Recent news

Mar 2024

Hong-Zhou's paper Adsorption and Vibrational Spectroscopy of CO on the Surface of MgO from Periodic Local Coupled-Cluster Theory is published in Faraday Discussions.

Mar 2024

March Meeting awards! Congratulations to Sohang, who is the recipient of the 2024 Justin Jankunas Doctoral Dissertation Award in Chemical Physics, and to LaToya, who received an APS Top Presenter Award in the undergraduate sessions!

Mar 2024

Former PhD student Yeongsu Cho will begin as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Houston in Fall 2024!

Feb 2024

Dipti's paper Nonperturbative Simulation of Anharmonic Rattler Dynamics in Type-I Clathrates with Vibrational Dynamical Mean-Field Theory is posted to the arXiv, demonstrating accurate phonon spectra of atomistic systems with very low cost.

Jan 2024

Bryan's paper Optical Properties of Defects in Solids via Quantum Embedding with Good Active Space Orbitals is published in J. Phys. Chem. C and featured on the cover!

Jan 2024

Petra's paper Theory of Acoustic Polarons in the Two-Dimensional SSH Model Applied to the Layered Superatomic Semiconductor Re6Se8Cl2 is posted to the arXiv—a follow-up to our recent paper in Science.

Jan 2024

Ethan and Xiao's paper Performance of periodic EOM-CCSD for band gaps of inorganic semiconductors and insulators is published in J. Chem. Phys. and featured on the cover!


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Group Members

Tim

Timothy Berkelbach

Principal Investigator

Postdoc, Princeton University (2014-2016)
Ph.D. Columbia University (2014)
B.A. NYU (2009)

t.berkelbach@columbia.edu

Sylvia

Sylvia Bintrim

Graduate Student

NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2019-2022)
B.S. Penn State (2019)

sjb2225@columbia.edu

Diana

Diana Chamaki

Graduate Student

B.A. UC Berkeley (2021)

d.chamaki@columbia.edu

Dipti

Dipti Jasrasaria

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D. UC Berkeley (2022)
M.Phil. University of Cambridge (2017)
A.B. Harvard University (2016)

dj2667@columbia.edu

Arai

Arailym Kairalapova

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh (2020)
B.S. Nazarbayev University (2015)

ak4660@columbia.edu

Sohang

Sohang Kundu

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D. UIUC (2023)
M.Sc. IIT Bombay (2017)
B.Sc. Presidency University, Kolkata (2015)

sk5389@columbia.edu

Jason

Yu Hsuan (Jason) Liang

Graduate Student

B.S. UC Berkeley (2021)

yl4842@columbia.edu

Eleanor

Eleanor Mackintosh

Graduate Student

M.Sc. University of Oxford (2023)
M.Ed. Harvard University (2022)
B.S. Davidson College (2021)

eem2203@columbia.edu

Petra

Petra Shih

Graduate Student

M.S. National Taiwan University (2018)
B.S. National Taiwan University (2016)

ps3132@columbia.edu

Henry

Henry Tran

Postdoctoral Researcher

Ph.D. MIT (2022)
M.Phil. University of Cambridge (2017)
B.S. Ohio State (2016)

hkt2112@columbia.edu

Ethan

Ethan Vo

Graduate Student

B.S. University of Washington (2020)

ethan.vo@columbia.edu

Hongzhou

Hong-Zhou Ye

Postdoctoral Researcher
starting at UMD Jun 2024

Ph.D. MIT (2020)
B.S. Peking University (2015)

hy2685@columbia.edu

Show/hide former members

LaToya Anderson

Visiting undergraduate student
2021

B.S. Brooklyn College (expected 2024)

Giulia Biffi

Visiting Graduate Student
2019

Researcher, Siemens Simcenter Culgi

James Callahan

Graduate Student
2017-2022

Teacher, Newton North High School

Yeongsu Cho

Graduate Student
2016-2021

Postdoc, MIT, Kulik group

Jonathan Fetherolf

Graduate Student
2016-2021

Postdoc, Yale, Hammes-Schiffer group

Tamar Goldzak

Postdoctoral Researcher
2019-2021

Assistant Professor, Bar-Ilan University

Sam Greene

Graduate Student
2017-2022

Postdoc, UT Austin, Siegel group

Norah Hoffmann

Postdoctoral Researcher
2020-2023

Assistant Professor, NYU

Malte Lange

Graduate Student
2016-2021

Co-founder, Minoa

Bryan Lau

Postdoctoral Researcher
2017-2022

Data Scientist, The Trade Desk

Alan Lewis

Postdoctoral Researcher
2017-2019

Lecturer, University of York

Verena Neufeld

Postdoctoral Researcher
2020-2023

Postdoc, Caltech

James Smith

Flatiron Research Fellow
2020-2022

Software Engineer, Lucata

Shi-Ning Sun

Undergraduate Student
2017-2018

Ph.D. student, Caltech, Minnich group

Xiao Wang

Flatiron Research Fellow
2019-2022

Assistant Professor, UC Santa Cruz

Research areas

We work on a variety of quantum-mechanical problems motivated by excited-state phenomena. This research occurs at the fascinating interface of physical chemistry, condensed-matter physics, and materials science.

Quantum dynamics and spectroscopy

Building on modern theories of quantum dynamics, we develop powerful simulation techniques for nonequilibrium and time-resolved spectroscopies. These new tools enable the accurate simulation of extremely large and complex sytems, providing new insights into excited-state structure and dynamics.

Emerging materials

We are actively exploring the excited-state behavior of fundamentally interesting and technologically promising materials, especially those that are anisotropic, layered, or low-dimensional. Particular materials of interest include conjugated polymers, organic molecular crystals, and quasi-two-dimensional inorganic semiconductors.

Condensed-phase electronic structure

Aiming towards highly accurate but insightful descriptions of electronic excitations, we formulate and apply electronic structure methods adapted for the condensed phase. Some of our favorite tools are low-energy effective theories, many-body diagrammatics, and coupled-cluster techniques.

Interested in learning more?

Check out our publications!

About Tim

Timothy Berkelbach is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University and Senior Research Scientist and Co-Director of the Initiative for Computational Catalysis at the Flatiron Institute. He received his B.A. in physics and chemistry from NYU in 2009 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from Columbia in 2014. From 2014 to 2016, he was a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, and from 2016 to 2018, he was a Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and the James Franck Institute at the University of Chicago. He moved to Columbia in 2019 and received tenure in 2022. From 2019 to 2022, he was also a Research Scientist in the Center for Computational Quantum Physics at the Flatiron Institute.

Selected Honors and Awards

2022 DOE Early Career Award

2020 ACS National Fresenius Award

2019 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE)

2019 Hermann Kuemmel Early Achievement Award in Many-Body Physics

2019 NSF CAREER Award

2018 Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship

2017 AFOSR Young Investigator

Columbia University

3000 Broadway, 518 Havemeyer Hall, New York NY 10027

1 212 854 0347

t.berkelbach@columbia.edu

Join us!

We welcome students and postdocs of all genders, races, ages, sexual orientations, and disability statuses. If you're interested in joining us in one of the most multicultural cities in the world, contact Tim for more information on the Columbia PhD program or postdoctoral openings.