Simulating the Future of Quantum Materials ft. Antonio Manesco

In this episode

• What a theoretical physicist in nanoelectronics does all day: Python code, and calculations sent off to a computer cluster
• How cutting ceramic superconductor samples as an undergraduate in São Paulo pushed Antonio towards theory, and how he moved from Brazil to TU Delft
• What topological insulators are, and why the metallic edge between two kinds of insulator is so good at moving electrons
• The project he picked: a building block for a fermionic quantum computer, made from superconductors and semiconductors, that behaves more like electrons than qubits do
• Why he enjoys the freedom to choose his own problems, and teaching students
• His three wishes: stable careers for postdocs, an end to geographical bias in academia, and real open science, including shared code and data

Key Takeaways

• Theoretical/computational physicist (postdoc at TU Delft) simulating mesoscopic and nanoscale electronic devices in Python on university clusters.
• Started as an experimentalist (cutting superconducting ceramics), disliked it, moved to theory, but still needs an experimental motivation to start a project.
• Gave a clear explanation of topological insulators: the gap must close and reopen at the interface with vacuum, creating a robust metallic edge good for low-dissipation transport.
• Quantum computers won’t be personal devices soon; the payoff is solving currently-intractable problems, accelerating science.
• Three wishes: stable postdoc careers, an end to geographical/general bias in academia (he faced personal attacks in reviews), and a real open-science culture (no €10k fees, shared code and data).

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About the guest

Antonio Manesco is a Postdoc Researcher at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, working on mesoscopic and nano electronics: how electrons behave in low-dimensional devices. He holds a bachelor’s in Engineering Physics and a PhD from Brazil, from the University of São Paulo.

Antonio Manesco curated the Real Scientists Nano Twitter account (@RealSci_Nano) from October 1 to October 9 2023. Read all of Antonio’s tweets from that week.