Farewell message from Iao-Fai Io

Our colleague, Iao-Fai Io, will be returning to National Taiwan University starting in May to complete his Ph.D. We will miss him and wish him all the best in his future career.

Here is a message from Iao-Fai:

I joined iTHEMS in May 2025 as an International Program Associate (IPA). Over the past year, I have been very happy to be part of the iTHEMS member.

RIKEN is one of national research institute in Japan, during my time here I had the opportunity to attend many high-quality seminars and workshops. I have also had the opportunity to visit and interact with member from different centers in RIKEN(such as CEMS, FQSP, RQC, etc.). I am also very grateful for the “coffee meetings” and “iTHEMS Now & Next” events, which helped me understand iTHEMS and learn about research which is beyond my own field.

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my host researcher, Dr. Ching-Kai Chiu. He has taught me a great deal about research, particularly in superconductivity and altermagnetism, which has significantly improved my research abilities in condensed matter theory. Whenever I encountered difficulties in my research, he was always willing to discuss them with me and suggest valuable advice. I am also grateful to him for introducing me his collaborators, including Congcong Le (a former iTHEMS member) and collaborators from China. In addition, I would like to thank him for his support during my visits abroad.

I would also like to thank Tomoko Iwanami-san and Chikako Ota-san for their administrative support. In addition, I am grateful to all the people I have met at iTHEMS over the past year (such as Yan, Xiaoyang, Duc-Truyen, Tianyin, Zhe, Jinyang, Rumi, Yuta, Brian, Shuntaro, Lingxiao, Muzi, Sho, Satsuki, Iso, Haruki, Tada, Hatsuda, etc.).

Over the coming year, I will return to National Taiwan University to complete my Ph.D., while also beginning to apply for postdoctoral positions. In the future, if I have the opportunity, I would be happy to visit RIKEN iTHEMS again. I sincerely hope to see you all again in the near future.