Joint IMPRS Workshop on Condensed Matter, Quantum Technology and Quantum Materials

The Joint IMPRS Workshop on Condensed Matter, Quantum Technology and Quantum Materials took place from 3 - 7 April 2017 at MPI PKS. The workshop was a joint initiative of four International Max Planck Research Schools - the IMPRS for Condensed Matter Science (Stuttgart), the IMPRS for Chemistry and Physics of Quantum Materials (Dresden), the IMPRS for Quantum Science and Technology (Garching), and the IMPRS for Many-particle Systems in Structured Environments (Dresden) - which have a scientific overlap in the research areas mentioned in the workshop title. The topics presented and discussed at the workshop covered all aspects of research performed at the participating programs, ranging from fundamental theoretical concepts in quantum information theory to experimental studies of novel quantum materials.

The workshop brought together approximately 60 PhD students and senior scientists from the four programs as well as a few external participants, i.e. PhD students and young postdocs from research institutions not affiliated with any of the IMPRS. The main goals of the workshop were to give the junior scientists, in particular, insight into the different research topics pursued at the participating institutions, and also foster direct interaction and discussion among all participants. To achieve these goals, the program of the meeting was predominantly made up of talks from the students themselves, with a good balance between the different IMPRS, together with overview talks from the MPI directors and group leaders and with a good amount of discussion time.

In addition, poster sessions gave all participants an opportunity to present their own results. In particular, students in the early stages of their PhD projects were encouraged to discuss the ideas of their projects enabling them to receive feedback.  The poster sessions sparked a lot of discussions between participants from different research fields and thus contributed significantly to the desired exchange between students.