This past week was a great one for my institution, as the Robert A. Welch Foundation and Rice University announced the creation of the Welch Institute for Advanced Materials. Exactly how this is going to take shape and grow is still in the works, but the stated goals of materials-by-design and making Rice and Houston a global destination for advanced materials research are very exciting.
Long-time readers of this blog know my view that the amazing physics of materials is routinely overlooked in part because materials are ubiquitous - for example, the fact that the Pauli principle in some real sense is what is keeping you from falling through the floor right now. I'm working on refining a few key concepts/topics that I think are translatable to the general reading public. Emergence, symmetry, phases of matter, the most important physical law most people have never heard about (the Pauli principle), quasiparticles, the quantum world (going full circle from the apparent onset of the classical to using collective systems to return to quantum degrees of freedom in qubits). Any big topics I'm leaving out?
Hello Professor! I think many such interesting phenomena in physics (and by fundamental extension, math) can be used to explain nature-- Geckos sticking to walls using van der Waals forces, photonics crystals enabling Morpho butterflies to have such iridescent wings, and my personal favorite, ocellated lizards whose scales seem to be an example of ‘living cellular automata’
ReplyDeleteThese days you can't leave out topology.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the exciting development!