Abstract

Can modern sustainable cities rise from the embrace of sand dunes and clay? Can one make batteries that will survive interstellar flight ? Can we alleviate the suffering of diabetic patients with the finesse of a pencil trace? The answers to these intriguing questions are a resounding YES. In this seminar, we will explore how innovative thinking and a fresh perspective on traditional materials can lead to groundbreaking solutions for contemporary challenges. Join us as we delve into the intersection of sustainability and creativity, uncovering the potential of our natural resources to build a brighter, more sustainable future.

Biography

Prof. Antonio H. Castro Neto got his undergraduate degree at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994. His thesis studied the fundamentals of the theory of metals. In 1994, he moved to the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral fellow where he dedicated his attention to low dimensional materials. In 1995, he became an Assistant Professor at University of California at Riverside where he wrote fundamental work on the theory of disordered magnetic materials. In 2000, he moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics. In Boston, Prof. Castro Neto became one of the leading scientists in the study of graphene and other two-dimensional materials. In 2010, Prof. Castro Neto became the founding Director of the Graphene Research Centre at the National University of Singapore (NUS) which, in 2014, was renamed Centre for Advanced 2D Materials after securing funding from the National Research Foundation of Singapore (NRF). In 2021, Prof. Castro Neto became the Co-Director (together with Prof. Konstantin Novoselov, Nobel 2010) of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials funded by the Ministry of Education, Singapore (MOE).

Prof. Castro Neto is a Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Material Science Engineering and Physics, he is also Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at NUS. In 2003, Prof. Castro Neto was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and in 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Prof. Castro Neto is also a Fellow of the National Academy of Science of Singapore and of the Brazilian Academy of Science.

Prof. Castro Neto was awarded the 11th Ross J. Martin Award by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; the University of California Regent Fellowship; the Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship; the visiting Miller Professorship by the University of California, Berkeley; the visiting Gordon Godfrey Professorship by the University of New South Wales, Australia; the Distinguished Visiting Chair Professor at the SKKU Advanced Institute of Nano-Technology (SAINT), South Korea; the Hsun Lee Lecture Award by the Institute of Metal Research at the Chinese Academy of Sciences; and Kramers Professorship at the University of Utrecht, the Netherlands.

In 2016, Prof. Castro Neto founded 2D Materials (2DM) Pte Ltd in Singapore for the development of high-quality graphene. In 2017, he founded MADE Advanced Materials Pte Ltd for the development of graphene composites with carbon and glass fibres. In 2019, he founded Graphene Watts Pte Ltd for the development and commercialization of graphene-based Lithium-Sulphur (GLiS) batteries. In 2022, Prof. Castro Neto created the AM2 Venture Studio in Singapore.

Prof. Castro Neto has authored more than 500 manuscripts and 100 invention disclosures and patents and has published in prestigious journals including Science, Nature, Nature Materials, Nature Physics, and Physical Review Letters, and has over 100,000 citations (h-index 125, Google Scholar). Prof. Castro Neto has been ranked among the top 1% most cited physicists from 2014 to 2023 by Clarivate (Thomson-Reuters).