LIST physicist elected Fellow of American Physical Society

A leading physicist at the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) has just been elected for the prestigious position of Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS).

Dr Jorge Iñiguez, working as Expert Scientist, in the Materials Research and Technology department at LIST, received the award for “Ground-breaking contributions to the computational theory of ferroelectric and multiferroic materials”.

“This is special because among physicists it is one of the most respected professional organisations for us in the world. Each year the APS elects a small percentage of the total number of senior members as fellows, meaning it is difficult to get,” explained Dr Iñiguez, who is also teaching at the University of Luxembourg as affiliated professor. “How it works is your colleagues put your name forward, and then there is an evaluation by peers. To me it means the work that I have been leading has been significant and meaningful, that the community out there has been paying attention and think that what we’ve been doing is notable”.  

Dr Íñiguez’s election is a recognition of his work with a family of important materials that are extremely interesting in terms of the fascinating physical properties they possess and their potential for technological applications. They present what are known as “phase transitions” meaning that, by changing the temperature of these compounds, their structure and properties also change spontaneously. Further, they are very reactive to external electric fields, pressure or even light, which allows to control their properties in ways that are useful for applications in electronics, for example, and even to harvest energy from natural sources.

“This Fellow election is encouragement to continue with this research and in terms of visibility it can lead to people knowing more about what we do. It is very motivating, very inspiring for me and I hope can be inspiring for others” Dr Iñiguez stated.

Listen to full interview with Dr Jorge Iñiguez below: