Scientists from the Department of Physics and Astronomy discovered surprising role of magnetic defects in topological insulators. By performing “inelastic neutron scattering” (INS) experiments at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, the team identified the magnetic interactions in dilute magnetic systems. More importantly, the interactions are found to be generally applicable to a wide range of topological insulators and explains the evolution of magnetism in such systems. The research is now published in Advanced Materials. Congratulations to Farhan Islam, Yongbin Lee, JinSu Oh, Lin Zhou, Liqin Ke, Robert J. McQueeney, and David Vaknin of Ames National Laboratory and Iowa State University; Daniel M. Pajerowski, Jiaqiang Yan, and Wei Tian of Oak Ridge National Laboratory.