Fall 2026 eQMA Workshop
Harnessing Entanglement in Quantum Materials
October 28 - 30, 2026

eQMA Workshop – Fall 2026

Harnessing Entanglement in Quantum Materials

Wednesday, October 28 – Friday, October 30, 2026
Bioscience Research Collaborative (BRC)
Rice University

Registration is now closed

Agenda

  • Venue: BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) – Rice University

Wednesday, October 28

  • 8:15–8:45 Coffee, light breakfast and registration

Welcome Session

  • 8:45–9:00 Opening remarks: Amy Dittmar (Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs, Rice U.) & David Sholl (Executive Vice President for Research, Rice U.)

Session I – Quantum materials I
(Chair: Pengcheng Dai, Rice U.)

  • 9:00–9:30 Jennifer Cano (Stony Brook U.) - “Accelerated discovery of topological moiré and superlattice materials”
  • 9:30–10:00 Ming Yi (Rice U.) – “Flat band systems in quantum materials”
  • 10:00–10:30 Filip Ronning (LANL) – “How do Kondo singlets become entangled in heavy fermions?”
  • 10:30–11:00 Group photo & Coffee break

Session II – Quantum Information Structures
(Chair: Yonglong Xie, Rice U.)

  • 11:00–11:30 Charlotte Boettcher (Stanford U.) – “Qubits meet quantum phase transitions”
  • 11:30–12:00 Songtao Chen (Rice U.) – “Cavity-enhanced spin-photon interface in silicon”
  • 12:00–12:15 Blitz poster preview (1 minute per poster)
  • 12:15–2:15 Lunch and Poster Session I

Session III – Entanglement witnesses for quantum materials
(Chair: Qimiao Si, Rice U.)

  • 2:15–2:45 Meigan Aronson (UBC, Canada) – “Metallic Sc3Mn3Al7Si5: Quantum spin liquid on the kagome lattice”
  • 2:45–3:15 Yiming Wang (U. Toronto, Canada) – “Strange metallicity and quantum criticality: Multipartite entanglement and its retrieval by cavity light”
  • 3:15–3:45 Alan Tennant (U. Tennessee, Knoxville) – “Quantum information and inference from experiment”
  • 3:45–4:15 Coffee break

Session IV – Quantum Systems & ARO
(Chair: Ming Yi, Rice U.)

  • 4:15–4:45 Tarun Grover (UC San Diego) – “Zipping quantum matter”
  • 4:45–5:15 Mahesh Neupane (Army Research Office) – “Overview: ARO Solid State program”
  • 5:15–5:45 Mahesh Neupane (Army Research Office) and TBA – Q&A, Panel Discussion

Thursday, October 29

  • 8:15–8:45 Coffee, light breakfast and registration

Session V – Quantum materials II
(Chair: TBA)

  • 8:45–9:15 Hanyu Zhu (Rice U.) – “Spin-boson coupling and entanglement in rare-earth insulators”
  • 9:15–9:45 Jian-Xin Zhu (LANL) – ““Electronic structure and optical properties of rare-earth systems”
  • 9:45–10:15 Pengcheng Dai (Rice U.) – “Spin nematic liquid crystal and scalar spin chirality in tetragonal lattice YbMnBi2”
  • 10:15–10:45 Coffee break

Session VI – AI for quantum materials
(Chair: TBA)

  • 10:45–11:15 Sinéad Griffin (LBNL) – "Quantum correlations without crystalline order”
  • 11:15–11:45 Geoffroy Hautier (Rice U.) – “Finding the perfect imperfection: Accelerating the search for quantum defects using high-throughput computing”
  • 11:45–12:00 Yuan Ping (University of Wisconsin Madison) – "Coherence and dissipation on an equal footing: electron–phonon coupling in quantum geometry and magnetism"
  • 12:00–12:15 Blitz poster preview (1 minute per poster)
  • 12:15–2:15 Lunch and Poster Session II

Session VII – Low dimensional systems and quantum control
(Chair: TBA)

  • 2:15–2:45 Christian Degen (ETH Zürich, Switzerland) – “Imaging electron hydrodynamics in room-temperature graphene”
  • 2:45–3:15 Yonglong Xie (Rice U.) – “Local compressibility measurements of graphene heterostructures”
  • 3:15–3:45 Valla Fatemi (Cornell U.) – “Towards millikelvin-temperature mm-wave spectroscopy of quantum materials in cavities”
  • 3:45–4:15 Coffee break

Session VIII – Light-matter coupling
(Chair: TBA)

  • 4:15–4:45 Gregory Fuchs (Cornell U.) – “Quantum and nonlinear magnonics”
  • 4:45–5:15 James Mclver (Columbia U.) – “Cavity electrodynamics of van der Waals heterostructures”
  • 5:15–5:45 Ankit Disa (Cornell U.) – “Engineering polar order through ultrastrong THz light-matter coupling”
  • 5:45-6:00 Kiran Kulkarni (Rice) – “Counter-Rotating Interaction and Ground State Squeezing of Landau Levels in a Chiral Terahertz Cavity”

Friday, October 30

  • 8:15–8:45 Coffee, light breakfast and registration

Session IX – Quantum probes and entanglement
(Chair: Valla Fatemi, Cornell U.)

