Sergio O. Valenzuela is an ICREA Prof. at the Catalan Institute of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (ICN2). He leads the Physics and Engineering of Nanodevices group, which focuses on quantum transport, spintronics and thermoelectricity in quantum and topological materials. He has pioneered nonlocal devices to study the spin Hall effect, thermopiles to isolate the magnon drag in ferromagnets and implemented novel qubit control and spectroscopy methods. Prof. Valenzuela received a PhD in Physics at the University of Buenos Aires and held research positions at Harvard University and MIT. He is recipient of the Giambiagi and IUPAP Young Scientist Prizes, a ERC Consolidator Grant and is a 2022 elected member of the Academia Europaea and 2022 APS Fellow. He has also been Principal Investigator of the Graphene Flagship and is Grantor of the ICN2 “Severo Ochoa” Centre of Excellence Project. 

In recent years, electronic devices have been scaled down to nanoscale sizes where quantum effects begin to interfere with their functioning. Materials and devices in such scales often present unexpected and counterintuitive physical properties. Prof. Valenzuela's Group focus is the development of novel devices, which are designed to gain insight of specific physical properties of the system components, relevant both for fundamental reasons and applications at the nanoscale. The current research interests of the group span spintronics, spin caloritronics, quantum transport and manipulation, using 2D materials and topological insulators, and quantum transduction and metrology. For more information see: http://nanodevices.icn2.cat.