Sustainable Development Goals at Baku State University.

Mahammad Babanli, a Corresponding Member of the Azerbaijan National Academy of Sciences and Head of the Science Support Department at the Institute of Chemistry under the Ministry of Science and Education, delivered a master class to students at Baku State University. The lecture, titled “Some issues of the chemistry and materials science of topological insulators,” was held at the Faculty of Chemistry as part of events dedicated to Science Day in Azerbaijan.

The speaker noted that one of the key priorities of recent multidisciplinary research at the intersection of chemistry, physics, and materials science is the development and study of next-generation inorganic functional materials—topological insulators. These materials represent a unique quantum state of matter: while acting as insulators in their bulk, they exhibit highly spin-polarized conductivity on their surface. Such properties open up new possibilities for advanced fields such as spintronics and topological quantum computing. The potential applications of these materials in terahertz detectors used in medicine and security systems, as well as in next-generation quantum devices, were also highlighted.

Mahammad Babanli emphasized that research in inorganic materials science has been conducted in Azerbaijan for more than 50 years, leading to the formation of a strong scientific school. He noted that systematic studies in the field of topological insulators have been ongoing since 2011, during which Azerbaijani scientists have established broad international collaborations with leading research centers in the European Union and Japan. The results of these collaborations have been reflected in more than 30 high-impact scientific publications indexed in the Web of Science database.

He also added that in 2019, a joint article by Azerbaijani and international scientists titled “Prediction and observation of antiferromagnetic topological insulators” was published in the Nature journal. In 2023, this work was recognized as one of the best scientific papers of the past five years at the International Congress of Basic Science held in Beijing.

The event concluded with discussions and a Q&A session.

SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals)