Module manager: Oscar Cespedes
Email: O.Cespedes@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
Second year solid state physics or equivalent knowledge of electronic structure/materials science (e.g. reciprocal space)
This module is not approved as an Elective
The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to outstanding discoveries in the discipline. In this module we will explore the science behind some of the prizes awarded to materials science topics, considering the research background and technical inventions that led to those discoveries and how they have transformed our understanding, economy and/or society. The module will focus on nanotechnology, computing and sustainability discoveries, making use of solid-state fundamentals to unravel these revolutionary innovations.
You will gain an understanding of key breakthroughs in materials science that have lead to Nobel prizes in Physics and changes in everyday’s technologies, such as e.g. AI, illumination, computing,
sensing or energy generation.
You will learn how to present critically a research result from a Nobel prize level publication, e.g. discuss a figure from a paper to questions from the class.
You will learn how to discuss critically technological and/or societal changes that a Nobel prize has lead to by recording a presentation on these changes as related to the award.
You will improve your scientific writing skills by preparing a critical report on further studies corroborating, advancing or discrediting the research that has lead to a Nobel prize.
Upon completion of this module you will:
1. Be able to describe the fundamentals behind, and the impact on sustainability of, technological advances such as neural networks for AI, the blue light emitting diode, topological materials, CCD detectors and magnetoresistive sensors.
2. Outline the significance of Nobel prizes in materials science in changing our understanding of nature.
3. State which technique or theory advances resulted from the Nobel award examples studied.
4. Analyse how earlier results allowed for the discoveries in Nobel awards.
5. Evaluate critically whether socio-technological advances would otherwise have been possible without these Nobel award contributions.
6. Judge the societal benefits that Nobel discoveries have led to and how they balance with unintended/unforeseen consequences
Academic Skills:
a. Academic writing (essay) and critical thinking in the analysis of literature through presentation and poster.
Digital Skills:
b. Search of literature (Web of Science), referencing and establishing links between different research work.
c. Influence of physics in AI and machine learning, e.g. neural networks.
Sustainability Skills:
d. Knowledge on how Nobel prizes in Materials Science have contributed to lower energy, less wasteful, and/or more environmentally friendly technologies.
e. Considerations on the extraction and use of different materials, and on how sustainability plays a role in research in the field (both objectives and means) nowadays.
Enterprise and work ready skills:
f. Oral presentation on how research topics studied have led to societal and economic change.
Technical skills:
g. Learning of the experimental techniques, instruments and large-scale facilities that made possible the research, e.g. synchrotrons and ultra-fast measurements.
- Physics of diodes, the role of impurities and crystallinity in sustainable light emission.
- The photoelectric effect in charge capacitive devices for light detection.
- Spin-dependent electron transport: magnetoresistive effects and how they revolutionised information storage.
- Physics behind the sustainability of the Internet.
- Artificial neural networks: solid state pathways and contributions to the future of AI.
- The Quantum Hall Effect and its evolutions leading to graphene and 2-dimensional devices.
- Introduction to the phenomenology of topological materials.
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Supervision | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Lecture | 5 | 1 | 5 |
| Practical | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Seminar | 7 | 1 | 7 |
| Private study hours | 124 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 26 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 150 | ||
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Poster Presentation | Poster presentation to lecturer and other students on module | 33 |
| Presentation | Pre-recorded 15 minute video | 33 |
| Report | 2000 word essay | 34 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Resits will be an equivalent piece of homework. In the case of the class presentation poster, this will be presented to the lecturer.
The reading list is available from the Library website
Last updated: 07/05/2025
Errors, omissions, failed links etc should be notified to the Catalogue Team