September 26th, 2025 MIT Physicist Dr. Jagadeesh Moodera :Electron Spin and Superconductivity Drives Information Age and Computing Technology: Quantum Computers

The revolution in information storage, communication, and the recent emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) is growing at an unprecedented rate. To keep up with the demands there needs to be extensive technological development, needing a similar revolution in computer processing, nonvolatile (permanent) memory, in-memory computing as in neuromorphic computing, and sensing. While the electron tunneling phenomenon (due to wave nature of electrons) has richly contributed to our understanding of various branches of physics over the years, electron spin (the magnetic part) tunneling has transformed the magnetic storage industry termed as spintronics. Our fundamental curiosity led to the discovery of tunnel magnetoresistance - large electron spin dependent current flow in magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ, a very sensitive trilayer system consisting of two ultrathin magnetic films separated by a few ‘atomic’ layers of an insulator). This signaled a transformational breakthrough to computer processing/storage industry and sensor technology. This is evident by the exponential increase in data processing and storage capabilities reaching several trillion bits in a standard computer hard drive costing $100. The super sensitive MTJ sensors are making their ubiquitous presence in all sections of society – from AI controlled automobiles to medical diagnostics (magnetic encephalography) to terrestrial and space exploration.

As computing power demands continue to rise, superconducting electronics (SCE) are playing an increasingly important role; essential to progress towards energy-efficient high-end computing and moderate the escalating power consumption by data centers. Such SCE would enable energy efficient supercomputing, and in turn, immensely benefit society, among others, the medical diagnostics and discovery, national security dark matter detection etc. This requires superconducting analogues of semiconducting devices: such as superconducting diode (SD) rectifiers for efficient power delivery, passive nonvolatile superconducting memory and logic devices for operating at cryogenic temperatures (~ – 4600 F). There could be > 1000X reduction in size and power requirement, mitigating the present limitations in superconducting qubit (a basic unit of quantum computing with multi-state capability unlike the classical binary unit, 0 or 1.) stability and scalability, control and readout while achieving complex circuits. Dr. Moodera highlights his recent work in this direction with a variety of thin film superconducting devices such as SD and nonvolatile superconducting memory elements consisting of a superconductor layer subjected to exchange fields (the magnetic interaction at the atomic level) when sandwiched between two magnetic insulators. Development of these nanoscale devices with rich functionality for seamless on-chip integration would open the world for realizing superconducting quantum and classical computers.

MIT Physicist Dr. Jagadeesh Moodera is a Senior Research Scientist and Group Leader in the Physics Department, Francis Bitter Magnet Lab and the Plasma Science and Fusion Center MIT. He is a Distinguished Visiting Professor, IQC, University of Waterloo; Visiting Professor, Applied Physics Department, Technical University of Eindhoven; Distinguished Institute Professor, IIT Madras; and Distinguished Foreign Scientist at NPL, Delhi. His research interests include manipulating electron spin in solids - spin tunneling, spin filtering and interfacial exchange coupling; molecular spintronics - molecular-scale spin memory; ferromagnet/superconductor heterostructure towards superconducting quantum devices and spintronics; quantum transport in topological driven systems and heterostructures: atomic scale interface exchange phenomena - magnetic and electrical transport studies’ and the search for Majorana bound states in unconventional superconductors. He has served on the Board of External Experts at National High Field Lab (Florida, 2018) and High Pulsed Field Lab at Los Alamos Lab (2024); the national research program committees of Austria, France, Holland, England, India and Ireland. Dr. Moodera was Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, and AAAS. He is the recipient of the IBM, TDK Research Awards, and the Oliver E. Buckley Condensed Matter Prize of American Physical Society.

September 12, 2025: Michael Garjian Presents An Alternative to Corporate Capitalism in Managing the Socio-economic Risks of Emerging Technologies

The introduction of any new technology into the marketplace and into our social fabric involves risks. Some risks are technical, some are economic, and others are social. In this new season leadoff meeting of The Wilson Forum, Michael Garjian posits that many of today’s problems are the result of an economic model of corporate capitalism which requires corporations to produce maximum profits and maximum growth for their investors. He will be speaking about how we might implement an alternative, parallel, voluntary, community controlled, economic model he envisioned and designated as E2M on January1, 2000. In August of 2000, Michael formed E2M.org to act as an implementing organization. In 2009, E2M.org received its designation as a federally recognized 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. Michael first spoke publicly about E2M at the request and home of Hampshire College Founding President Greg Prince in 2001, then at public presentations including at the UMass Global Sustainability Festival in 2002, the UMass Amherst Department of Anthropology in 2002; the Boston Social Forum in 2004[1]; a social economics conference at Boston University in 2005; at the Pioneer Valley Relocalization Conference in 2007,[2] and others. In 2003, a community survey named Michael’s office as the third most important cause of the Easthampton, MA Economic Renaissance. During the 2000 to 2008 period of time, the E2M Board created all of the policies, procedures, methods, and organizational structures to create a template for other regions to quickly and easily implement the E2M model in their regions. During that time, Michael’s ideas received commendations by the Mass State Senate President, MA House Representatives, a Member of Congress, other elected officials, local businesses, and community members. In 2010, Michael authored his book “Community Capitalism: How Communities Can Use Capitalism to Create a Shared Economy that Works for Everyone”, included below[3]. Excerpts from the book and other references are included as an attachment that would be useful to read in advance of our meeting.

In 1964, Michael Garjian left the farm to earn a degree in business management from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst Isenberg School of Management. As a lifelong commercial entrepreneur, social entrepreneur, and author, he holds 11 international patents for alternative lighting systems, electronic power supplies, and atmospheric carbon dioxide removal (CDR) systems. As a commercial entrepreneur he and his wife Irene employed 400 associates producing innovations he developed and sold internationally. As a social entrepreneur since 1999, he conceived of and pursued the development of sustainable economic systems while working in community development organizations helping more than one hundred very low-income individuals and refugees start small businesses. Michael and his wife Irene are the founders of CarbonStar Systems, Inc., a Massachusetts domestic benefit corporation (B-Corp). The E2M Board of Directors embraced the CarbonStar mission to use alternative, clean, renewable fuels to develop a sustainable, off-grid source of electricity, heat, biofuels, and fertilizers to act as the anchor industrial tenant in each E2M Regional Economic Cell. The CarbonStar system entered prototype testing status in 2021, was moved into a large manufacturing facility in 2023, and is now ready for initial production runs. Once complete, the current facility has the infrastructure means to build 100 or more CarbonStar systems annually. Thus, it is time to return our attention to the expansion of the E2M model, hopefully as a movement[4] into a new era.