Tuesday 7th October 2025, 6.30pm, Sibson Lecture Theatre 3
Seamus Davis (University of Oxford)
Everything around us, everything each of us has ever experienced, and virtually everything underpinning our technological society and economy is governed by quantum mechanics. Yet this most fundamental physical theory of nature often feels as if it is a set of somewhat eerie and counterintuitive ideas of no direct relevance to our lives. Why is this? One reason is that we cannot perceive the strangeness (and astonishing beauty) of the quantum mechanical phenomena all around us by using our own senses.
I will describe the history of development of techniques that allow us to visualize electronic quantum phenomena and new states of quantum matter directly at the atomic scale. As recent examples, we will visually explore the previously unseen and very beautiful forms of quantum matter making up electronic liquid crystals; high temperature superconductors; electron-pair crystals and intrinsic topological superconductors.
I will discuss the implications for fundamental physics research and also for advanced materials and quantum technologies, arising from such direct atomic-scale visualization of quantum matter.
About the speaker
Prof. Séamus Davis’ work in high-sensitivity quantum tunnelling spectroscopy on strongly correlated quantum materials was recognised by many prizes, including the O.V. Lounasmaa Memorial Prize (2020) and the O.E. Buckley Memorial Prize (2023). He is a fellow of the Fellow of the Royal Irish Academy, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and he currently holds a Royal Society Research Professorship at the University of Oxford. Séamus is also well-known for his wonderful Irish humour, so his talk comes with a guarantee of being not only informative but also a lot of fun!
The talk is free and open to all. Doors open about half an hour before the talk begins.
For directions to the lecture theatre, see here.