  • 8:45–9:15 Chunhui (Rita) Du (GA Tech.) – “Quantum sensing of quantum materials”
  • 9:15–9:45 Andrew Higginbotham (U. Chicago) – “Probing and controlling quantum Josephson metamatter”
  • 9:45–10:15 Amir Yacoby (Harvard U.) – “Probing and controlling isospin order with an Andreev cavity”
  • 10:15–10:45 Coffee break

Session X – Quantum materials III
(Chair: Filip Ronning, LANL)

  • 10:45–11:15 James Analytis (UC Berkeley) – “Unstable itinerancy: how a pinch of disorder can delocalize carriers of charge and entropy to drive unconventional superconductivity”
  • 11:15–11:45 Stephen Wilson (UCSB) – “Dual frustration and emergent order in LnCd3P3 compounds”
  • 11:45–12:00 Mit Naik (UT Austin)
    – “Quasi-one-dimensional taco-shaped flat bands at a magic angle in twisted bilayer transition metal dichalcogenides”
  • 12:00–12:15 Prakash Sharma (Emory) – “Transport-noise witness of electronic multipartite entanglement”
  • 12:15-12:30 Wrap-up and poster prizes
  • 12:30–1:30 Lunch

Poster of eQMA Fall Workshop

Rationale & Scope

Quantum entanglement is a foundational resource of quantum information science, yet robust methods for certifying and harnessing it in many-body settings are still emerging. A critical recent advance is the recognition that spin quantum Fisher information (QFI) provides a rigorous, experimentally accessible witness that can certify multipartite entanglement in condensed matter. Extractable from inelastic neutron scattering and related spectroscopies, the QFI is strongly enhanced in highly collective systems such as strange metals. This breakthrough has opened a concrete path towards quantifying and controlling entanglement in bulk quantum materials for the first time.


This workshop will cover a variety of materials platforms, with a particular focus on systems hosting active flat electronic bands that may well be topological. A related focus is on the highly tunable regime of quantum materials, where external stimuli can reshape the effective Hamiltonian and steer entanglement on demand. Certifying, controlling, and ultimately harnessing this entanglement could unleash next-generation quantum technology.


The workshop will survey the recent progress and future prospects for research in this emerging cross-cutting field. It will bring together experts and early-career researchers from communities with varied perspectives involving a broad range of materials and device platforms, which include:

  • Quantum entanglement in condensed-matter systems
  • Entanglement witnesses
  • Strange metals and other highly collective quantum materials
  • Interplay between strong correlations and topology
  • Quantum light coupling to matter


Specific core questions to be explored during the workshop include:

  • The extent to which quantum information tools can advance the understanding of highly collective quantum materials.
  • The prospect of quantum materials in the highly collective regime to realize new capacities for quantum technologies.

Format & Registration

The workshop will span nearly three days, incorporating invited speaker slots as well as two poster sessions to engage junior participants. Several contributed talks will be selected from submitted abstracts. The scientific program will begin the morning of Wednesday, October 28, and conclude by mid-afternoon on Friday, October 30.


Registration Fees:
• Rice University Attendees: $60
• Non-Rice Attendees: $230
• Fee waived for invited speakers and eQMA/RCQM/SCI faculty.


Junior Fellowships: A limited number of travel/junior fellowships are available to support participation from non-Rice early-career researchers.

Confirmed Invited Speakers and Panelists

James G. Analytis (UC Berkeley)
Meigan Aronson (UBC, Canada)
Charlotte Boettcher (Stanford U.)
Jennifer Cano (Stony Brook U.)
Songtao Chen (Rice U.)
Pengcheng Dai (Rice U.)
Christian Degen (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Ankit S Disa (Cornell U.)
Chunhui (Rita) Du (GA Tech)
Valla Fatemi (Cornell U.)
Gregory Fuchs (Cornell U.)
Sinéad Griffin (LBNL)
Tarun Grover (UCSD)
Geoffroy Hautier (Rice U.)
Andrew Higginbotham (U. Chicago)
James McIver (Columbia U.)
Mahesh Neupane (ARO)
Filip Ronning (LANL)
Alan Tennant (U. Tennessee, Knoxville)
Yiming Wang (U. Toronto, Canada)
Stephen Wilson (UCSB)
Yonglong Xie (Rice U.)
Amir Yacoby (Harvard U.)
Ming Yi (Rice U.)
Hanyu Zhu (Rice U.)
Jian-Xin Zhu (LANL)
(Additional speakers to be announced)

Organizers

Pengcheng Dai (Rice University)
Valla Fatemi (Cornell University)
Filip Ronning (Los Alamos National Lab)
Qimiao Si (Rice University)
Yonglong Xie (Rice University)
Ming Yi (Rice University)


For questions regarding the scientific program, please contact one of the organizers.
For accommodations and logistical support, please reach out to Vivian Moyeda at eqma@rice.edu.