People

Andrea Damascelli is a Professor in UBC’s Department of Physics & Astronomy and a Tier I Canada Research Chair in the Electronic Structure of Quantum Materials. From 2015 through 2025, he served as Scientific Director of the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (QMI) and as co-Director of the Max Planck-UBC-UTokyo Centre for Quantum Materials. As QMI Scientific Director, he led the UBC effort that resulted in a $66.5 million Canada First Research Excellence Fund award for Quantum Materials and Future Technologies.

Andrea and his team develop advanced angle-resolved photoemission and resonant x-ray scattering techniques, pushing the boundaries of spectroscopy to map, understand, and control how electrons behave in complex solids—with particular emphasis on cuprates, nickelates, ruthenates, iridates, and other quantum materials—and to uncover new quantum phenomena. Leveraging facilities established at QMI in the UBC-Moore Centre for Ultrafast Quantum Matter and at the Quantum Materials Spectroscopy Centre (QMSC) at the Canadian Light Source, his group probes and controls electronic structure through in situ adatom deposition, strain, and ultrafast pulsed laser excitation.

Andrea’s work has received broad international recognition, including Sloan, Killam, Guggenheim, and NSERC Steacie Memorial Fellowships, the Humboldt Foundation’s Bessel Research Award, the CAP-DCMMP Brockhouse Medal, the Ingegno Italiano Award, and UBC’s Jacob Biely Research Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, the American Physical Society, the European Academy of Sciences, and the CIFAR Quantum Materials Program, as well as a Kavli Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences. In 2025, he was also selected as one of The Quantum 100, recognizing individuals whose careers reflect the breadth and impact of the global quantum community.