News
Jackson Weaver successfully passed his candidacy exam. Congratulations Jackson! (03/27/2024)
Congratulations to Yizhi Zhu who successfully defended her thesis on “First principles investigation of defects in silicon carbide for quantum information technologies” (01/23/2024)
Paper on WEST-TDDFT Highlighted by Uchicago PME News. (12/21/2023)
Congratulations to Diego who has been awarded the prize for "Best Doctoral thesis in Chemistry, 2023" by the Italian Society of Chemistry - Umbria division (12/22/2023).
The title of Diego's thesis is “From standard to unconventional electronic structure in gold complexes: in silico studies for applications in catalysis and small molecule activation”. He delivers an invited talk on Dec. 22nd at the Society Meeting.
Congratulations to Yu Jin who successfully defended his thesis on “First-principles Study of Excited States and Optical Properties of Quantum Materials” (12/06/2023)
Congratulations to Zifan who successfully defended her thesis on “First principle simulations of water at semiconductor interfaces” (10/16/2023)
Congratulations to Giacomo who is leaving for a new job in Pisa, Italy. We held a good-bye party for him at Nella (6/6/2023).
Congratulations to Nikita who successfully defended his PhD thesis today entitled “Understanding the Magnetic Environment of Spin Qubits from First Principles” (05/30/2023)
Argonne names newest Maria Goeppert Mayer and Walter Massey Fellows (04/25/2023)
Argonne names newest Maria Goeppert Mayer and Walter Massey Fellows. Congratulations to Vrindaa and her peers: the Maria Goeppert Mayer Fellows are James Cornelison, Vrindaa Somjit, Mary Elizabeth Wagner and Cyndia Yu. The Walter Massey Fellow is Amanda Carr.
Galli Group at the 2023 APS March Meeting (03/06/2022)
Several members and collaborators of our group will be presenting talks at 2023 APS March Meeting, which will be held on March 6-10. For a full list of all abstracts affiliated with our group, see the Events page.
We celebrated the successes and friendship of Marco Govoni who is leaving to take a professorship at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy. Congratulations Prof. Govoni! (3/2/2023) (Link)
Lien Le successfully passed her candidacy exam. Congratulations Lien! (03/02/2023)
Jonah Nagura successfully passed his candidacy exam. Congratulations Jonah! (02/23/2023)
2022: A year in papers
Vrindaa Somjit awarded a Maria Goeppert Mayer fellowship by Argonne National Laboratory. Congratulations Vrindaa! (12/20/2022)
Shenli Zhang has been selected as the DOE/BES Early Career Network Representative for the EFRC QMEENC. Congratulations Shenli! (12/05/2022)
Congratulations to Matthew Bousquet and Shreya Verma for their successful candidacy exams! (11/30/2022)
Giulia Galli has been named the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award 2022 by the foundation of Italian Scientists and Scholars in North America (ISSNAF) (10/19/2022)
American Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted Professor Giulia Galli (09/10/2022)
Earlier this fall, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted Professor Giulia Galli. She signed the Book of Members at an Induction Ceremony that celebrated recently elected artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, nonprofit, and private sectors.
Emily Chen is part of the inaugural class of Arley D. Cathey Fellows (07/11/2022)
Former undergraduate researcher Emily Chen (class 2020) has received the 2022 Arley D. Cathey International Graduate Study Fellowships. The Fellowship will help fund her studies at the University of Cambridge, UK, where she will pursue an MPhil in Sientific Computing. Congratulations Emily!
Recent Work on Quantum Simulations of Material Properties Featured by Argonne National Laboratory News (05/24/2022)
Argonne National Laboratory featured the progress of MICCoM scientists in simulating defect properties on noisy quantum computers. The study titled Simulating the Electronic Structure of Spin Defects on Quantum Computers was recently published in the PRX Quantum journal. In it, the scientists from the group of Giulia Galli demonstrate that even the currently available, nosiy quantum computers yield accurate results for the electronic structure of correlated spin defects in solids.
Giulia Galli delivers a talk at annual NAS meeting representing section III (04/30/2022)
Giulia Galli, who was elected to become a member of the National Academy of Science (NAS) in 2020, delivered a talk at the annual meeting of NAS representing Class III's section on Applied Physical Sciences. A recording of her talk can be found here.
The major update to PyCCE 1.0 has been released! (04/11/2022)
Main changes from the previous version include:
- Support for several central spins! Check out a new tutorial to see how to use PyCCE to study the entanglement between two dipolarly coupled NV centers in diamond.
- Convenient definition of the bath spin states through spin attribute.
- Expanded the control over pulse sequences.
- Added ability to define your own single particle Hamiltonian.
- Significant overhaul of computational expensive parts of the code with Numba. This makes the first run of PyCCE quite slow, but after compilation it should run observably faster.
- Various bug fixes and QoL changes.
The updated documentation and install instructions can be found here.
A mathematical shortcut for determining quantum information lifetimes (04/06/2022)
A mathematical shortcut for determining quantum information lifetimes has been published in PNAS and highlighted by Argonne National Laboratory. The shortcut (a simple formula), derived within a collaboration between Tohoku University, University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory, allows scientists to estimate the materials’ coherence times in an instant — versus the hours or weeks it would take to calculate an exact value.
