2025 Cooper Lecture: Ivan K. Schuller

Abstract

Data manipulation (memory, computation, communications, data mining) in its many forms drives and fuels our civilization. Revolutionary developments in the past decades in hardware (principally CMOS technology) and software (such as machine-learning), has fueled the ever-increas ing capabilities of modern computational machines. It is however agreed that these enhanced computational capabilities will soon slow down considerably due to a variety of limitation, principally because of the large energy consumption expected. On the other hand, nature has evolved a computational machine (the “brain”) which has substantial advantages in energy efficiency over conventional silicon-based computers.

I will describe the recent worldwide attempts which bring us closer to the holy grail of this issue:

“Create a new type of computer that can proactively interpret and learn from data, solve unfamiliar problems using what it has learned, and operate with the energy efficiency of the human brain.”

This work was supported as part of the Quantum Materials for Energy Efficient Neuromorphic Computing (Q-MEEN-C), an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences under Award #DE-SC0019273.

Biography

Ivan K. Schuller received his Licenciado (1970) from the University of Chile, his M.S. degree (1972), and his Ph.D. (1976) from Northwestern University. From 1978-1987 he was a Senior Physicist and Group Leader at Argonne National Laboratory. Since 1987 he has been a Professor of Physics at the University of California, San Diego, and in addition to this position, presently is Layer Leader-Materials and Devices of Calit2 Institute, and Director-AFOSR-MURI on Integrated Nanosensors at UCSD. He held visiting professorships at the Catholic University and the University of Santiago - Santiago, Chile; Universidad del Valle-Cali, Colombia; the Catholic University - Leuven, Belgium and the Rheinisch Westfaelische Technische Hochschule-Aachen, Germany.

He has received awards and prizes in High-Temperature Superconductivity-DOE Outstanding Scientific Accomplishment 1987, International Activities-APS Wheatley Award 1999, Metallic Superlattices and Heterostructures- Alexander von Humboldt Prize 2000, APS Adler Award 2003, Exchange Bias-MRS Medal 2003, Civic Service- Citizenship Council of Chicago1980. Other general honors and awards include Chilean Academy of Sciences - 1992; Corresponding Fellow, Belgian Academy of Sciences - 1998; ISI Highly Cited Researchers - 2000. Current scientific interests include the preparation, characterization, and study of Metallic Superlattices, Heterostructures, and Nanostructures. His studies are dedicated to understanding the connection between structure and physical properties; principally electrical transport, magnetism, superconductivity, and mechanical properties. Prof. Schuller has also dedicated considerable effort to popularizing physics through public lectures and educational TV.