[INVITED LECTURE] Assoc. Prof. Damjan Pelc
Assoc. Prof. Damjan Pelc
Associate Professor, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, University of Zagrebe
"The importance of side projects: science and luck"
The progress of science is largely incremental: ideas and experiments follow each other and lead to novel insights in a fairly well-defined pattern. Yet it occasionally happens that an accidental discovery or unexpected development pushes research in new directions and provides fresh perspectives. Such lucky accidents often arise from side projects – small and risky efforts on the sidelines of major research programs. Although most side projects fizzle eventually, the ones that do not can sometimes be truly transformative.
In this talk I will describe several side projects that I have been involved in during my career as a condensed matter physicist, which have yielded interesting and important results far beyond their initial ambitions. Along the way, I will show how side projects can lead to the development of new techniques and collaborations, and even turn into proper large-scale programs. Although the pursuit of multiple side projects has its downsides, I will argue that, on balance, fortune indeed does favor the bold, and that it pays to keep one’s mind open to unexpected possibilities.
Assoc. Prof. Damjan Pelc
Damjan Pelc obtained his master’s and PhD in experimental condensed matter physics at the University of Zagreb, where he is a faculty member since 2019. His research focuses on the quantum properties of materials, including exotic superconductivity and magnetism, with the use of several complementary experimental techniques. His group actively collaborates with scientists across the globe, especially in the USA, where they are conducting experiments at some of the largest x-ray and neutron scattering facilities worldwide. The importance of his research has been recognized through several awards, most recently the Croatian National Science Prize for work on plastic deformation of quantum materials.