Nicola Spaldin is a professor and the head of the Materials Theory Group at ETH Zurich. She is internationally known for conceiving and developing a new class of “two in one” materials – multiferroics – which are both ferroelectric and ferromagnetic, allowing for both storing and processing of information in the same component. Using computer models and specialised facilities for the synthesis of multiferroics, Nicola and her interdisciplinary group are further developing these materials that are promising a novel generation of technologies that are lighter, smaller and more energy-efficient.