Dr. Mauro Ferreira

Mauro Ferreira is a Mathematical Physicist in the School of Physics of Trinity College Dublin and also a member of the scientific staff of CRANN/AMBER. He obtained his PhD in the Mathematics Department of Imperial College, London, and worked as a postdoctoral research scientist at the Applied Physics Department of Delft University of Technology, in the Netherlands. He has been in TCD since 2002 and leads the Theory and Modelling Group within the School of Physics, where the focus of the research is on understanding and controlling the physical properties of nanomaterials. As a Mathematical Physicist, Mauro has the natural enthusiasm for modelling the physical world in mathematical terms and this is reflected both in his research and in his teaching philosophy. Some of his recent achievements are in contributing to the understanding of mechanical, electronic and magnetic properties of carbon nanostructures. A more recent addition to his research portfolio, neuromorphic computing is a field still in its infancy and onto which he has already published a number of high impact papers in a relatively short period of time. He has an extensive body of work published in high impact-factor peer-reviewed journals such as Physical Review Letters, Nanoletters, ACS Nano, and Science, to name but a few, and maintains a wide network of collaborations with scientists worldwide. With outstanding teaching skills, Mauro has been nominated for the Excellence in Teaching Award in numerous occasions, having also been shortlisted for the 2017 edition of the Award. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin (elected in 2010) and has been awarded the Global Engagement Award 2016 in recognition for his prominent role in advancing the internationalisation strategy of Trinity College Dublin.

  Computational Physics   Condensed matter, electronic, magnetic and superconductive properties   Magnetism and spin electronics   Mathematical physics   Nanotubes   Quantum mechanics   Solid State Physics   THEORY   THEORY & MODELLING   Theory and computational physics

With a formal background in Mathematical Physics, the main driving force of my research is to pursue mathematical transparency in everything I do. As a result I am a talented modeller who is able to come up with suitable mathematical tools to capture the essence of whichever physical phenomena necessary. My research interests are mainly in the broad area of Condensed Matter Theory. More specifically, in the physical properties of low-dimensional systems such as surfaces, thin films, multilayers and nanowires. Besides the obvious scientific interest in studying these nanoscale objects in isolation, a strong emphasis of my research is to understand what happens when they are brought together as components of heavily disordered structures. While studying the properties of nanoscale objects in ideal isolated conditions is challenging in itself, bringing disorder into the picture raises a whole new range of difficulties which nevertheless makes these materials a lot more promising from a technological perspective. Regarding new research directions, using these objects to form disordered networks has been the focus of my attention lately and a very fruitful subject as shown by my list of publications. Particular emphasis of my research is in the rapidly-developing field of neuromorphic computing whose ambition is to imitate nature and design a machine that can process, store and transmit information with minimal energy expenditure. Nanowire networks are known to possess the key characteristics displayed by neurons and are strong contenders for serving as the building blocks of future neuromorphic computers. My participation as a new PI in the AMBER Research Centre is a testament to the enormous potential that this field possesses and will continue to contribute to the astounding success of this World-class Research Centre.