Driving topology, hunting Majoranas

The study of topology in condensed matter is a rapidly growing field.

From classifying the possible topological insulators and superconductors to ab-initio calculations of realizable materials.

In this talk I will use simple language to introduce the subject and survey some recent proposals. In the first part of my talk I will focus on ideas in which a topologically trivial system is driven into a topological phase.  In the second part I will discuss the possibility of realizing topological superconductors in two dimensions which support Majorana Fermions in their vortex cores.