{"id":893339,"date":"2026-09-15T22:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893339\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T22:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T22:14:09","slug":"uq-researcher-leads-quest-for-future-materials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/893339\/","title":{"rendered":"UQ Researcher Leads Quest for Future Materials"},"content":{"rendered":"

From renewable energy to advanced nanotechnology, many of tomorrow’s breakthroughs may rely on materials that are to be discovered or created.<\/p>\n

The University of Queensland’s Dr Carla Verdi<\/a> is using quantum-mechanical and advanced computer simulations in her search for new materials, and to predict how they will behave long before they’re a physical reality.<\/p>\n

“A lot of the limitations we have in advancing technology is due to the availability of specific materials for particular applications,” Dr Verdi said.<\/p>\n

“We are using quantum mechanics – a branch of physics that describes matter and energy at the atomic level – to simulate how materials behave.<\/p>\n

“This helps us understand and even design their properties.<\/p>\n

“This isn’t just abstract quantum physics theory; you can see the tangible outcomes.”<\/p>\n

Working at UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics<\/a> Dr Verdi said the work would inform the future of technology.<\/p>\n

“If you think about the technological progress of the last couple of centuries, it has always been related to developing new materials,” Dr Verdi said.<\/p>\n

“When we have the tools, we can start to develop things like new nanotechnology, solar cells, superconductors, low-power electronics, batteries and catalysts.<\/p>\n

“In my work, we are using atomic defects to create single-photon sources for quantum communication, or to make superconducting semiconductors.<\/p>\n

“Another example is silicon solar cells, they are limited by being rigid, so what about flexible solar cells that can be attached to anything?<\/p>\n

“These are the kind of ideas we are focusing on, and everyone will benefit.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Dr Verdi said simulating materials saved researchers time and money.<\/p>\n

“Developing advanced and high-performing materials requires extraordinary precision and often researchers don’t know the best approach until they begin testing,” Dr Verdi said.<\/p>\n

“So, there can be a lot of costly trial and error in the lab.<\/p>\n

“With computer simulations we can precisely reproduce certain properties and see how they behave in a way that was maybe unknown before.”<\/p>\n

Dr Verdi has received a UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award<\/a> (FREA) which will allow her to extend her research.<\/p>\n

“With this award, I’ll be able to expand my group to work with leading researchers in the field and organise activities,” Dr Verdi said.<\/p>\n

“My dream is to one day have a ‘materials by design’ route where before making something in the lab you first design it and then create the material best suited to help us with any challenges we face.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From renewable energy to advanced nanotechnology, many of tomorrow’s breakthroughs may rely on materials that are to be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":893340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[64,63,128],"class_list":["post-893339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=893339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/893339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/893340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=893339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=893339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=893339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}