Prof. Leslie Schoop
Title: Which Material is worth Studying? (from the viewpoint of quantum materials)
Bio: Dr. Schoop received her Diploma in Chemistry from Johannes Gutenberg University (2010) and PhD in Chemistry from Princeton University (2015). She then went on to work as a Minerva fast-track fellow under Professor Bettina Lotsch at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research (2015-2017). Dr. Schoop joined the Princeton University Department of Chemistry Faculty in 2017, was tenured in 2022 and promoted to full professor in 2024. Since 2024 she directs the Princeton Center for Complex Materials, an NSF-funded MRSEC. In 2019 she won the Beckman Young Investigator Award and became a Moore foundation EPiQS Materials Synthesis Investigator. In 2020 she was awarded the Packard fellowship for science and engineering and in 2021 the Sloan fellowship in Chemistry and the DOD Office of Naval Research Young Investigator award. In 2022 she was awarded the NSF CAREER award and in 2025 the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE). The Schoop Lab is working at the interface of chemistry and physics, using chemical principles to find new materials with exotic physical properties.
Abstract: Quantum materials are hoped to change technology in various aspects. However, most of the desired applications are hindered by the lack of suitable materials. While we know tens of thousands of crystalline inorganic compounds, we studied only a tiny fraction of those for their potential as quantum materials. As synthesis of such materials, especially in single crystal form, can be challenging, a brute force experimental study of all know crystalline inorganic compounds is not feasible. In my group, we are developing simple concepts that guide to find those materials worth growing and studying. We are using concepts from chemistry to understand, predict and synthesize new quantum materials. In this talk, I will show how simple concepts derived from the theory of chemical bonding allow us to make predictions about electronic structures of materials, which we can then use to find various types of new quantum materials. For example, thinking about the degree of delocalization in a chemical bond can be helpful to find kagome or linear-chain materials with band structures that better resemble simple tight binding models, and therefore can fulfill predictions made for certain materials based on “pen and paper” theory. I will give a general overview how powerful chemical concepts are in materials discovery and highlight a flute of materials that were discovered in this light.
Host: Prof. Song Jin