Giulia Galli awarded 2022 Aneesur Rahman Prize by the American Physical Society (03/15/2022)
Giulia Galli has been awarded the 2022 Aneesur Rahman Prize for Computational Physics. She received the prestigious award for "the development of theoretical methods to compute and engineer the electronic and structural properties of molecules and materials, broadening the applicability of first-principles computational approaches to multiple disciplines, including nanoscience, and for many predictions subsequently confirmed experimentally."
Galli Group at the 2022 APS March Meeting (03/14/2022)
Several members and collaborators of our group will be presenting talks at 2022 APS March Meeting, which will be held on March 14-18. For a full list of all abstracts affiliated with our group, see the Events page.
Jiawei Zhan successfully passed his candidacy exam. Congratulations Jiawei! (02/14/2022)
Paper on formation of spin defects in silicon carbide featured by Argonne, phys.org and PME News (12/15/2021)
The Nature Communications paper titled "Stability and molecular pathways to the formation of spin defects in silicon carbide" presents classical and first-principles calculations that elucidate spin defect formation processes in silicon carbide. The study — a collaboration between the Galli and de Pablo groups — was conducted by using molecular dynamics, enhanced sampling, and density functional theory, and coupling computer codes developed within the MICCoM center.
Liza Lee awarded the 2021 Maria Lastra Excellence in Mentoring Award for Postdoctoral Researchers (12/14/2021)
Postdoctoral Scholar Liza Lee has been awarded the 2021 Maria Lastra Excellence in Mentoring Award for Postdoctoral Researchers. This award is based on nominations from the entire Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering research community. It acknowledges postdoctoral researchers: 1) who are willing to share knowledge; 2) who nurture sustained mentoring relationships while also fostering mentee independence; 3) who contribute to a positive and growth-minded laboratory culture; and 4) who support the development of a mentee’s resilience, effectiveness, and confidence as a researcher. Congratulations Liza!
MICCoM Center's Activities Highlighted on UChicago PME News and Argonne News (12/10/2021)
The activities of the MICCoM center were highlighted on UChicago PME News and Argonne News. MICCoM develops open-source advanced software tools to help the scientific community model, simulate, and predict the fundamental properties of materials in order to create new, cutting-edge technologies.
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announces Quantum Science and Engineering PhD (11/30/2021)
The Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering announces Quantum Science and Engineering PhD. The program aims to ready the next generation of scientists and engineers who will lead advancements in this rapidly growing field. Quantum technology is poised to transform multiple industries. Facilitating those transformations requires a specialized workforce educated in aspects of applied physics. More information can be found at https://pme.uchicago.edu/academics/phd-program and https://pme.uchicago.edu/phd-program/molecular-engineering.
Christian Vorwerk awarded 2020 Carl-Ramsauer-Price by the Berlin Physical Society (11/17/2021)
Christian Vorwerk has been awarded the 2020 Carl-Ramsauer-Price by the Berlin Physical Society (PGzB). The award honors his outstanding PhD thesis at the Humboldt University Berlin, Germany. In his PhD thesis, Christian developed an all-electron approach for the consistent simulation of core and valence excitations in solids.
Tony Song Selected as Liew Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar and elected to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa (11/15/2021)
Undergraduate student Tony Song has been selected as 2021-2022 Liew Quad Undergraduate Research Scholar. He will be conducting research on spin qubits. Tony has also been elected to be a member of Phi Beta Kappa, a nationally recognized academic honor society, (the oldest in the United States). At the University of Chicago (the Beta chapter of Illinois), only undergraduates with the highest level of academic achievement are invited to join.
Dr. Marco Govoni awarded tenure (11/10/2021)
Dr. Marco Govoni has just been promoted from Assistant Scientist to Scientist (tenured position) at Argonne National Laboratory. Marco serves as co-PI of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM). He is the lead developer of the WEST code and is the PI of a DOE Early Career Grant.
Photo Credit: Aritrajit Gupta
Nikita Onizhuk named 2021 Google PhD Fellow in Quantum Computing (09/23/2021)
Google Research has named Nikita Onizhuk one of four Google PhD Fellows in the area of Quantum Computing. The Google PhD Fellowship Program is the award by Google Research created to recognize outstanding graduate students doing exceptional and innovative research in computer science and related fields. Nikita is a 4th-year graduate student in the Chemistry department at the University of Chicago, and his primary research focuses on the spin dynamics of optically addressable spin defects in semiconductors. His research has been published in several high-impact journals, including Nature Materials, PRX Quantum, APL. Congratulations to Nikita, and wishing him all the best in his future research!
NSF announces new Quantum Leap Challenge Institute in Chicago (09/02/2021)
The institute for Quantum Sensing for Biophysics and Bioengineering (QuBBE) is led by Prof. Greg Engel and will be funded for five years. The goals of QuBBE are twofold: to pioneer new ways to use quantum technology in biology, and to develop the quantum workforce through STEM education and outreach. Several groups in PME are part of the institute, including the Galli group.
Paper on machine learning featured by Argonne and PME (07/30/2021)
Previous group member Sijia Dong employed machine learning to speed up simulations of excited state properties of materials for solar energy harvesting. The paper was featured by Argonne and PME, read about it here and here.
