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Professor Józef Spałek

Józef Spałek

Head of Condensed Matter Theory and Nanophysics Department

Room:448
Telephone:5685
e-mail:ufspalek@if.uj.edu.pl

Description

Prof. Jozef Spałek is the Head of the Department of Condensed Matter Theory and Nanophysics in the Institute of Physics of the Jagiellonian University, and also professor at the AGH University of Science and Technology, both in Kraków. His postdoctoral work was carried out in England (at Imperial College of Science, Technology, and Medicine), in USA (at Purdue University), and in France (CNRS, Universite Paris-Sud, and Universite Paris-Nord). He was also a visiting professor at Purdue University (1988-1990), visiting scholar at Harvard University (1995-1996), and professor at Warsaw University (1991-1998). His research interests are concentrated on quantum materials with strongly correlated electrons and in particular, on theory of high temperature ad heavy-fermion superconductivity. He is also interested in nanophysics. In both topics he proposed a new theoretical approach taking into account the strong correlations among the electrons. Recently, he has become interested also in the subject of emergent phenomena in Nature and related philosophical questions. He published over 240 scientific papers and a number of chapters in specialized monographs.

For his work he was awarded the Maria Skłodowska-Curie Prize of the Polish Academy of Sciences in 1997 and a special fellowship from the Foundation for Polish Science in the years 2003-2007. He is a foreign member of Accademia di Scienze e Lettere based in Milano since 2006. In 2005, Professor Spałek received the Polish Order of Merit, the Polonia Restituta Cross from the President of Poland. He was also awarded the Alessandro Volta Silver Medal by Universita di Pavia for his work for the School “European Doctorate in Physics”. In the period 2004-10 he was a member of the Science Council to the Minister of Science and Higher Education. For the years 2011-14 he has received a special grant TEAM from the Foundation for Polish Science.

Education

  • M.Sc. in Physics 1969, Jagiellonian University.
  • Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics 1974, AGH Technical University.
  • Habilitation in Theoretical Physics 1981, Jagiellonian University.
  • Full Professor of Physics – since 1993.

Positions

  • 1994-now Head of the Condensed Matter Theory and Nanophysics Department in the Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Kraków.
  • 1993-now Full Professor of Physics- Jagiellonian University - Kraków.
  • 1991-96 Professor of Physics at the Warsaw University (Institute of Theoretical Physics).
  • 1986-88 Associate Professor of Physics at AGH University of Science and Technology, Kraków.

INTERNATIONAL VISITS

  • 2000 Visiting Professor at Purdue University, (Dept. of Physics), USA.
  • 1995/96 Visiting scholar at Harvard University, (Dept. of Physics) Cambridge, USA.
  • 1988-90 Visiting Professor at Purdue University, USA (Department of Physics).
  • 1983-84 Post Rouge, Centre National de la Recherché Scientifique, Paris, France.
  • 1978-80 Postdoctoral Fellow, Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, U. K.
  • Multiple short-term visits: Universita di Parma, Universita di Pavia, Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg; Purdue University, CEA-CENG Grenoble.

FUNDED RESEARCH

  • European Grant COST (INTELBIOMAT): Interdisciplinary Approaches to Functional Electronic and Biological Materials (2008 - 2011)
  • European Grant COST P-16: Emergent Behaviour in Correlated Matter (2005 - 2008)
  • Polish Scientific Network (MSSE): Materials with Strongly Correlated Electrons
  • Grants of the Committee for Scientific Research (Poland): 1991-94, 1994-97, 1997-99, 2000-02, 2002-04, 2005-08.
  • Grants of National Science Foundation (USA): 1991-96, and of the Department of Energy (1994-97).
  • Grant Polonium (Polish-French cooperation) 1998-99.

AWARDS

  • Award of Ministry of Higher Education (3 times before 2000) in this: 3rd degree for Ph. D. Thesis, 2nd degree for Habilitation Thesis
  • Special Prize of 3rd Branch of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1984
  • Rector Prizes: at AGH (3 times) and at Jagiellonian University (2010)
  • Maria Skłodowska-Curie Award of the Polish Academy of Sciences, 1997
  • Senior Fellow of the Foundation for Polish Science (Program MISTRZ), 2003 – 2007
  • Special one-year S. Estreicher Scholarship from Jagiellonian University, 2000
  • Individual Prize of Minister of National Education, 1st degree, 2001
  • A. Krzyżanowski Scholarship at Jagiellonian University, 2002
  • Alessandro Volta Medal from Universita di Pavia, for help in establishing Program European Doctorate in Physics, 2003 See certificate
  • Order Polonia Restituta (2nd class), 2005
  • Foreign Member of the Italian Accademia di Scienze e Lettere (Istituto Lombardo) from 2006
  • Laureat, Program TEAM from Foundation for Polish Science, 2011-2014 (finansed till the end of 2013)

