Felipe Herrera

Quantum Technologies with Molecular Materials. Continuously seeking work-life balance. Co-founder of @miroptics. Associate Prof. of Physics @usach.

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Excellent description of how cavity QED can change the way chemistry is done, and the pressing challenges that researchers in the field are facing.

Quotes from me and @MarissaWeichman, Wei Xiong, @oriolvendrell, Angel Rubio and Blake Simpkins.

https://t.co/tk4wUs8kUT

[UBC Science @ubcscience]

Five amazing teachers across UBC Science have been recognized with 2026 Killam Teaching Prizes! Congratulations to Varada Kolhatkar (@UBC_CS), Nadine Borduas-Dedekind & Roman Krems (@UBCChem), Jess McIver & Janis McKenna (@UBCphas). @KillamTrusts

https://t.co/oM6HCWRuaI

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

Researchers used lasers to encode quantum information into a single molecule of carbene—a first step toward a molecular quantum computer.

Learn more: https://t.co/WCSSS4dig8 @NewsfromScience

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

@tdietterich @arxiv This is positive for @arxiv, but some type of coauthorship confirmation step would need to be implemented to prevent misuse.

[Juan Escrig @JuanEscrig]

“Reducir la ciencia a “un libro bonito en una biblioteca” no solo desvaloriza el trabajo de miles de investigadores e investigadoras. Empobrece, además, una discusión crucial para Chile: cómo construimos futuro en lugar de administrarlo”. https://t.co/BZz8JOC84Q

[Fisica_Usach @FisicaUsach]

#DestacamosUSACH Dr. Leonardo Gordillo, académico de nuestro Departamento de Física, destaca como coautor de un artículo publicado en Physical Review Letters, un reconocimiento a trabajos de alto impacto en la disciplina. https://t.co/TKvaYSQEly

[Agencia Nacional de Investigación y Desarrollo @ANID_Chile]

¡Ya están abiertas las postulaciones a #FondecytIniciación 2027! Convocatoria que financia proyectos de investigación individual de 2 a 3 años, en todas las áreas del conocimiento, dirigida a nuevas y nuevos investigadores. Encuentra más información en https://t.co/AXRe9QWPzj

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Ouch!

[Latinometrics @LatamData]

CHILE | Government adjusts fuel price stabilization mechanism, resulting in price hikes of up to 54% to align with global oil volatility.

(Bloomberg)

[Science Magazine @ScienceMagazine]

Following the first independent investigation in 50 years of Monte Verde—a landmark archaeological site in Chile—researchers in Science report that it may be much younger than previously believed.

According to the study, Monte Verde dates from ~8000 to 4000 years old, not 14,500 years, as previously thought. https://t.co/3JRZN0qegn

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Insightful

[Andrew White 🐦‍⬛ @andrewwhite01]

These vague posts about RSI are insufferable, but there really has been a step change with frontier agents. Here are some observations I've seen in 2026:

- One of my former PhD students gave an agent an old ML paper we wrote and the agent trained a better model without intervention.
- I was able to port my chemistry textbook from tensorflow to pytorch with minimal effort using claude code
- I asked codex to convert a reveal.js presentation from HTML to PPTX and it did it with one correction. Not really research, but a task that I didn't even think was possible
- Our internal roadmap at @EdisonSci no longer slips and we're sometimes completing projects early. Maybe we just got better at planning.
- we've internally done things like autoresearch and found similarly that the proposed research ideas and execution are now compelling enough to just run without human intervention.
- both opus 4.6 and 5.4 are able to browse the web much better and have the tenacity to do tasks like "visit every biotech with a TPD, download their pipeline, and add the indication area to a spreadsheet."
- One of my PhD students was able to set-up GRPO training of a multi-turn reasoning model for relaxing crystal structures with a simulation as the reward function. This would normally require a research team and a lot of time, but he did this while managing a newborn and writing his thesis.
- I also notice that the kind of code coming out of LLMs now is code I could never have written. Like its use of heredoc/variable expansion are beyond my CLI brain.

Personally, these observations add up to a big change happening right now and we're on the precipice of some big changes in how research is done.

[Pérez-Ríos group. @JPR_group_AMO]

Atomion Workshop now has a date and location!

It will take place in the picturesque village of Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York 🏝️🗽 from June 8–10.

Regsitrations are now open!!

Website: https://t.co/df9AaFBxoT

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Yes, because America is a whole continent, not a country, as everyone knows.

[SportsCenter @SportsCenter]

"TOGETHER WE ARE AMERICA"

Bad Bunny held out a football with this message written on it at the end of his Super Bowl halftime show 👏

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

@QuantMol Congratulations Michal!

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Inspiring researchers

[NASA Solar System @NASASolarSystem]

🌋 Could lava tubes hide signs of life on Mars?

To find out, NASA researchers went deep beneath Hawai‘i’s volcanoes to study Earth’s own lava tubes – extreme places where life survives. Watch our new documentary, streaming now on NASA+: https://t.co/EYiK36GIBN

[Felipe Herrera @faherreraur]

Avancemos hacia la habilitación infraestructura base que permita investigación de frontera independiente y venceremos.

[Juan Escrig @JuanEscrig]

Excelentes noticias. La Universidad de Santiago de Chile se adjudicó el Programa de Financiamiento Estructural I+D+i Universitario Etapa 2 por $10.400.000.000 CLP para fortalecer sus capacidades de investigación de frontera. https://t.co/mMyNbMDGCt

[Gobierno de Chile @GobiernodeChile]

Chile a la vanguardia de la ciencia en América Latina 🇨🇱🌎

Lanzamos las Estrategias Nacionales de Biotecnología y de Tecnologías Cuánticas 2025-2035 que permitirán a Chile transitar hacia una economía basada en el conocimiento.

[UBC Chemistry @UBCChem]

Congratulations to Dr. Takamasa Momose, who, alongside Susumu Kuma, has been recognized by @PhysicsWorld as one of the Top 10 Breakthroughs of 2025 for observing the superfluid phase in molecular hydrogen for the first time.

🔗 https://t.co/KLIU2JnWg9

[MOF Papers @MOF_papers]

Halogenated Metal–Organic Frameworks for Entangled Photon Pair Generation https://t.co/TipoyFVfhk

[The Nobel Prize @NobelPrize]

"My journey began far from any laboratory. I grew up in Amman, Jordan, in a refugee family of ten children, in a home with no running water and no electricity, sharing our space with livestock, our family’s livelihood. Hardship was everywhere. My chances for success were slim—except for the surprising ways nature reveals itself and helps us overcome.

My turning point came at the age of ten, when I discovered drawings of molecules in my school library. Their beauty and mystery captivated me, and when I learned that they are the building blocks of everything, living and non-living, they ignited my passion for chemistry, and I was hooked forever. It became my escape and my direction."

In his Nobel Prize banquet speech, chemistry laureate Omar Yaghi spoke about his journey to becoming a scientist and laureate.

Read the full banquet speech: https://t.co/Wz517i2Lg9

[Johan Triana @hjoxan]

🚨🚨
New Preprint: "Enhancing Infrared Laser Dissociation of Molecules with the Electromagnetic Vacuum".

We present an analysis of infrared photodissociation by driving either the molecule or the photonic mode inside a cavity that remains in VSC.

https://t.co/rRM23DZB1R

[Juan Escrig @JuanEscrig]

Un enorme agradecimiento a todas y todos quienes hicieron posible el IV Festival de Ciencia. Ver el campus lleno de niñas, niños y familias nos recuerda el hermoso desafío que tenemos: abrir aún más nuestras puertas y ser una Usach más humana, cercana y conectada con la sociedad.