Shenli Zhang named Distinguished Von Neumann Postdoctoral Fellow (07/02/2021)
The QMEEN-C Energy Frontier Research Center (https://qmeenc.ucsd.edu/) has named Shenli Zhang Distinguished Von Neumann Postdoctoral Fellow for her successful contributions to the center, in particular for her “First principles calculations of the metal to insulator transition in defective cobaltites and for models relating the theoretical results to experimental data.” The distinction comes with a monetary award for research or equipment. Shenli has so far published two first author papers reporting her work within the center: “Understanding the metal-to-insulator transition in La1-xSrxCoO3-δ and its applications for neuromorphic computing”, and “Predicting the Onset of Metal-Insulator Transitions in Transition Metal Oxides - A First Step in Designing Neuromorphic Devices”, and a paper in collaboration with experimentalists “Cation and anion topotactic transformations in cobaltite thin films leading to Ruddlesden-Popper phases”. Shenli's work was also featured in PME news. Congratulations Shenli!
Graduate student Andrew Xu advances to Ph.D. candidacy (6/11/2021)
Group member Andrew Xu has advanced to Ph.D. candidacy at the University of Chicago. Andrew is part of the WEST development team and his work focuses on oxide materials. Congratulations!
He Ma awarded Elizabeth R. Norton Prize for Excellence in Research in Chemistry
Congratulations to Dr. He Ma, for winning the 2021 Elizabeth R. Norton Prize for Excellence in Research in Chemistry, awarded by The University of Chicago Department of Chemistry. The award honors excellence in research, particularly He's dissertation, titled “Electronic Structure of Molecules and Materials from Quantum Simulations”, which he defended in November, 2020. He's prolific research while in the group included developing methods/algorithms for quantum mechanical simulation of molecules and materials, and first-principles studies of the electronic structure and quantum dynamics of spin-defects in semiconductors for quantum information science. He is now a software engineer at Google.
Jesus Alvarez passes Ph.D. candidacy exam
Congratulations to our graduate student Jesus Alvaerz, for advancing to Ph.D. candidacy in chemistry!
“Blueprint for a Robust Quantum Future” featured by Argonne
The feature from Argonne National Laboratory describes our recent Nature Reviews Materials review paper, “Quantum guidelines for solid-state spin defects”, which reviews the molecular engineering of spin defects for application in quantum information sciences. The review was written by a team of collaborators from both experimental and theoretical backgrounds. Our group's effort in the area of materials for quantum information continue, supported through MICCoM, Q-Next, EPiQC, and QISpin. For an overview of quantum research at UChicago, visit Quantum @ UChicago.
Giulia Galli delivers the Birnbaum lecture at the University of Illinois
Giulia Galli delivered the Birnbaum Lecture at the Grainger College of Engineering at UIUC on Apr. 26, 2021. Her talk was titled "The many facets of light activated matter: From energy sustainability to quantum information" and explored the understanding of sustainable materials for solar energy and quantum information technologies.
UChicago launches quantum startup accelerator: Duality
Duality is a new start-up incubator focused on leveraging the region’s quantum ecosystem to help startups bring innovations to marketplace. It is the first accelerator program in the nation that is exclusively dedicated to startup companies focused on quantum science and technology. Duality is led by the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation and the Chicago Quantum Exchange, and also reinforced by founding partners including the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Argonne National Laboratory and P33. Duality's launch has been covered by The Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, and Crain's Chicago Business.
Paper on spin qubits selected as Editor's Pick article by Appl. Phys. Lett.
The recent paper, "Substrate-controlled dynamics of spin qubits in low dimensional van der Waals materials", found a complex interplay between the source of decoherence in the qubit host and in the environment. The study also suggested approaches to engineer substrates to maximize coherence times. The article has been chosen as a 2021 Editor's Pick article by Applied Physics Letters.
Galli Group at the 2021 APS March Meeting
Several members and collaborators of our group will be presenting talks at 2021 APS March Meeting, which will be held online on March 15-19. For a full list of all abstracts affiliated with our group, see the Events page!
Paper on photoelectrodes featured by Nature Energy News & Views
The recent Nature Energy paper, "The impact of surface composition on the interfacial energetics and photoelectrochemical properties of BiVO4," was featured by the journal in a separate article by Ian D. Sharp, titled "Composition effects come to the surface". The article summarized the main points of the paper, emphasizing that controlling terminal compositions of otherwise identical facets of complex oxides has a profound impact on photoelectrochemical function.
Admitted students learn about PME in new virtual format
Students admitted to the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering PhD program had an inside look at UChicago PME through a virtual visit weekend held via Gather Town, a platform that allowed customizable spaces and casual interactions via video chat. The event introduced students to faculty members and current students, while showcasing PME's unique problem-based focus, collaborative model, and culture. To download a video introduction to the Galli Group, please click here. For a poster summarizing our research, please click here.
Paper on photoelectrodes featured by UChicago News
The Nature Energy paper, titled "The impact of surface composition on the interfacial energetics and photoelectrochemical properties of BiVO4," demonstrates that modifying the topmost layer of atoms on the surface of electrodes can significantly boost their performance. The study opens an unexplored path for understanding and engineering surface energetics by tuning the surface termination/composition of multinary oxide photoelectrodes. The project was a collaboration with experimentalists at the University of Wisconsin and Brookhaven National Laboratory, where it was also featured.
