Apr 2025
Congratulations to Diana for receiving Honorable Mention for the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship!
Mar 2025
Sohang receives the 2025 ACS PHYS Young Investigator Award! Congrats!
Mar 2025
Congratulations to Dipti, who will be joining the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago as an Assistant Professor!
Mar 2025
Two new papers published in J. Chem. Theory Comput.: Efficient Implementation of the Random Phase Approximation with Domain-based Local Pair Natural Orbitals (from Jason and Hong-Zhou) and Diabatic States of Charge Transfer with Constrained Charge Equilibration (from Sohang and Hong-Zhou).
Feb 2025
A long-running effort, Ab initio quantum many-body description of superconducting trends in the cuprates, led by Zhi-Hao Cui and Garnet Chan's group, appears in Nature Comm.
Jan 2025
Dipti's paper Simulating anharmonic vibrational polaritons beyond the long wavelength approximation is published in J. Chem. Phys.
Postdoc, Princeton University (2014-2016)
Ph.D. Columbia University (2014)
B.A. NYU (2009)
Ph.D. UC Berkeley (2022)
M.Phil. University of Cambridge (2017)
A.B. Harvard University (2016)
Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh (2020)
B.S. Nazarbayev University (2015)
Ph.D. UIUC (2023)
M.Sc. IIT Bombay (2017)
B.Sc. Presidency University, Kolkata (2015)
M.Sc. University of Oxford (2023)
M.Ed. Harvard University (2022)
B.S. Davidson College (2021)
Ph.D. MIT (2022)
M.Phil. University of Cambridge (2017)
B.S. Ohio State (2016)
MIT Lincoln Lab Supercomputing Center
Teacher, Newton North High School
Co-founder, Minoa
Postdoc, Caltech
Nvidia
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.
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.
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.
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!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.
2025 ACS Award in Pure Chemistry
2021 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
3000 Broadway, 518 Havemeyer Hall, New York NY 10027
1 212 854 0347
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.