November 24 2025 -- Quantum materials underpin next-generation technologies, from quantum computing to ultra-efficient electronics. To accelerate discovery in these emerging fields, Rice University hosted the 2025 Rice Center for Quantum Materials (RCQM) Winter School on Quantum Materials Synthesis and Workshop on Quantum Geometry Nov. 10-14, bringing together more than 100 researchers, students and scientific leaders from around the world.

“Advancing quantum geometry demands a shared effort across disciplines,” said Emilia Morosan, RCQM director and the William M. Rice Trustee Professor of Physics and Astronomy. “We need new materials, deeper theoretical insight and experimental validation working side by side. Only by combining these strengths can we truly unlock the potential of this emerging field.”

The back-to-back winter school and workshop built bridges between theory, synthesis and experiment with programs providing immersive training and cutting-edge insights into scientific questions at the heart of materials functionality and quantum behavior.

“This year is the UNESCO International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, a global call to action, and Rice is leading by example,” said Junichiro Kono, director of the Smalley-Curl Institute, the Karl F. Hasselmann Chair in Engineering and professor of electrical and computer engineering, physics and astronomy and materials science and nanoengineering at Rice.

Held Nov. 10-12, the winter school immersed early career researchers in a focused curriculum that combined pedagogical lectures with hands-on laboratory sessions across campus. Participants practiced modern synthesis techniques using flux, floating-zone furnaces, pulsed laser deposition and molecular beam epitaxy.

“This winter school gives young materials scientists the unique opportunity to build skills in state-of-the-art labs while also building connections with leading researchers,” said Hari Bhandari, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and one of the organizers. “It is rare to have hands-on synthesis experience, theory and mentorship converge in this way.”

Winter school lectures were delivered by Lucas Caretta of Brown University; Nirmal Ghimire of the University of Notre Dame; Bharat Jalan of the University of Minnesota; Päivi Törmä of Aalto University (Finland); Ruijuan Xu of North Carolina State University; and Linda Ye of the California Institute of Technology.

The winter school was followed by the Workshop on Quantum Geometry Nov. 12-14, which convened international leaders to share breakthroughs in topology materials, strongly correlated systems and emergent phases of matter enabled by quantum geometry.

Workshop speakers included Andrei Bernevig of Princeton University; Marc Bockrath of Ohio State University; Long Ju of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Philip Kim of Harvard University; Qiong Ma of Boston College; Raquel Queiroz and Abhay Pasupathy of Columbia University; Bruno Uchoa of the University of Oklahoma; Liang Wu of the University of Pennsylvania; Fan Zhang of the University of Texas at Dallas; and Rice’s own Andriy Nevidomskyy.

“Through programs like the winter school and workshop, we are not only contributing to scientific progress, but also building a diverse and dynamic workforce in quantum materials and beyond,” Morosan said.

The winter school was organized by Bhandari along with Rice graduate students Rodolfo Cantu, Adam Johnson, Sanjna Sukumaran and Jishnu Marukeshan. The workshop was organized by Morosan, Andriy Nevidomskyy, Yonglong Xie and Ming Yi. The events were sponsored by the Smalley-Curl Institute, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, APS Physical Review X and the Institute for Complex Adaptive Matter ICAM–I2CAM.