Anil Bilgin awarded MRSEC Fellowship
Congratulations to graduate student Anil Bilgin, who has been awarded a fellowship through the Chicago Materials Research Center, the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) at University of Chicago!
Paper on aqueous interface validation protocol featured by Argonne
The Physical Review Materials paper, titled "Validating first-principles molecular dynamics calculations of oxide/water interfaces with x-ray reflectivity data," introduces a robust protocol to validate first principles simulations of aqueous interfaces. The project was a theory/experiment collaboration conducted within MICCoM. Establishing validation protocols is a complicated task, and most existing protocols address bulk materials rather than interfaces. The described protocol compares high-resolution specular X-ray reflectivity measurements (performed at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source) to first principles calculations (performed at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility) to validate simulations of the subtle interface between aluminum oxide and water.
Tony Song Awarded Undergraduate Research Fellowship
Congratulations to undergraduate student Tony Song, who has been selected as a 2020-2021 academic year Liew Family College Research Fellow to pursue an extended undergraduate research experience in the Galli group!
Graduate Students Nan, Benchen, and Hien Pass Candidacy Exam
Congratulations to our graduate students Nan Sheng, Benchen Huang, and Hien Vo for advancing to Ph.D. Candidacy!
The DOE Incite Award for simulation of light activated matter awarded to Galli, Govoni and Gygi
Giulia Galli, Marco Govoni, and Francois Gygi have been awarded 1,200,000 Theta node-hours to advance the design of novel materials for both solar cell devices and quantum platforms, including sensors. The award is through the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Science Innovative and Novel Computational Impact on Theory and Experiment (INCITE) program, which has awarded allocations of supercomputer access to 51 high-impact computational science projects for 2021. The simulations of electronic excited state properties of heterogeneous materials—including defects and interfaces—couple first-principles molecular dynamics and electronic structure methods beyond density functional theory, as implemented in the Qbox and WEST codes open-source code.
UChicago launches Quantum @ UChicago
Several new consortiums and organizations have been recently launched at UChicago, including Chicago Quantum Exchange, Q-Next, EPiQC, QISpin, and SQMS. The University of Chicago is looking for highly motivated and driven graduate students to join in many teams across quantum applications of molecular engineering. Quantum @ UChicago is targeting the development of practical quantum technologies that will have applications in computing, communication, and sensing. Our broad faculty team focuses on solid-state, atomic, and photonic technologies, with approaches based on experiment and theory in strong collaborative efforts.
Research on Neuromorphic Computing featured by UChicago PME News
The NPJ Computational Materials paper from Shenli Zhang and Giulia Galli, titled "Understanding the metal-to-insulator transition in La1−xSrxCoO3−δ and its applications for neuromorphic computing," predicted new ways of engineering and triggering changes in electronic properties in several classes of transition metal oxides, which could be used to form the basis of neuromorphic computing architectures. The paradigm of neuromorphic computing is inspired by neural networks of the brain and based on energy-efficient hardware for information processing. The study focused in particular on the insulator to metal transition and the effects of defects on the electronic structure oxides. The paper was supported by the QMEENC EFRC.
Galli Group Articles Highlighted by Nature Communications
Three articles have been featured as part of a themed collection on "Computation and Machine Learning for Chemistry" by the journal Nature Communications. The open-access collection is a showcase of exceptional recent content in the category of computational chemistry. The first highlighted article is titled "Dissociation of salts in water under pressure," which employed Qbox-SSAGES coupling and was featured by UChicago PME. The second article is titled "Electron affinity of liquid water," which employed the WEST code and was featured by UChicago News and Argonne National Laboratory. The third article is titled "A first principles method to determine speciation of carbonates in supercritical water," and features extensive first principle molecular dynamics simulations carried out with Qbox code; it was also previously highlighted on PME News.
Paper on SiC nuclear spins featured by Nature Materials News & Views
The recent Nature Materials paper, "Entanglement and control of single nuclear spins in isotopically engineered silicon carbide" was featured by the journal in a separate article by Siddharth Dhomkar and John J. L. Morton, titled "Quantum registers hit the right wavelength". The article summarized the main points of the paper, emphasizing that controlling nuclear spins coupled to an electron spin in silicon carbide enables a ‘quantum register’ interfaced with telecom photons, leading to the possibility of distant transport of quantum information.
Research on SiC nuclear spins featured by UChicago News
The Nature Physics paper published in collaboration with the experimental group of David Awschalom is titled "Entanglement and control of single nuclear spins in isotopically engineered silicon carbide." It presents results on the control of isolated Si nuclear spins in silicon carbide to create entangled states. The study effectively shows how one could encode and write quantum information onto the core of a single atom, unlocking the potential for building qubits that can remain operational or “coherent” for extremely long times, with implications for quantum computing and quantum internet technologies.
Berni Alder: 1925-2020
We are sad to share the news that Berni Alder passed away peacefully Monday evening Sep 7th. Berni’s role as a founding father of simulation and modelling cannot be over emphasised and we shall always be grateful for his scientific contributions and his passion for the field.
