BAYLAT / FAPESP – Workshop for Young Researchers

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28. April 2026

Prof. Abner de Siervo (Unicamp) and Prof. Hans-Peter Steinrück (FAU) jointly submitted a BAYLAT / FAPESP application for two workshops on “Innovative routes to low-dimensional materials“. Aim of the funding scheme is promoting young scientists and initiating or strengthening cooperation between Bavaria and the state of São Paulo in Brazil.

The application was successful and the first workshop took place from April 20-25, 2026, at Unicamp in Campinas, Brazil, The second workshop is planned for September 2027 at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg.

The two joint workshops are intended to promote the advancement of young researchers in Sao Paulo and Bavaria, with a focus on networking and gaining knowledge and experience in the international environment of cutting-edge research. The two PIs are supported by four mentors, Profs. Tulio Rocha/Sirius and Carlos Graeff/UNESP from São Paulo, as well as Profs. Barbara Lechner/TU Munich and Willi Auwärter/TU Munich).

The target group included doctoral candidates who are about to complete their work as well as postdocs, habilitation candidates and junior professors (or recently appointed professors) up to 10 years after their doctorate.

16 participants from 10 research groups at FAU, Universität Würzburg and TU München (Bavaria) joined 25 participants from the state of Sao Paolo and experienced a perfectly organized workshop with excellent scientific contributions (5 plenary talks, 8 invited talks, 19 contributed talks and 9 posters), a most interesting visit to the large-scale 4^th generation synchrotron facility SIRIUS, lab visits at Unicamp, and an excursion to São Paulo. In addition to intense scientific discussions, there was amble time for addressing international research funding and exchange programs as well as career planning.

The research topic “Innovative routes to low-dimensional materials” is highly timely and interdisciplinary. Since the beginnings of atomic and molecular sciences, enormous efforts have been made to produce, characterize and manipulate low-dimensional materials at the atomic and molecular level. This control makes it possible to explore and influence new electronic, magnetic and chemical properties of matter. The combination of various experimental methods and the corresponding theories enables the control of individual atoms on different substrates and opens up the possibility of investigating the quantum properties of nanomaterials. The focus of the workshop was on the production of low-dimensional structures by so-called “on-surface” synthesis on metal substrates, and on related topics.

The organizers acknowledge support from BAYLAT, FAPESP, FAU, IFGW-Unicamp, AVACO, the Blumenau-Niesel-Stiftung and Wirtschafts- und WissenschaftsZentrum Brasilien-Deutschland e. V..