James Day · Research Associate, QMI UBC

About

I am an experimental condensed matter physicist and Senior Scientist at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute (QMI) at the University of British Columbia. My research centres on low-temperature quantum materials, especially through scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM) in the Laboratory for Atomic Imaging Research (LAIR), where I study electronic behaviour at atomic scales. Earlier in my career, I also worked on microwave spectroscopy in high-T_c superconductors and on the unusual quantum properties of solid helium.

But my work has never been only about instruments or materials. I am also drawn to the human side of science: how people learn, how curiosity is cultivated, and how research becomes more meaningful when it is connected to culture, creativity, and community. Alongside my lab-based work, I contribute to physics education research and coordinate Ars Scientia, a program that brings scientists and artists into genuine dialogue. I care about science as a human endeavour — one that is rigorous, imaginative, and richer when it is inclusive, reflective, and open to the world. Science is a conversation between rigour and imagination.

Research

Experimental Condensed Matter Physics

My experimental research focuses on quantum materials at low temperatures, with an emphasis on scanning tunnelling microscopy and spectroscopy. I am interested in how electronic states emerge, evolve, and organize themselves in complex materials, and in what atomic-scale measurements can reveal about their underlying physics. My work is grounded in the careful use of low-temperature tools to probe matter where structure, disorder, and quantum behaviour intersect.

Although my main focus is now STM, my background also includes microwave studies of unconventional superconductors and foundational work on solid helium. That earlier work still shapes how I think: experimentally, skeptically, and with an appreciation for systems that resist simple explanation.

Physics Education Research

My work in physics education research explores how students learn to reason scientifically, especially in laboratory settings. I have contributed to research on invention activities, metacognitive scaffolding, data processing and uncertainty, and the design of first-year lab experiences that support more authentic scientific thinking. I am especially interested in learning environments that help students become more reflective, capable, and intellectually independent.

I also care about participation and belonging in physics, including how lab structures can shape student experience in uneven ways. For me, good physics education is not only about transmitting content; it is about building environments where more students can enter the conversation seriously and confidently.

Program at QMI · UBC

Ars Scientia

Ars Scientia is a program at the Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute that explores the meeting place between scientific research and artistic practice. Through residencies, public conversations, and collaborative projects, it creates space for scientists and artists to think alongside one another rather than simply borrow from one another.

The aim is not to turn art into illustration or science into metaphor, but to ask what each practice can genuinely illuminate in the other. Ars Scientia begins from the belief that curiosity, discipline, and openness to uncertainty are shared virtues. Science is a conversation between rigour and imagination. Ars Scientia takes that idea seriously.

This work depends on support. Programs like Ars Scientia need donors and partners who believe that research culture is strengthened when science is placed in conversation with the wider human world. Support helps create the time, space, and conditions for artists and researchers to explore questions together in ways that neither could fully do alone.

If you are an artist curious about quantum matter, a researcher interested in creative practice, or a potential supporter who wants to help sustain this work, I would be glad to hear from you.

Publications

A full list of publications, citations, and co-authors is available on Google Scholar. My doctoral thesis is available through the UBC Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Contact

Email: jday@phas.ubc.ca
Office: BRIM 374
Mailing Address: Stewart Blusson Quantum Matter Institute
2355 East Mall
Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Canada