Department of Energy funds the quantum hub Q-NEXT at $115 million over the next five years
The Q-NEXT mission is to deliver quantum interconnects and establish a national foundry to provide pristine materials for new quantum devices. With these capabilities, the center will demonstrate secure communication links, networks of sensors, and simulation and network testbeds. To achieve its mission, Q-NEXT’s strategy is to pursue three foundational thrusts (quantum foundries, extreme-scale characterization, and quantum simulation and sensing) with three science and technology thrusts (materials and integration, quantum sensing, and quantum communications). Led by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, Q-NEXT includes three national laboratories, ten universities and ten of the U.S.’s leading quantum technology companies.
Research on Quantum Simulation Featured by Argonne
The NPJ Computational Materials paper from the groups of researchers Giulia Galli and Marco Govoni, titled "Quantum Simulations of Materials on Near-term Quantum Computer,"" introduces a quantum embedding theory that permits the simulation of ‘spin defects’ in solids by coupling quantum and classical computing hardware. These types of defects in solids have applicability to the development of materials for quantum information processing and nanoscale sensing applications far beyond current capabilities. The theory was applied to spin-defects in diamond and silicon carbide on both classical computing architectures, as well as the IBM Q5 Yorktown quantum computer. The quantum embedding theory is implemented in MICCoM's WEST code. The paper has also been featured on phys.org
Research on Salt Dissociation in Water under Pressure Highlighted on PME News
The paper, "Dissociation of salts in water under pressure," has been published in Nature Communications. It features newly developed coupling of Qbox and SSAGES to study the dissociation of NaCl in water at extreme conditions. The work was highlighted on PME News.
Dr. Marco Govoni awarded DOE Early Career Award
Galli Group staff scientist Marco Govoni has been awarded the prestigious Early Career Award from the BES Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics Program. Congratulations, Marco!
Jesus Alvarez awarded Physical Science Division Teaching Prize
Galli Group graduate student Jesus Alvarez has been awarded the Physical Science Division Teaching Prize in Chemistry. Congratulations, Jesus!
Research on Nanoconfinement of Salty Water Highlighted in Scilight
The paper, Molecular Polarizabilities as Fingerprints of Perturbations to Water By Ions and Confinement, has been published in the Journal of Chemical Physics. The work was featured by the journal and highlighted in AIP Scilight. It was also featured by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Research on Carbonates in Supercritical Water Highlighted on PME News
The paper, A First Principles Method to Determine Speciation of Carbonates in Supercritical Water, has been published in Nature Communications in collaboration with the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong. The work was highlighted on PME News.
AFOSR Website QISpin Has Been Released
A new website, qispin.org, has been released for the AFOSR-funded project on the discovery, design and prediction of materials for quantum information science.
He Ma selected for an internship at Google
He Ma has been selected to be a Spring 2020 Research Intern at Google, where he will work on applying machine learning techniques to develop Density Functional Theory.
Wennie Wang elected to executive committee for the Forum for Early Career Scientists (FECS) of the APS
Wennie Wang has been elected to the executive committee for the FECS of the APS and will serve as member-at-large for the 2020 cycle. The FECS will be co-sponsoring Sessions F28 and G28 at the 2020 APS March Meeting.
Giulia Galli delivers the Etter Memorial Lecture at the University of Minnesota
Giulia Galli delivered the Etter Memorial Lecture in Materials Chemistry at the University of Minnesota on Feb 4, 2020.
Giulia Galli awarded the Tommasoni-Chisesi prize
Giulia Galli has been awarded the Tommasoni-Chisesi prize by the University of Rome, La Sapienza, during a ceremony in Rome on January 31, 2020.
UChicago is Seeking Candidates for the Chicago Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Quantum Science
The Chicago Quantum Exchange (CQE), Computer Science Department (CS) and Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (PME) are seeking exceptional candidates for the Chicago Prize Postdoctoral Fellowship in Theoretical Quantum Science. Applications are due January 20th, 2020.
Graduate Students Mykyta and Yu Pass Candidacy Exam
Congratulations to two of our chemistry graduate students, Mykyta Onizhuk and Yu Jin, for advancing to Ph.D. Candidacy!
Giulia Galli wins 2019 Feynman Theory Prize
Giulia Galli has been awarded the 2019 Feynman Theory Prize from the Foresight Institute, a think tank focused on molecular manufacturing. Every year, the Foresight Institute honors two researchers that make groundbreaking strides in nanotechnological development. She was recognized for significant contributions to the development of theoretical methods to simulate nanomaterials at the atomic level, with a focus on semiconductor nanoparticles and carbon-based systems. Galli received her award from Sir James Fraser Stoddart, 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, and Steve Burgess, president of the Foresight Institute, at an event in Evanston, IL on September 30.
New releases of Qbox, WEST and Qresp
Qbox 1.68.0 (http://qboxcode.org) includes the SCAN meta-GGA density
functional.
