25 Feb

2021 Lee Osheroff Richardson (LOR) Science Prize winner announced

Oxford Instruments is delighted to announce that Dr. Matthew Yankowitz of the University of Washington has been selected as the winner of the 2021 Lee Osheroff Richardson (LOR) Science Prize

Dr. Matthew Yankowitz is recognised for his formative contributions to the field of moiré van der Waals heterostructures, spanning the initial discovery of band reconstruction in aligned graphene/boron nitride to more recent investigations of strongly correlated states, magnetism, topology and superconductivity in twisted graphene structures.

The objective of the Lee Osheroff Richardson Science Prize is to promote and recognise the novel work of young scientists working in the fields of low temperatures and/or high magnetic fields or surface science in North and South America.

“I am thrilled and honored to have been selected as the recipient of the prestigious Lee Osheroff Richardson Science Prize for 2021. Although our primary goal is to uncover new fundamental physics, gaining industry recognition is an important part of the work that we do. I’m grateful for all of the support from my phenomenal colleagues and mentors that has enabled me to reach this point,” comments Yankowitz.

The 2021 LOR Science Prize selection committee is chaired by Professor Bruce Gaulin, McMaster University and includes: Professor Laura Greene, NHMFL and FSU; Professor Hae-Young Kee, University of Toronto; Professor Collin Broholm, Johns Hopkins University; Professor Cory Dean, Columbia University and Dr Sheng Ran, 2020 winner (Ex-officio member).

Yankowitz has recently led efforts to explore the properties of a variety of twisted graphene systems. His work has uncovered a wide array of new strongly correlated electronic states, including a subset that also feature nontrivial topology. These states can be controlled experimentally by changing the charge doping, electric field, twist angle, and more. He has also developed new high pressure techniques to dynamically control the properties of these states within a single device and demonstrated that superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene can be tuned with pressure. His work in twisted double bilayer graphene has helped to elucidate the origin of mysterious transport features that resemble superconductivity but may instead more likely arise owing to magnetic ordering.

LOR Science Prize

Oxford Instruments is aware that there is a critical and often difficult stage for many between completing a PhD and gaining a permanent research position. The company has therefore been helping individuals who are producing innovative work by offering assistance both financially and suitably promoting their research work, through sponsoring the LOR Science Prize for North and South America for the past 14 years. The Prize is named in honour of Professors David M. Lee, Douglas D. Osheroff and the late Robert C. Richardson, joint recipients of The Nobel Prize in Physics 1996 for their discovery of ‘superfluidity in helium-3’.

The previous winners of the LOR Science Prize are Dr Kate Ross, Dr Brad Ramshaw, Dr Mohamad Hamidian, Dr Cory Dean, Dr Chiara Tarantini, Dr Lu Li, Dr Kenneth Burch, Dr Jing Xia, Dr Vivien Zapf, Dr Eunseong Kim, Dr Suchitra Sebastian, Dr Jason Petta and Dr Christian Lupien.