U Bremen Excellence Chair
Nicola Marzari - visiting Professor in MAPEX 2019 - 2022
Developing new materials on demand
with the help of artificial intelligence, from the perspective of atoms, in a resource-conserving and future-oriented way. The new U Bremen Excellence Chair, Prof. Nicola Marzari, and the scientists of the MAPEX Center for Materials and Processes at the University of Bremen have set themselves this ambitious goal for the next four years.
Nicola Marzari is one of the most prominent materials scientists in the world, as his nomination in the "Highly Cited Researcher 2018 List" impressively proves. He holds the chair "Theory and Simulation of Materials" at the EPFL in Switzerland, where he heads the MARVEL Center of Excellence for computational design and discovery of novel materials.
While traditional material development requires elaborate and expensive experiments, Prof. Marzari's team uses a clever combination of physics-based and data-based modelling. "If we want to develop complex materials together with their synthesis and manufacturing processes on a high-performance computer, then we need realistic, physically sound models as well as new algorithms and computer science methods in order to generate material science knowledge from large amounts of data," says Marzari.
"The University of Bremen and its partner institutes on campus offer a unique combination of expertise in both modern materials science and artificial intelligence," explains Prof. Lucio Colombi Ciacchi, current MAPEX spokesperson. "With the support of Nicola Marzari, we want to combine these existing competencies to break new ground in material and process development and, for the first time, to develop and produce materials with individually tailored and locally varying thermo-chemo-mechanical properties.
Students will also benefit greatly from the new excellence chair, which is very committed to teaching and has recently been awarded the title of Best Teacher in Materials Science and Engineering at EPFL. In addition to targeted lectures, Prof. Marzari wants to organize practical tutorials on materials informatics and address the general public about the importance of materials for society with an annual "Excellence Chair Lecture".
The U Bremen Excellence Chairs Programme:
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/u-bremen-excellence-chairs
Press release of the University of Bremen:
https://www.uni-bremen.de/en/alumni/the-alumni-newsletter/international/u-bremen-excellence-chairs-close-cooperation-with-international-experts
