The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, through its Emergent Phenomena in Quantum Systems Initiative (EPiQS), has awarded substantial research funding to two experimental condensed matter physicists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Physics Professors Peter Abbamonte and Vidya Madhavan will receive EPiQS Experimental Investigator awards of $1.6 million each over the next five years.
EPiQS prioritizes high-risk, high-reward fundamental research programs in quantum materials, to foster scientific breakthroughs. EPiQS experimental investigators have the freedom to pursue challenging and novel research directions of the scientists’ own choosing.
Abbamonte and Madhavan are among 20 U.S. scientists to be selected in this, the second cycle of EPiQS experimental investigator awards, joining a collaborative EPiQS community of innovators in quantum materials from the fields of physics, chemistry, and materials science. In addition to the funding, the scientists will get the opportunity to participate in EPiQS investigator symposia, topical workshops, and the QuantEmX (Quantum Emergence Exchange) scientist exchange program.
“The Experimental Investigator awards are the largest grant portfolio within the EPiQS initiative,” notes Amalia Fernandez-Pañella, program officer of the EPiQS Initiative. “We expect that such substantial, stable and flexible support will propel quantum materials research forward and unleash the creativity of the investigators.”
Read more at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Image: Illinois Physics Professor Vidya Madhavan. Photo by L. Brian Stauffer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign