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Adolfo Grushin is one of the 10 CNRS laureates at the ERC Consolidator call 2021 for his project TOPOMORPH.

Topological states of matter are one of the most robust phases of matter. Topological insulators for example display robust phenomena different from normal insulators: while neither can’t conduct electricity in their interior, topological insulators can conduct electricity at their surface. This property is exceptionally robust to material imperfections and is hence key to ground-breaking technologies, possibly even quantum computation. Even though we are surrounded by amorphous materials in our everyday life is, from solar cells to computer memories, scientists have only discovered topological phases in nearly perfect crystals. This marks a limit to our understanding of quantum phenomena, and the technology we can build using them. 

With this project, Adolfo Grushin aims to establish the theory of topological amorphous solids and to understand how they differ from their crystalline cousins. The goal is to establish a breakthrough in our understanding of quantum materials, and to open up a path to cheap and scalable quantum technologies.