Physicist named Sloan research fellow

Author: William G. Gilroy

Boldizsar Janko, an assistant professor of physics at the University of Notre Dame, has been awarded an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship.p. Awarded for two-year terms, Sloan Research Fellowships recognize young scientists who show outstanding promise of making fundamental contributions to new knowledge in the fields of chemistry, physics, mathematics, computer science, economics and neuroscience. The foundation reviews some 400 nominations each year before selecting 117 fellows. Twenty-eight former Sloan fellows have received Nobel Prizes and hundreds have received other prestigious awards and honors.p. Janko’s research focuses on a wide variety of phenomena associated with highly correlated electron systems. His areas of interest include high-Tc superconductivity, mesoscopic and nanoscopic physics, magnetic systems, vortex motion in superconductors, and electron properties of carbon nanotubes.p. A team of Notre Dame researchers led by Janko recently received a $1.8 million Nanoscale Interdisciplinary Research grant from the National Science Foundation to support research on the development and creation of man-made materials aimed at performing extremely fast functions in computers of future generations.p. The materials, known as diluted magnetic semiconductors, possess magnetic, optical and semiconductor properties that show great promise for new types of computers. The research is aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of these properties, so as to enable their control for the purpose of such applications as “spintronics,” which involves electronic circuits based on electronic spin as well as electron charge.p. Janko joined the Notre Dame faculty in 2000.p.

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