Marie Curie Fellowship lets Sam Holt delve deeper into magnetic structures

Sam Holt, a postdoc in the Scientific Support Unit Computational Science, has been awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Fellowship. The funding will allow him to explore new and novel magnetic structures with the aid of advanced software and machine learning techniques. 

Sam studied physics and completed his PhD at the University of Warwick in the UK. For his PhD, he worked on the UK Skyrmion Project, investigating and characterizing these topological knots in magnetic fields, and the materials in which they are found. He then began to work on the simulation of skyrmions at the University of Southampton with Hans Fangohr, now head of the SSU Computational Science, where the team also developed new simulation software.

In 2022, Sam came to the MPSD as a visiting scientist and became a research fellow at the Institute in 2023. He has since started work on the MaMMoS project – an ambitious open source-software platform for the simulation and development of more environmentally friendly magnetic materials.

Sam relishes his research on magnetic structures, which relies on advanced computational techniques to explore their physics: “What captures my interest is the complexity of the field, its potential practical applications, and its position at the cutting edge of materials physics. Topological magnetism, including phenomena like skyrmions, is under investigation for its promise in creating energy-efficient data storage and advancing spintronic devices.”

He feels deeply honoured to receive a Marie Curie Fellowship: “It’s a gateway to expanding my research horizons and it will allow me to pursue groundbreaking research in topological magnetic structures. It also opens up invaluable collaboration opportunities with a community of international physicists and I look forward to the discoveries this journey will bring.”