CIFAR, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. It is a program which has been running for more than two decades and really has brought in international collaborators and really has put Canada on the map for the work in quantum materials. And so Canada is highly recognized for this field, quantum materials, quantum information.
Text on screen: [Universities Canada logo, The Voice of Canada’s Universities]
