Personal: Married, two sons. Short bio here.
Education:
Ph.D. Physics, Washington University (St. Louis), 1989
M.S. Physics, University of Akron, 1983
B.S. Applied Mathematics, University of Akron, 1982
Appointments:
Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor,Ohio University, 9/05-
Professor of Physics, Ohio University, 9/01-9/05
Associate Professor of Physics, Ohio University, 9/97-9/01
Assistant Professor of Physics, Ohio University, 7/93-9/97
Visiting Assistant Professor of Physics, Visiting Assistant Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois 7/92-7/93
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Materials Science and Engineering, University of Illinois 7/91-7/92
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Physics, University of Notre Dame, 4/89-7/91
Honors:
College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Faculty Research, Scholarship, and Creative Activity Award (2022)
Festschrift: The Form and Function of Disorder, dedicated to Professor David Drabold on the occasion of his 60th birthday, Physica Status Solidi B (2021)
Leverhulme Professor of Chemistry, University of Cambridge (2009)
Distinguished Professor (Elected 2005)
Fellow, American Physical Society (Elected 2003, Division of Materials Physics) Citation: For fundamental contributions to the physics of non-crystalline materials and development of efficient first-principles electronic structure methods.
Fellow, Institute of Physics (United Kingdom) (Elected 2005)
Ohio University Presidential Research Scholar (2002-2007)
Phi Kappa Phi
Honors Tutorial College Distinguished Mentor Award (2007)
Ohio Magazine “Excellence in Teaching” Award (2006)
Fellow, Royal Numismatic Society (London) (2009)
American Men and Women of Science, Who’s who etc.
Visiting Positions:
Paul Scherrer Institute, Zurich, 5/92-6/92
Associated Western Universities Fellow, Los Alamos National Lab, 6/96-7/96
Visiting Fellow Commoner, Trinity College, University of Cambridge, 2001,2009
Visiting Professor, Institut de Ciencia de Materials de Barcelona – CSIC, 6/06-12/06
Leverhulme Professor of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, 1/09-9/09
Area of Expertise:
Theory of amorphous materials and glasses
Novel methods for modeling amorphous and glassy materials
One-electron theories for molecular and condensed matter systems; linear scaling methods
PhD Graduates (and current position) see: phdtree.org link for ancestors and descendants
Rajendra Thapa (2022) Postdoc, Lehigh University
Kashi Subedi (2020) Postdoc, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Dale Igram (2019) Postdoc, University of Michigan
Bishal Bhattarai (2018) Data Analyst
Kiran Prasai (2017) Postdoc, Stanford University
Anup Pandey (2016) Postdoc, Los Alamos National Laboratory
Yuting Li (2014) Assistant Professor, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center
Binay Prasai (2013) Data Analyst
Bin Cai (2011) Associate Professor of Medical Physics, Director of Advanced Physics Services, UT Southwestern Medical Center
Pan Yue (2009) Entrepreneur in China
F. Inam (2009) Associate Professor, LUMS, Lahore, Pakistan
Tesfaye Abtew (2007) Visiting Assistant Professor, SUNY Buffalo
De Nyago Tafen (2005) Staff Scientist, National Energy Technology Lab, Oregon
Raymond Atta-Fynn (2005) Data Scientist
Murat Durandurdu (2002) Professor of Physics, Abdullah Gul University
Serge Nakhmanson (2001) Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut
Xiaodong Zhang (2001) Professor of Radiation Physics, MD Anderson Cancer Center, The University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, Houston
Jianjun Dong (1998) Walter Professor of Physics, Auburn University
Petra Stumm (1997) Patent Engineer, Osha Liang
Mark Cobb (1997) Civilian scientist, U. S. Navy
Dominic Alfonso (1995) Senior Scientist, National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pittsburgh
Former Postdocs:
Parthapratim Biswas, Professor of Physics, U. Southern Mississippi
Indira Chaudhuri
Jun Li, Professor of Physics, Ningbo Institute of Materials Science and Technology
Uwe Stephan
Kuiying Chen, Adjunct Professor, University of Ottawa
Ming Yu, Professor of Physics, University of Louisville
Cecilia Noguez, Professor of Physics, UNAM Mexico City
Mingliang Zhang, Lecturer in Physics, Cal. State, Northridge
Meetings with invited talks (partial)
Amorphous Insulators: A Symposium in honor of Frank Galeener (Winter Park, Colorado 1994)
International Conference on Advanced Materials (Cancun, Aug. 1995)
Midwest Solid State Conference (Manhattan, Kansas, Oct. 1995]
American Physical Society (Lubbock, Texas Oct. 1995)
NATO Advanced Study Institute on Amorphous Insulators and Semiconductors, Four lectures on Electronic Structure of Amorphous semiconductors (Sozopol, Bulgaria , June 1996)
International Conference on Amorphous and Microcrystalline Semiconductors (Budapest, Hungary Aug. 1997)
CECAM (Lyon, France Aug. 1998)
American Crystallographic Association National Meeting (Washington, D.C., July, 1998)
International Materials Research Congress (Cancun, Mexico, Aug. 1998)
Glass and Optical Materials Division, American Ceramic Society Annual Meeting (Indianapolis, April, 1999)
International Conference on Amorphous and Microcrystalline Semiconductors (Snowbird, Utah Aug. 1999)
Laredo 99 (Cantabria, Spain, June 1999)
CECAM meeting on Electronic and Optical Properties of Semiconducting Glasses (Lyon, France, June 2000) principal organizer
NATO Advanced Study Institute, Three lectures on electronic structure of amorphous insulators and photo-structural modeling for chalcogenide glasses (Czech Republic, 2000)
International Materials Research Conference (Cancun, Aug. 2000)
Midwest Solid State Theory Conference (Univ. of North Dakota, October 2000)
Complex Atomic Modeling Network (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, May 2001).