WEST v4.0.0 (http://www.west-code.org/) has the following new features:
- Added client/server mode
- Added coupling to Qbox code (http://qboxcode.org)
- Added python3 interface
- Simplified the input format (now accepting both JSON and YAML formats)
- Expanded documentation
Qresp v1.2.0 (http://qresp.org/) has the following new features:
- Updated Curator UI
- Added Preview Functionality
- Added Share Functionality
- Changed configuration scheme
- Added sections into Qresp explorer
- Removed ssh connection and added Zenodo & HTTP connections
- New unit tests
Giulia Galli delivers plenary lecture at CECAM 50th anniversary
Galli delivered the plenary lecture at the conference “Molecular and materials simulation at the turn of the decade: Celebrating 50 years of CECAM” in Lausanne, Switzerland. CECAM (Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire) is the longest standing European Institute for the promotion of fundamental research on advanced computational methods and their application to science and technology. Galli's lecture was titled "Light-activated matter: from photo-electrochemical cells to optogenetics and quantum information systems." A video of the lecture is available here.
Department of Energy announces renewal of MICCoM
The US Department of Energy has announced a $32 million investment to accelerate the design of new materials through the use of supercomputers. The funding supports the renewal of the Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials (MICCoM) as well as six other projects at national laboratories and universities. These projects will develop widely applicable open source software utilizing DOE's current leadership class and future exascale computing facilities. Projects will provide software platforms and data for the design of new functional materials with a broad range of applications, including alternative and renewable energy, electronics, data storage and materials for quantum information science.
$100 million commitment launches Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering
The University of Chicago announced a $100 million commitment from the Pritzker Foundation to support the new Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, becoming the first university in the United States with a school dedicated to this emerging field. The new school builds on the success of efforts by the University and Argonne National Laboratory, which partnered in 2011 to establish the Institute for Molecular Engineering.
Giulia Galli delivers Nelson W. Taylor Award talk at Penn State
Prof. Galli gave the keynote address of the 2019 Nelson W. Taylor Lectureship in Materials Science and Engineering at Penn State University. Her talk was titled "Asking 'why' matters to predict the future," and focused on insights and first principles predictions of material properties relevant to energy conversion processes and quantum information technologies.
Galli Group is participating in a new center to develop more efficient flexible solar cells
The Galli Group will be participating in the new Center for Self-Assembled Organic Electronics (SOE), funded by a Muri grant from the Office of Naval Research. The center will focus on "developing strategies for controlling the structure of organic electronic materials at the nanoscale," and will combine synthesis, theory and simulations to develop next-generation materials for solar energy conversion.
Paper on spin-phonon interactions published in Nature Physics
The paper Spin-phonon interactions in silicon carbide addressed by Gaussian acoustics, in collaboration with David Awschalom group, has been published in Nature Physics; it is highlighted on the UChicagoNews website and at phys.org.
The software tool, QRESP, developed within MICCOM has been released
The open-source software tool, QRESP, was released and is described in a paper published in Scientific Data; see highlight at UChicagoNews website in an article on reproducibility of data.
Paper on defects and surface charges published in Nature Materials
The paper The role of defects and excess surface charges at finite temperature for optimizing oxide photoabsorbers, has been published in Nature Materials; it is highlighted on the UChicagoNews website.
Giulia Galli awarded 2018 Materials Research Society Theory Award
The MRS Materials Theory award recognizes "exceptional advances made by materials theory to the fundamental understanding of the structure and behavior of materials." Galli has been awarded for "the development of advanced first-principles simulation methods and their application to the understanding, prediction, and design of complex nanostructured materials." She will receive the award at the 2018 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit in Boston.
Galli Group is participating in four EFRCs
The Galli group is participating in four EFRCs announced by DOE in June 2018 (see Awards List): Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) at ANL, Center for Hybrid Organic-Inorganic Semiconductors for Energy (CHOISE) at NREL, Quantum Materials for Energy Efficient Neuromorphic Computing (Q-MEEN-C) at UCSD, and Center for Novel Pathways to Quantum Coherence in Materials (NPQC) at LBL.
Paper on all inorganic nanostructured materials published in Nature Nanotechnology
The paper, Surface chemistry and buried interfaces in all-inorganic nanocrystalline solids, in collaboration with Dmitri Talapin, has been published in Nature Nanotechnology; see highlight on the UChicagoNews website.
Dept. of Energy taps Argonne to lead effort focused on advanced materials for energy-water systems
Argonne National Laboratory has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy to lead an Energy Frontier Research Center focused on advanced materials for energy-water systems.
Paper on water under pressure published in PNAS
The paper, Ab Initio Spectroscopy and Ionic Conductivity of Water Under Earth Mantle Conditions, has been published in PNAS; see highlight on the UChicagoNews website.
Open Positions - Postdoctoral Researcher
Multiple postdoctoral positions are available in the Galli Group at the University of Chicago and Argonne National Laboratory.
Application
Candidates should submit 1) a full CV, including contacts for at least two references, and 2) a cover letter of intent to gagalli@uchicago.edu.
Paper on diamondoids published in Nature
The paper, Sterically Controlled Mechanochemistry Under Hydrostatic Pressure, in collaboration with Melosh's group in Stanford, has been published in Nature; see highlight at the UChicagoNews website.
Paper on electron affinity of water published in Nature Communications
The paper, Electron Affinity of Liquid Water, has been published in Nature Communications; it is highlighted on the UChicagoNews website.
Nov 7th, 2017: Marie Curie 150th birthday
Today is 150th anniversary of Marie Curie birthday. Below please find a collection of posts celebrating it.
