Where magnetism and ferroelectricity meet: how MARVEL scientists found a very special multiferroic

In the first years of the MARVEL project, experimentalist Marisa Medarde from the Paul Scherrer Institute and theorist Nicola Spaldin at ETH Zurich started a collaboration on multiferroics - materials that combine a magnetic and a ferroelectric ordering in the same phase and that could have wide applications in electronics and memory storage. The collaboration produced a stream of discoveries and papers on a particular system, the layered perovskite YBaCuFeO5.  Marisa Medarde recalls how the material first attracted her group's attention and tells the story of how DFT calculations and experiments helped each other towards a a full experimental characterization and theoretical explanation of the material, and of how its chemical disorder can be used to modulate its multiferroic properties. This is the third article in a series about MARVEL's success stories from its 11 years of research. You can read the first one here and the second one here.

Interviews with Giulia Galli and Georg Kresse

During the Psi-k 2025 that took place from 25 to 28 August in Lausanne, we interviewed several top experts in computational materials science and asked them how they see the future of the field. The resulting video interviews will be published over the course of the next weeks on our website, presenting a range of diverse perspectives on the challenges and opportunities that await the community. The interviews are also an opportunity to assess the impact of MARVEL and its impact on the field overall. We begin with the interviews to Giulia Galli from the University of Chicago, and Georg Kresse from the University of Vienna. 

Award ceremony of the 2025 Berni J. Alder CECAM Prize to Prof. Giulia Galli

The 2025 Berni J. Alder CECAM prize has been awarded to Giulia Galli, Professor at the University of Chicago and Head of MARVEL's Scientific Advisory Board. The Prize recognizes exceptional contributions to the field of microscopic simulation of matter and is awarded every three years. It recognizes Galli's  transformative contributions to computational molecular science in the domain of novel methods for large-scale electronic structure and molecular dynamics simulations. The award ceremony will be held on November 12, 2025, in EPFL (room SV 1717) as an opening of a mini workshop.

MARVEL Junior Seminar — October 2025

The MARVEL Junior Seminars aim to intensify interactions between the MARVEL Junior scientists belonging to different research groups – this is held in hybrid mode, in order to maintain in-person contacts and allow off-campus attendees to follow the seminars remotely! We are pleased to propose the 67th MARVEL Junior Seminar:  Linda Mauron (Computational Quantum Science Laboratory - CQSL, EPFL) and Mario Caserta (Laboratory of Theory and Simulation of Materials - THEOS, EPFL) will present their research. 

CECAM-MARVEL Mary Ann Mansigh series: Telling scientific stories — from science journalism to comics and visual storytelling

CECAM and MARVEL present a new event in our Mary Ann Mansigh Conversation series. In a discussion with SWI swissinfo.ch science and technology journalist Sara Ibrahim and director of the Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo at the National Research Council of Italy Roberto Natalini, we will explore how scientists can broaden the impact of their work by engaging with divers forms of science communication, from storytelling to comics. We will see also why clear communication is crucial for building trust between science and society.

2-week MARVEL-ICTP College in computational materials science

This 2-week MARVEL-ICTP College in computational materials science will take place on June 1-12, 2026 at ICTP in Trieste. The event is dedicated to MARVEL PhD students and early postdocs, as well as students all around the world, with support also for those coming from emerging economies. This will be our core educational event, bringing ~200 researchers to work and live together for 2 weeks.

MARVEL final event at EPFL

On July 9-10, 2026, MARVEL final event at EPFL will close 12 years of research and activities on computational materials science. This event will be dedicated to the accomplishments of MARVEL and to the relevance of these to the industrial and technological ecosystem, inviting alumni and key players worldwide in academia and industry, SNSF review panel, scientific and industrial advisory boards, EPFL leadership, and scientific journalists.