Plenary Lecture 1: Modern challenges in materials science and technology

In this talk, Prof Castro-Neto will talk about what he believes to be the greatest challenges in materials science and technology and make wild, but educated, guesses on how to approach them. 

Professor Antonio Castro-Neto is a Distinguished NUS Professor in the Departments of Material Science Engineering and Physics, as well as Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. College. He became a leading figure in graphene research during his tenure at Boston University. In 2010, he founded the Graphene Research Centre at NUS, later renamed the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials. He also co-directs the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials at NUS.

Prof Castro-Neto is renowned for his extensive contributions to the field, evidenced by his numerous awards and recognitions. He received his undergraduate degree at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1990 and his PhD in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994.

Plenary Lecture 2: Privacy for the paranoid: The ultimate limits of secrecy

Among those who make a living from the science of secrecy, worry and paranoia are just signs of professionalism. Can we protect our secrets against those who wield superior technological powers? Can we trust those who provide us with tools for protection? Can we even trust ourselves, our own freedom of choice? Recent developments in quantum cryptography show that some of these questions can be addressed and discussed in precise and operational terms, suggesting that privacy is indeed possible under surprisingly weak assumptions. Prof Artur will provide an overview of how quantum entanglement, after playing a significant role in the development of the foundations of quantum mechanics, became a new physical resource for all those who seek the ultimate limits of secrecy.

Professor Artur Ekert is Professor of Quantum Physics at the Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford and Distinguished Fellow at NUS’ Centre for Quantum Technologies. He is one of the co-inventors of quantum cryptography and his current research extends over most aspects of information processing in quantum-mechanical systems.

He has worked with, and advised several companies and government agencies. He is a recipient of several awards, including the 1995 Maxwell Medal and Prize by the Institute of Physics and the 2007 Royal Society Hughes Medal. In 2016, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society. 

Plenary Lecture 3: Magic Angle Graphene: the Twist and Shout of Quantum Materials

The discovery 20 years ago of the first truly 2-dimensional, one atom-thick material, graphene, has revolutionized physics and materials science, and led to numerous important applications. Moreover, scientists quickly realized that new heterostructures sandwiching various 2D materials could be created, and that these exhibited pretty unique phenomena. In the past few years, physicists have been able to create captivating atomic structures by stacking and controllably twisting layers of graphene and other 2D materials. These are called moiré patterns, named after a 17th century silk production technique. These atomic moiré structures took the material’s design to a qualitatively new level. The moiré materials appear to exhibit a plethora of novel phenomena, such as unconventional superconductivity and magnetism, ferroelectricity, and much more. In this talk, Prof Pablo will review the discovery and physics of graphene and explain the principles and beauty of moiré materials. He will also provide a broad outlook of some exciting new directions and practical applications of this emerging field.

Pablo Jarillo-Herrero is currently Cecil and Ida Green Professor of Physics at MIT. He received his “Licenciatura” in physics from the University of Valencia, Spain, in 1999, and his PhD in physics from Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands in 2005. After his postdoc at Columbia University, he joined MIT as an assistant professor of physics in January 2008 and received tenure in 2015. He was promoted to Full Professor of Physics in 2018. 
Prof. Jarillo-Herrero is the recipient of the APS 2020 Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Physics Prize, the 2020 Wolf Prize in Physics, the 2020 Medal of the Spanish Royal Physics Society, the 2021 Lise Meitner Distinguished Lecture and Medal, the 2021 Max Planck Humboldt Research Award, the 2021 US National Academy of Sciences Award for Scientific Discovery, the 2022 Dan Maydan Prize in Nanoscience Research, and the 2023 Ramon y Cajal Medal from the Royal Spanish Academy of Sciences. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences (2022), the Spanish Royal Academy of Sciences (2023), and the European Academy of Sciences (2025). Professor Jarillo-Herrero’s research interests lie in the area of experimental condensed matter physics.

