Speaker: Gergely Zimányi (University of California, Davis)
Title: A Condensed Matter Physicist’s Journey at the Interfaces of Renewable Energy, Law and Medicine
Date: 3 October 2023
Place: Building 1, meeting room or online:
Meeting ID 863 3022 9260
Passcode 136021
Invite Link https://wigner-hu.zoom.us/j/86330229260?pwd=B4aYBsnA4Zz54xlY1d2KRIYRJoC8S9.1
Abstract:
1. The Climate Crisis is the greatest fight of our age. This is a strong moral imperative for condensed matter physicists to apply and adapt
their sophisticated tools to develop Renewable Energy solutions for this fight. This talk describes six such opportunities. How strongly
interacting electrons in perovskites are relevant for increasing solar cell efficiencies. How the Metal Insulator transition is relevant for
solar photo-electron extraction. How quantum glassy dynamics is relevant for solar cell degradation. How machine learning is relevant for solar cell structural dynamics. How renormalization group theory is relevant for automotive electromotors. How charged fluid dynamics is relevant for solar powered water desalination. 2. In the second part, I describe my journey exploring the interface of law and physics as a patent lawyer. I wrote some of the earliest patents on white LEDs, solid state memories, and quantum computers. 3. In the third part, I describe how practicing patent law led me to work at medical startup companies, where we repeatedly developed pioneering eye surgical systems based on Nobelist inventions.