Materials Research Society Spring Meeting (San Francisco, April 2002).
Third Workshop on Computational Materials and Electronics (Motorola Inc, Tempe AZ, Nov. 2001).
CECAM meeting, (Lyon, France, June, 2002).
Fluctuation Electron Microscopy and Nanoscale Order in Amorphous Materials Workshop (Urbana, June 2003) co-organizer
Romanian Conference on Advanced Materials (Constanta, Black Sea Coast, September 2003)
Gordon Conference on Defects in Semiconductors, Discussion leader on “Defects in Amorphous Semiconductors” (New Hampshire, July 2004)
A Festschrift in honor of Michael F. Thorpe (St. Adele, Quebec, August, 2004) co-organizer
American Ceramic Society: Glass and Optical Materials Meeting (Florida, November 2004)
Nanotech Insight (Luxor, Egypt, Feb. 2005)
APS March Meeting (Los Angeles, March, 2005)
APS March Meeting (Los Angeles, March 2005) Tutorial Lecture on “Computational Nanoscience”
Lattice Effects in Superconductors (Santa Fe, April, 2006)
International Center for Theoretical Physics (Trieste, Italy Jan, 2007)
International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors ICANS22 (Colorado, 2007)
First Intl. Conference on the Staebler-Wronski Effect (Berlin, April 2009)
ICANS23 (Utrecht, August, 2009)
First International Workshop on Conductive Bridge Memory (Stanford, Apr. 2010)
Glass and Optical Materials Division, American Ceramics Society (Corning, NY May 2010)
International Conference on the structure of non-crystalline materials – NCM11 (Paris, 2010)
Psi-K (Berlin, 2010)
Workshop on large-scale simulations in materials science and biophysics: A conference honoring the scientific achievements of O. F. Sankey, (Tempe, 2011) co-organizer
Sigma Xi after dinner speaker (Athens, 2011)
Spring MRS meeting (San Francisco, 2011)
International Conference on Formation of Semiconductor Interfaces (Prague, 2011)
Disorder in Order: a conference honoring the scientific achievements of S. R. Elliott, Trinity College, Cambridge (Cambridge, England 2012) co-organizer
Symposium on Doped Chalcogenide Materials (Cambridge, England, 2014)
Energy, Materials and Nanotechnology Summer Meeting (Cancun, 2014)
Fall Materials Research Society meeting (Boston, 2014
Glass and Optical Materials Division, American Ceramics Society (Miami, 2015)
International Conference on Amorphous and Nanocrystalline Semiconductors 26 (Aachen, 2015)
Materials Science and Technology 16, MS&T, Novel methods for modeling amorphous materials, (Salt Lake City, October, 2016)
AVS64, American Vacuum Society, Computational design of amorphous materials (Tampa, October, 2017)
Petra International Physics School, Lectures on electronic structure and simulations (Amman, Jordan, October, 2018).
Glass and Optical Materials Division, American Ceramics Society, Structural origins of electronic conduction in amorphous copper-alloyed alumina (Boston, 2019).
School of Electrical, Computer and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Pointing the mathematical microscope at the practical and the exotic (Tempe, January, 2020).
Disordered and amorphous functional materials, Thomas Young Centre, London, England, Computing Electrical Conduction Pathways in Materials (London, England, December, 2020).
Electronic structure discussion group, Cavendish Laboratory, Space projected electrical conductivity and spectral properties of the conduction matrix (Cambridge, England, March, 2021).
Western Digital Corporation, Space projected electrical conductivity and spectral properties of the conduction matrix (San Jose, March, 2021).