Plenary Lecture 4: Tokenizing the language of complexity in science

Complex systems present significant scientific challenges due to their numerous interacting components across physics, chemistry, biology, and pharmacology. Their vast degrees of freedom and emergent behaviors make accurate modeling particularly difficult.

Physicists traditionally address this through coarse-graining – selectively simplifying systems by focusing on key variables while averaging out less critical details. While effective, this approach has historically relied heavily on researcher intuition and expertise.

The emergence of machine learning, particularly through tokenization techniques, is revolutionizing this process. These advanced methods now enable both experts and non-experts to systematically identify optimal coarse-graining strategies, democratizing access to insights that were previously only attainable through specialized experience. This technological advancement represents a significant leap forward in our ability to understand and predict complex system behaviors across scientific disciplines.

In this talk, Prof Duane Loh will share the experience of how our students and postdocs, equipped with machine learning tools, have embarked on such journeys of data-driven discovery in complex systems. From uncovering novel spatiotemporal motifs in quantum materials, non-reciprocal interactions between biological cells, deciphering the language of functional disorder in piezoelectric materials, unveiling the structural origins of vibrant colors in butterfly wing scales, to creating novel computational lenses for cryo-electron microscopy. They have collectively pushed the boundaries of how we think about complex systems. These experiences, he believes, show us how AI has become indispensable for understanding and discovering the secrets in complex systems.

Prof Duane Loh is an Associate Professor at NUS (Physics & Biological Sciences) and Principal Investigator at the NUS Centre for Bio-imaging Sciences. He directs the NUS AI for Science Master’s programme.

His research develops computational lenses—machine learning tools integrated with scientific priors—to decode nanoscale dynamics. His group pioneered these methods for X-ray free-electron laser imaging, using unsupervised learning to reveal hidden intermediate states and self-organization in chaotic systems. They later adapted these techniques for electron microscopy, overcoming limitations of traditional hardware.

By combining advanced microscopy with statistical learning, Prof Duane Loh is leading efforts to explore nucleation processes, nanocrystal growth, and self-organization in physical and biological systems. His group now applies these data-driven approaches to understanding the complex many-body dynamics of biological cells and the spread of vector-borne diseases. This work continues to bridge the gap between massive, complex datasets and foundational scientific understanding, pushing the boundaries of discovery in both physical and biological sciences.

Plenary Lecture 5:  Making the world a greener and more sustainable place: green chemistry and green energy

Currently, more than 80% of the world’s energy needs are met by burning fossil fuels. Supplies of these fuels are intrinsically limited and will eventually run out. Combustion of fossil fuels also generates carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas. One solution for reducing atmospheric CO2 levels is carbon capture and sequestration.  Another alternative is to electrochemically reduce the emitted CO2 into carboxylic acids, hydrocarbons or alcohols, which are valuable chemical feedstocks and fuels. Water can also be reduced to hydrogen gas, which can be used as a carbon-free fuel. If the energy used for these processes is generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind, we can envisage a chemical production cycle that is closed-loop with net zero carbon emission.

In this talk, we will discuss how we could produce electricity, chemicals and fuels in clean and sustainable ways, with the hope that our world will become cleaner. We will examine water electrolysis, a seemingly simple process that was first performed in 1789, and reveal the mechanisms by which water is split into hydrogen and oxygen gas. We will also discuss how CO2, a very inert molecule, could be activated and converted to useful chemicals such as ethylene and to aviation fuels. Different types of catalysts and their functionalities will be shown.

Associate Professor Jason Yeo received his BSc (Hons) and MSc in Chemistry from NUS, and his PhD from ETH Zurich. He conducted postdoctoral research at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. His work focuses on developing efficient and robust materials to catalyse energy conversion reactions to achieve sustainable and environmentally friendly energy. Assoc Prof Yeo has received multiple university- and faculty-level teaching excellence awards. He is Deputy Head (Education) at NUS’ Department of Chemistry.

Symposium closing

Presentation of Best Poster and Oral Awards

Lunch Reception