Professor Andrea Damascelli is the Scientific Director at the University of British Columbia’s Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (Blusson QMI), a Professor at UBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, a Tier I Canada Research Chair in the Electronic Structure of Quantum Materials, and the co-Director of the Max Planck-UBC-UTokyo Centre for Quantum Materials.

Image: Blusson QMI Scientific Director and Professor at UBC’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, Andrea Damascelli.

As Blusson QMI’s Scientific Director, Andrea has led UBC’s effort that resulted in the $66.5 million award from the Canada First Research Excellence Fund for Quantum Materials and Future Technologies.

With more than 150 papers published, >18,000 citations and an h-index of 57 (Google Scholar), Andrea’s work on quantum materials has gained global recognition and helped position Canada as a leader in the field of photoelectron spectroscopy.

In particular, Andrea’s internationally recognized for his studies of the electronic structure of superconducting cuprates, ruthenates, and other correlated oxides by time-, spin-, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (Time+Spin+ARPES), and resonant elastic x-ray scattering (REXS). His work has been recognized with the prestigious Sloan, Killam, and NSERC’s Steacie Memorial Fellowships, the Bessel Research Award from the Humboldt Foundation, and the Canadian Association of Physicists’ DCMMP Brockhouse Medal.

Andrea is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Physics Society, the Max Planck Graduate Center for Quantum Materials, a Kavli Fellow of the US National Academy of Sciences, and a Senior Fellow of the CIFAR Quantum Materials Program.

Over the past two decades, Andrea has led the Canadian effort in photoelectron spectroscopy of quantum materials by developing innovative XUV sources, photoelectron spectrometers, cryogenic manipulators, in situ atomic manipulation methods, as well as new approaches for ARPES, spin-ARPES, and time-resolved ARPES, advancing these technologies and techniques significantly.

Image: Prof. Andrea Damascelli standing near the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) apparatus used to visualize the motion of electrons in quantum materials in the UBC-Moore Centre for Ultrafast Quantum Matter at Blusson QMI.

He has also led the $16M CFI-funded national effort to develop the Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Center at the Canadian Light Source, a high-resolution beamline facility (15-1000 eV) for Spin+ARPES studies of single crystals and thin films grown in situ by MBE.

As an adventurous and curious scientist, when he’s not in the lab looking at how electrons move, you will find him sailing and exploring the Pacific Ocean, or perhaps cooking an Italian feast at his home in Vancouver.

Learn more about Andrea here.