Falling Walls Falling Walls Science Summit 2023

Breaking the Wall of Building with Molecules

Stefan Tautz

Engineering & Technology

The nominating institution Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH on the breakthrough:

Playing LEGO with molecules promises to be an appealing approach to facile fabrication of unusual nanostructures. Attractive quantum functionalities have been shown, but there is a problem: Molecules defy intuitive handling, their behaviour is hard to predict. To address this challenge, we have developed an artificial intelligence that is able to learn pertinent rules of molecular bricklaying and succeeds in the autonomous fabrication of a desired structure – a breakthrough in nanofabrication.

Tags: Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Quantum Technologies, Robotic, Machine Learning, Reinforcement Learning, Nanoscience, Nanotechnology, Nanofabrication, Molecular Machines, Molecular Electronics, Scanning Probe Microscopy.

Stefan Tautz

Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, Peter Grünberg Institute

Following undergraduate studies in Physics in Hamburg, Stefan Tautz obtained a MPhil in Theoretical Physics and a PhD in Low Temperature Physics, both at the University of Cambridge. After a post-doc at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, he took up a position at TU Ilmenau in Germany. In 2001, he became Associate Professor of Physics at International University Bremen (as of 2007: Jacobs University), from where he moved to Forschungszentrum Jülich to become director of the Peter Grünberg Institute and Professor at RWTH Aachen University in 2007. His research interest is Quantum Nanoscience.

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