J. Phys. Chem. (ACS) Editorial and Virtual Issue
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. (RSC) Blog and Cover Gallery
Science
Physics Today
Hindustan Times
Express
Marie Curie Blog
Virtual Special Issue by The Lancet (Elsevier)
Meng Ye awarded the 2017 Richard J. Plano Dissertation Prize
Meng Ye just received the 2017 Richard J. Plano Dissertation Prize from Rugters University.
See her dissertation.
APS launches Physical Review Materials
PRMaterials expands the scope of the existing APS journals beyond their current emphasis on the physics of materials.
See the Editorial Board of the latest addition to the Physical Review family of journals.
Paper on the structure of salt water published in Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters
The paper Local and Global Effects of Dissolved Sodium Chloride on the Structure of Water has been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters; it is highlighted on the IME website.
Exascale resources will allow unprecedented large-scale first principle simulations on the atomic scale
Our work was featured on the report of the joint assessment by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Energy (DOE) and National Science Foundation (NSF) of the scientific and engineering research community's science drivers requiring capable exascale high performance computing (HPC). Each of the three agencies analyzed the aggregate responses to the request for information in the context of their missions and programmatic goals. The report comprises a joint collaborative synthesis of these respective analyses and summary conclusions.
Open position - Managing Director of MICCoM
An open position for a Managing Director of MICCoM at the University of Chicago and at ANL is available
Application
Candidates should submit 1) a full CV, including contacts for at least two references, and 2) a cover letter of intent to both gagalli@uchicago.edu and handlin@uchicago.edu, with “MICCoM Managing Director” in the subject line (PDF attachments only).
Research on quantum bits highlighted by RCC
A paper by Hosung Seo, with Giulia Galli, and Abram Falk, recently published in Nature Communications, investigates the performance of quantum bits in a material, for applications in quantum computing, by experimentally and theoretically studying the coherence time of electron spin associated with divacancy defects.
Research on quantum bits highlighted by the ASCR
The recent publications on new qubits built out of defects in aluminum nitride and silicon carbide in the Galli group have been highlighted in the DOE Advanced Scientific Computing Research (ASCR) website.
Paper published in Nature Materials on Jan. 9th, 2017
The article "Modelling heterogeneous interfaces for solar water splitting", by T. Anh Pham, Yuan Ping, and Giulia Galli, has been published in Nature Materials.
New students and postdoc joined the group
Welcome to the new undergraduate students Boon King Quek and Sergio Mazzotti, graduate students Siyoung Kim, Jeffrey Gustafson, and Han Yang, as well as the new postdoc Meng Ye, from Rutgers University, who just joined the Galli group!
Former CDAC Summer Scholars at University of Chicago
Former CDAC Summer scholars, including Viktor Rozsa, are now graduate students at the University of Chicago.
Two group papers published in Nature Communications and Science Advances
Read highlights of Quantum decoherence dynamics of divacancy spins in silicon carbide by H. Seo et al. and The fate of carbon dioxide in water-rich fluids under extreme conditions by D. Pan et al. on IME and UoC pages. See also the highlight of the Deep Carbon Observatory and that of the Geochemical News.
WEST Data Collections are live!
The WEST Data Collections provide open web-based access to electronic structure properties computed with WEST. Explore the GW100 and GWSOC81 sets.
ALCC Award 2016
Marco Govoni, Alex Gaiduk and Hosung Seo have been awarded 53.7 Millions hours on MIRA at ANL.
Quantum Science Research website live
Paper published in JACS
Our paper "Photoelectron spectra of aqueous solutions from first principles" by Alex P. Gaiduk, Marco Govoni, Robert Seidel, Jonathan Skone, Bernd Winter, and Giulia Galli was published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Memorial lecture series celebrating the 50th anniversary of Kohn-Sham Density Functional Theory
Understanding and predicting materials for sustainable energy sources: The key role of density functional theory. Memorial lecture delivered by Giulia Galli at UCSD, March 31st, 2016.
DOE NNSA Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship
Viktor Rozsa has been awarded the DOE NNSA (National Nuclear Security Administration) Stewardship Science Graduate Fellowship.
Highlighted Paper
Our paper "Design of defect spins in piezoelectric aluminum nitride for solid-state hybrid quantum technologies", by Hosung Seo, Marco Govoni, and Giulia Galli published in Scientific Reports 6, 20803 (2016) was highlighted by NERSC, Sciencedaily, BLCS.
Paper on defect spins
Our paper "Designing defect spins for wafer-scale quantum technologies" in collaboration with the Awschalom's group was published in the 40th issue of the MRS bulletin
DOE announces Computational Materials Sciences Awards
One the three centers, MICCoM (Midwest Integrated Center for Computational Materials) is established at Argonne National Lab and is led by Prof. Giulia Galli. MICCoM's mission is to develop open-source advanced software tools to help the scientific community model, simulate and predict the fundamental properties and behavior of nanoscale and mesoscale materials for energy conversion technologies — including metastable materials assembled far from equilibrium conditions. [DOE announcement] Press releases by ANL, UChicago, and IME.
