Finland-based branch of SuperC got together for a day of scientific discussion and more

On 24. January 2025, 30 participants including guests of SuperC who are based in Finland met for a one-day workshop on the Aalto University campus. We started the day with talks contributed by each of the Finland-based research groups: the Quantum Dynamics group led by Päivi Törmä, the Quantum Circuits and Correlations group led by Pertti Hakonen, both of Aalto University, and the Condensed Matter Theory group led by Tero Heikkilä at the University of Jyväskylä.

Researchers and group leaders presented an overview of recent progress on their respective topics. These ranged from theoretical research on flat band superconductivity (groups of Törmä and Heikkilä) and recent experimental results by the group of Hakonen in collaboration with Dmitri Efetov’s group at LMU in Germany. The talks were followed by lively discussion sessions.

For the afternoon program, we invited guests from the Keele Foundation who were joined by several representatives of Aalto University’s leadership including the President and also the Dean of the School of Science. For these guests, SuperC’s leader Päivi Törmä presented an accessible summary of our current and past activities including our future plans. SuperC has been very successful over the past two years fundraising and also producing several joint research papers. Of note, recent collaborative publications included Yu et al. (Nature Physics 20, 2024), Cerqueira et al. (Advanced Functional Materials 34, 2024), Virtanen et al. (arXiv 2410.23121, 2024), Diez-Carlon et al. (arXiv2502.04785, 2025) and Korshunov et al. (accepted to Physical Review B, 2025).

Our guests then visited research labs located at the Department of Applied Physics at Aalto University. Later in the evening, we transferred to the Aalto Design Factory where we enjoyed dinner and a sauna evening. The event strengthened our sense of sharing common goals and facilitated scientific exchange in a casual manner. Our next event with the entire SuperC community will be our summer workshop to be held at Sant Feliu de Guíxols, Spain, from 24.-27. May 2025.

We are particularly grateful to our sponsors from the Keele Foundation, Jane & Aatos Erkko Foundation, Magnus Ehrnrooth Foundation, Fortum and Neste Foundation, Simons Foundation and The Kavli Foundation with the Klaus Tschira Stiftung and Kevin Wells who enabled us to hold this event and keep collaborating.