New biologically derived metal-organic framework mimics DNA

EPFL chemical engineers led by Kyriakos Stylianou, experimental group leader in MARVEL Design and Discovery Project 4, have synthesized a biologically-derived metal-organic framework on which the hydrogen bonding that forms the DNA double helix can be mimicked and studied like never before. The paper, Nucleobase pairing and photodimerization in a biologically derived metal-organic framework nanoreactor, has been published in Nature Communications.

New study gives compelling evidence that tungsten diphosphide is a type-II Weyl semimetal

Researchers at NCCR MARVEL have combined first principles calculations with soft X-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to examine tungsten diphosphide’s electronic structure, characterizing its Weyl nodes for the very first time. In agreement with density functional theory calculations, the results revealed two pairs of Weyl nodes lying at different binding energies. The observation of the Weyl nodes, as well as the tilted cone-like dispersions in the vicinity of the nodal points, provides compelling evidence that the material is a robust type-II Weyl semimetal with broken Lorentz invariance. This is as MARVEL researchers predicted two years ago. The research has been published in Physical Review Letters as an Editor's Suggestion.

Researchers discover self-healing catalyst for potential large-scale use in safe hydrogen production and storage

Researchers working within NCCR MARVEL have discovered a self-healing catalyst that can be used to release hydrogen through the hydrolytic dehydrogenation of ammonia borane. The catalyst, SION-X, is based on the abundant mineral Jacquesdietrichite, is sustainable, air stable and can be easily regenerated, stored and handled. These characteristics mean that it may offer significant advantages over existing catalysts used in the production of the clean and renewable energy carrier hydrogen. The research has been published in the Journal of Materials Chemistry A. 

Executive Committee Member Thomas Schulthess wins 2019 Doron Prize

MARVEL Executive Committee member and director of the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre CSCS Thomas Schulthess has been awarded the 2019 Doron Prize for his work in high-performance computing. Schulthess, who is also professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics of ETHZ and co-leader of MARVEL's High Performance Computing and Future Architectures project, will be given the award at a ceremony in Zug on 3 April. He is the second MARVEL member to win the award after Ursula Röthlisberger's recognition in 2016.

MARVEL Director Marzari named to Senior Editorial Board of Nature's Scientific Data publication

NCCR MARVEL's director Nicola Marzari has been named to the Senior Editoral Board of Nature's Scientific Data publication. 

Screening of Good Will Hunting - Third "Soirées CECAM/MARVEL" Movie Night

Join us to watch Good Will Hunting, the story of an unrecognized genius who, as part of an agreement after assaulting a police officer, becomes a client of a therapist and studies advanced mathematics with a renowned professor.  

AiiDA tutorial — May 2019

This 3.5-day tutorial is designed to get Master students, PhD students and Postdocs from the field of computational materials science started with writing reproducible workflows. Participants will be introduced to the state of the art in workflow management and high-throughput computations by experts in the field, and gain in-depth hands-on experience using a tool that they can directly apply to their own research.

MARVEL Junior Seminar — May 2019

Welcome to the 25th MARVEL Junior Seminar on Thursday May 9, 2019, 12:15 pm, EPFL, room MED 0 1418. Leopold Talirz and Aliaksandr Yakutovich (LSMO/THEOS, EPFL) will present updates on MARVEL's Open Science Platform. The seminar is chaired by Edgar Engel.

CCMX-MARVEL Materials Science Day 2019

NCCR MARVEL and CCMX, the Competence Centre for Materials Science and Technology, are co-organizing their third Materials Science Day where both experimental and modeling approaches will be addressed. The morning will be dedicated to MARVEL projects related to Materials for Energy, including modeling and first experimental validation. During the afternoon, we will present progress with ongoing CCMX Materials Challenges. Participants from industry and academia are welcome to discover new projects, make new contacts and initiate collaborations.