Bozovic receives Moore Foundation grant

Ivan Bozovic, an adjunct professor of applied physics at Yale and a physicist at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Brookhaven National Laboratory, will receive a $1.9 million grant to continue his research into high-temperature superconductivity.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation awarded the grant through its Moore Materials Synthesis Investigators program. The funding is for a five-year period. Bozovic is one of only a dozen scientists to receive the award, part of the foundation’s Emerging Phenomena in Quantum Systems initiative.

Bozovic’s work focuses on the fabrication of thin films of superconducting material, using a molecular-beam epitaxy machine of his own design. He and his collaborators have created more than 2,000 thin film samples and performed hundreds of scientific experiments to better understand the materials’ ability to conduct electric current without energy loss.

In addition, Bozovic’s research has yielded a number of discoveries in the realm of interface superconductivity. For example, his experiments have shown that pairs of electrons are present on both sides of the superconductor-to-insulator transition.

“I am very grateful for this grant, which recognizes the importance of methodical work that slowly but steadily improves materials synthesis techniques and sample quality,” Bozovic said.