Scientific carreer

  • Published over 240 papers in refereed journals
  • Number of citations over 4000
  • Supervised 17 Ph. D. Theses; supervising further 5 at the moment
  • Above 40 invited/plenary talks at scientific conferences

Main scientific achievements:

  • Provided in his Ph. D. Thesis first interpretation of surface magnon excitations observed in spin-wave resonance experiment.
  • Derived the model now known as t-J model, used extensively in high-temperature superconductivity theory.
  • Provided theory of bound magnetic polaron, which included for the first time the effect of thermodynamic fluctuations of spins on its quantum states.
  • Constructed the thermodynamic of the metal-insulator transition within the so-called Gutzwiller (mean-field) approach to the correlated electron systems.
  • Discovered the spin dependence of particle mass in correlated systems, which was experimentally observed in 2005 by Cambridge/Grenoble group.
  • Predicted a new type of quantum critical point (at the border Kondo insulator – non-Fermi liquid).
  • Proposed a new mechanism of spin-triplet pairing based on the Hund's rule exchange.
  • Proposed a new method of calculating electronic properties of nanoscopic systems, based on the exact diagonalization combined with the ab initio approach (EDABI method).

Scientific cooperation:

  • With many European centers (Pavia, Parma, Grenoble, Braunschweig)
  • Purdue University in the United States
  • AGH University of Science and Technology (Kraków, Poland)
  • University of Silesia (Katowice, Poland)

Scientific cooperation:

  • Member of Science Policy Committee in the Ministry of Education & Science (elected by the profession science councils to represent them in this Governmental body in Poland.
  • Member of the Science Council, Ministry of Science and Higher Education for the period 2008-11.
  • Writes poetry (regularly but not frequently).

Recent Publications

  1. M. Zegrodnik, J. Spałek, Spin-triplet pairing induced by Hund’s rule exchange in orbitally degenerate systems: Hartree-Fock approximation, Acta Phys. Polon (2012), submitted;
  2. J. Kaczmarczyk, M. Sadzikowski, and J. Spałek, Conductance spectroscopy of a correlated superconductor in a magnetic field in the Pauli limit: Evidence for strong correlations, Phys. Rev. B 84, 094525 (2011);
  3. J. Kaczmarczyk and J. Spałek, Coexistence of antiferromagnetism and superconduvtivity wit t-J model with strong correlations and nonzero spin polarization, Phys. Rev. B 84, 125140, pp. 1-10 (2011);
  4. H. Bednarski, J. Spałek, Bound-magnetic-polaron molecule in diluted magnetic semiconductors, Phys. Rev. B, submitted;
  5. J. Jędrak, J. Kaczmarczyk, and J. Spałek, Statistically-consistent Gutzwiller approach and its equivalence with the mean-field slave-boson method for correlated systems, Phys. Rev. B, submitted;
  6. J. Spałek, Exchange interaction as the source of superconducting pairing in correlated systems: a brief overview, J. Phys.: Conf. Series 303, 012108, pp. 1-16 (2011);
  7. J. Spałek and A. Ślebarski, What makes a Kondo insulator/semiconductor?, J. Phys.: Conf. Series 273, 012055, pp. 1-4 (2011);
  8. J. Kaczmarczyk, M. Sadzikowski, and J. Spałek, Andreev reflection between a normal metal and the FFLO superconductor II: a self-consistent approach, Physica C 471, 193-198 (2011);
  9. J. Jedrak and J. Spałek, Renormalized mean-field t-J model of high-Tc superconductivity: comparison with experiment, Phys. Rev. B 83, 104512, pp. 1-7 (2011);
  10. J. Kaczmarczyk and J. Spałek, Superconductivity in a correlated system of quasiparticles with spin-dependent masses, in Lectures on the Physics of Strongly Correlated Systems XIV, AIP Conf. Proceedings vol. 1297, pp. 422-427 (2010);
  11. ...

Whole list of publications are possible to download as doc file or as odt file.