Theta Early Science Program
The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a DOE Office of Science User Facility, has selected the project “First-Principles Simulations of Functional Materials for Energy Conversion” as one of the six projects for its Theta Early Science Program (ESP), a collaborative effort designed to help prepare scientific applications for the architecture and scale of the new supercomputer. The proposal – led by Giulia Galli (U.Chicago & ANL), with co-PIs Marco Govoni (ANL) and Francois Gygi (UCD) – will combine ab initio molecular dynamics (Qbox code) and post-density functional theory methods (West code) to optimize properties of nanostructured materials for use in solar and thermal energy conversion devices at an unprecedented level of accuracy. The ultimate goal is to provide a truly predictive tool for device performance within a Materials Genome Initiative design framework. [link]
IC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Peter Scherpelz has been awarded the IC (Intelligence Community) Postdoctoral Research Fellowship. [link]
The website www.west-code.org is online!
NSERC Postdoctoral Fellowship
Alex Gaiduk has been awarded the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Fellowship. [link]
Highlighted paper
Our paper "Surface dangling bonds are a cause of B-type blinking in Si nanoparticles", by Nicholas Brawand, Márton Vörös and Giulia Galli published in Nanoscale 7, 3737 (2015) was highlighted by NERSC, Sciencedaily and BLCS [link]
UofC Science-Art Show
Nicholas Brawand has been awarded the first place in The University of Chicago's Interdivisional Science-Art Show.
ALCC Award 2015
Marco Govoni has been awarded 75 Millions hours on MIRA at ANL.
Paper selected as ACS Editors' Choice
Our paper "Large Scale GW Calculations", by Marco Govoni and Giulia Galli has been selected to be featured in ACS Editors’ Choice, in addition to being published in the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation 11, 2680 (2015). [link]
2015 Aneesur Rahman Fellowship in Computational Physics
Márton Vörös has been awarded the Rahman fellowship by Argonne National Laboratory.
INCITE Award 2015
Giulia Galli and Francois Gygi have been awarded 180 Millions hours on MIRA at ANL. [link]
Poster Award 2014
Dr. Alex Gaiduk has been awarded the third price for poster presentation at the Argonne annual postdoctoral meeting.
Featured INCITE project
Our INCITE project Vibrational and Optical Spectroscopy of Electrolyte/Solid interfaces is featured on the Argonne Leadership Computing page.
2014 UCD Outstanding Chemistry Dissertation Award
T.A.Pham, who is graduating in August, has been awarded the 2014 UCD Outstanding Chemistry Dissertation Award. In September Anh moves to LLNL as a Lawrence Postdoctoral Fellow. [link].
Paper published in Nature Communications
Our paper "The refractive index and electronic gap of water and ice increase with increasing pressure", by Ding Pan, Quan Wan and Giulia Galli was recently published on Nature Commun. 5, 3919 (2014) [link_ime] [link_dco].
Paper featured on the cover of Chemical Physics Letters
Our paper "Structural and electronic properties of aqueous NaCl solutions from ab initio molecular dynamics simulations with hybrid density functionals", by Alex P. Gaiduk, Cui Zhang, Francois Gygi, and Giulia Galli is featured on the cover Chem. Phys. Lett. 604, 89 (2014) [link].
Paper featured on the cover of Physical Review Letters
Our paper "Solar nanocomposites with complementary charge extraction pathways for electrons and holes: Si embedded in ZnS", by Stefan Wippermann, Márton Vörös, Adam Gali, Francois Gygi, Gergely Zimanyi and Giulia Galli is featured on the cover Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 068103 (2014) [link].
2013 Paul de Mayo Award for Excellence in Chemical Research
Dr. Alex Gaiduk has been awarded the 2013 Paul de Mayo Award for Excellence in Chemical Research by the University of Western Ontario in Canada. [link]
NERSC 2014 NISE Allocation Award
Dr. Márton Vörös and Dr. Marco Govoni have been awarded 5 million hours of resource time at NERSC through the NERSC Initiative for Scientific Exploration (NISE).
INCITE Award 2014
Giulia Galli and Francois Gygi awarded 70 Millions hours on MIRA at ANL. [link]
Deep Carbon Observatory
Deep Carbon Observatory: new Extreme Physics and Chemistry proposal funded (October 2013). [link]
CCI-Solar
CCI-Solar: center renewed for 5 years (July 2013). [link]
3rd CMCSN Workshop at UC Davis
The third coordination meeting of the CMCSN network "Structure and Dynamics of Water and Aqueous Solutions in Material Science" will be held at at the alumni center of the University of California, Davis on June 24-26, 2013.
CECAM conference "Energy from the Sun"
The CECAM conference "Energy from the Sun: Computational Chemists and Physicists Take Up the Challenge", organized by Wanda Andreoni, Vincenzo Barone, Stefano Fabris, Giulia Galli and Alessandro Mattoni was held on September 10-14, 2012 at Chia Laguna, in Cagliari, It. [announcement]
1st DCO Workshop at UC Davis
First workshop of the "Physics and Chemistry of Deep Carbon" directorate of the DCO was held at the alumni center of the University of California, Davis on March 29-31, 2012.
1st UCD-LLNL at UC Davis
The first UCD-LLNL joint quantum simulations workshop was held on Oct.20-21, 2011. [link] [group picture]