Lehigh University “Grand Rounds” Institute for functional materials and devices, Atomistic simulation of materials (Lehigh, October, 2021)
MS&T22, Keynote talk — A new carbon solid: amorphous graphite, (Pittsburgh, October, 2022)
External Funding (current):
Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (DOE) “Theory of Ultra-conducting copper-graphene materials”, sole PI
National Energy Technology Laboratory (DOE) “Coal-Derived Alternatives to Fiber-Cementitious Building Materials”, co-I with J. Trembly and D. Daramola
DOE: ‘Fused Deposition Modeling Additive Manufacturing of Carbonized Structures via Waste-Enhanced Filaments”, co-I with J. Trembly, D. Daramola
U.S. Department of Education “Carbon-based Materials for Sustainable Building and Energy Applications”, co-I: GAANN award with several other faculty
Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center through XSEDE: 350,000 Units on BRIDGES
External Funding (previous, partial):
NSF: Collaborative Research: Joint utilization of experimental and theoretical information: a new paradigm for modeling complex materials (2016-2019), co-I with P. Biswas and R. Atta-Fynn
NSF: Science of electron conducting filaments in ion-conducting chalcogenide glasses (2015-2019) $498K, co-I with G. Chen
ARO: Charge transport in complex systems (2013-2015), sole PI
NSF: DMR Electronic Materials: Nanoscale order in amorphous solids: structure, transformations, and electronic properties (2002-2005), co-I with J. Abelson (PI), M. Gibson, P. Goldbart, P. Voyles
ARO: Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) on Monolithic silicon microbolometer materials for uncooled IR detectors (2006-2011), co-I with 9 experimental collaborators at Penn State and Toledo
NSF: Topics in the dynamics of disordered materials (2006-2009). $266K, sole PI.
NSF Focused Research Group: Nanoscale structural order in amorphous materials and its relation to diffusion and electronic defects (2006-2009), co-I with J. R. Abelson, PI (Illinois) and P. Voyles (Wisconsin).
NSF: Collaborative Research: electronic processes in disordered and biomolecular systems (2009-2012), PI
NSF: Mechanical signature of the polarization of light: the opto-mechanical effect in glass (2000-2004) co-I with H. Jain and S. R. Elliott
NSF: Theory of Non-Crystalline Solids (2003-2006), sole PI
NSF: Theoretical studies of glasses (2000-2004), sole PI
NSF: Electron States and Transport in Amorphous Semiconductors (1997-2001), sole PI
NSF: Structure and dynamics of glassy chalcogenides: a joint experimental and theoretical approach (1997-2001), co-I with R. L. Cappelletti, PI
NSF: Theory of Tetrahedral Amorphous Carbon (1993-1997) sole PI
ONR: Growth, Doping and Contacts for wide-gap semiconductors (1995-2000), co-I with several faculty
Axon Technologies: Tempe, AZ 2001, sole PI
Motorola Inc. 2000: sole PI
Ohio Supercomputer Center and Pittsburgh Supercomputer Center: many awards since 1994, sole PI
Teaching Experience:
Undergraduate courses:
Introduction to Physics
University Physics
Classical Mechanics
Introduction to Quantum Physics
Special Study (honors tutorial)
Quantum Mechanics
Guest lectures in ancient and medieval numismatics in Classics and History departments
Graduate Courses:
Quantum Mechanics I, II
Methods of Theoretical Physics
Computational Physics
Condensed Matter Physics
Physics of Amorphous Materials
Significant University Service:
Director of Studies, Honors Tutorial program in Physics and Astrophysics (2009-)
University Honorary Degree Committee (2012-; Chair, 2013)
Graduate Chair, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy (2002-2007)
Distinguished Professor Committee (2005-); Chair (2009-2010)
Elected member, Arts and Sciences Dean search committee (2005, 2011)
Honors Tutorial College Dean Search Committee (2018), twice on search committees for Dean of Arts and Sciences.
Faculty Senate (2004-2007)
Graduate Council (2004-2007)
Chair, Physics Computing Committee (1997-2000)
Several faculty search committees (Condensed Matter Theory, Condensed Matter Experiment, Astronomy, Theoretical Nuclear Physics, 1994- twice Chair)
Deans Planning Committee (1997-2002)
Arts and Sciences Professional Ethics Committee (1998-2001)
Professional Service
Reviewer for NSF, DOE, EPSRC (United Kingdom), US Dept. of State, US Dept. of Defense, NSF Supercomputer Centers and Ohio Supercomputer Center. Site visitor for NSF.
External reviewer, Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, University of Toledo (2019).
Organizer or co-organizer of four international conferences.
Referee for Nature, Science, PNAS, Nature Materials, Nature Chemistry, Scientific Reports, Phys. Rev. Letters, Physical Review Applied, Physical Review B, Physical Review E, Europhys Lett, Phys. Stat. Sol, J. Non.-Cryst. Solids, Applied Physics Letters, J. Applied Physics, Phil. Mag, Nano Lett., Chem. Phys. Lett. and many others.
Guest Editor, J. Physics: Condensed Matter (16:44, 2004;19:45, 2007), Phys. Stat. Sol. B [248:9 (2011), 250:5(2013)]
Editorial Board: Scientific Reports; Physica Status Solidi (all sections); J. Optoelectronic and Advanced Materials – SymposiaIOP; (UK) Fellowship Selection Committee
Nominating Committee, APS (Ohio Section) 2009.
David Drabold, Distinguished Professor of Physics 