Publications in Polish language

  1. J. Spałek,"Jednostki mają służyć fizyce",Postępy Fizyki, 51, zeszyt 5, 272 - 3 (2000).

Selected invited talks (2005-2011)

  • “Spin-split masses and critical behavior of almost localized narrow-band and heavy-fermion systems”, invited talk at Int. Conf. Strongly Correlated Electron Systems (SCES), Vienna, Austria, 2005
  • “Magnetic properties of almost localized fermions revisited: spin dependent masses and quantum critical behavior”, plenary talk at European Conference on Physics of Magnetism, Poznań, 2005
  • “The combined exact-ab initio approach and its application to correlated electronic states and Mott-Hubbard localization in nanoscopic systems”, invited talk, Mott Centennial Conference, University of Cambridge, 2006
  • "From information driven society to curiosity driven society of EU", plenary talk (and member of discussion panel), of the International Conference: The Science and Education in Europe - New possibilities and barriers, Toruń, 2006
  • "Superconductivity with the spin-dependent mass of quasiparticles: BCS, Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state, and Ginzburg-Landau functional" invited talk at International Conference EASTMAG, Kazań, Russia, 2007
  • "Unusual properties of heavy electrons", invited talk at International Conference Journees des Actinides, Sesimbra, Portugal, 2007
  • "Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov superconducting state of paired quasiparticles with the spin dependent masses", invited talk at International Workshop & Conference: Concepts in Electronic Correlation, Hvar, Croatia, 2008
  • "Superconductivity is hot", special plenary talk at The International Conference of Physics Students (ICPS), Kraków, 2008
  • "Verwey transition in magnetite at high pressure: A new quantum critical point at the metallization?", plenary talk at General Workshop of the COST P16 - ECOM Action, Santander, Spain, 2008
  • "Superconducting states in strongly correlated systems with nonstandard quasiparticles and real space pairing: an unconventional Fermi-liquid limit", invited talk at International Conference "Statistical Physics: Modern Trends and Applications", Lwow, Ukraine, 2009
  • "Exact diagonalization - ab initio approach to correlated fermion systems", invited talk at International Workshop on DMFT and Related Methods, Dresden, 2009
  • "FFLO state for nonstandard quasipartlicles", invited talk at COST P-16 (ECOM) MEETING: Emergent Behaviour in Correlated Systems: Present and Prospects, Kraków, 2009
  • “Exchange interaction as the source of pairing in correlated electron systems” half-plenary talk at Joint European Magnetic Symposia (JEMS 2010), Kraków, 2010
  • "Exchange-interaction induced pairing in strongly correlated systems: a statistically consistent mean-field approach", plenary talk at the 14th Czech and Slovak Conference on Magnetism, Kosice (Slovakia), 2010
  • Lectures and tutorials at the European School of Magnetism, Timisoara, Romania, 2010
  • "Exchange-interaction induced pairing in strongly correlated systems: A statistically consistent mean-field approach for t-J model and Kondo-type pairing", invited lecture at International School of Theoretical Physics "Correlations and Coherence at Different Scales", Ustroń, 2010
  • “Superconductivity in strongly correlated systems: comparison to experiment”, plenary talk at the European Conference on Physics of Magnetism, Poznań, 2011
  • “Renormalized mean field approach to high-temperature superconductivity: comparison to experiment”, invited talk, Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism, 2011
  • "Emergent Character of the Laws of Nature and Hierarchical Structure of Science", plenary talk (and chairman of the discussion panel) at SHP – Humboldt Kolleg: How Science Spies on and Technology Imitates Nature, Gdańsk, 2011
  • "From atoms to the nanoworld", plenary talk at International Conference: Science, Technology, and Higher Education in Conceptual Age, Kraków, 2011
  • "Emergent Character of the Laws of Nature and Hierarchical Structure of Science", invited lecture at the Center for Science of Information, Purdue University, USA, 2011 (film made out of the lecture and presentation)

Selected earlier invited talks

  • International Conference of Magnetism, 1985, San Francisco, USA
  • International Conference of Condensed Matter Division, European Physical Society, Regensburg (1993) and Pisa (1996)
  • "From atoms to nanoworld", plenary talk (and member of discussion panel) at 6th International Congress of Societas Humboldtiana Polonorum, Kraków 2004
  • Plenary talks at the Congresses of the Polish Physical Society (Poznań, Toruń, Warszawa, Szczecin)

Hobbies

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Direct city number: (+48 12) 663 + inner number