Prof. Alex Zunger of the University of Colorado, Boulder research field is Condensed Matter Theory of Real Materials, involving foundational work on Density Functional Theory, Pseudopotential theory, Quantum Nanostructures,听Photovoltaic听materials and Materials by Design.听 He is the recipient of the year 2018听Boer Medal听for photovoltaic research, the 2013听Hume- Rothery Award听on Theory of alloys, the 2011 (inaugural)听听鈥淢aterials Theory Award鈥澨齩f the Materials Research Society on Inverse Design, the 2010 鈥淭omassoni Prize鈥溙(Italy) and 鈥2010 Medal of the Schola Physica Romana听鈥 celebrating the tradition of E. Fermi, the听2001听John Bardeen听award of The Material Society听on 鈥淪pontaneous Ordering in semiconductor alloys鈥, the听2001听Rahman Award听of the American Physical听Society听on 鈥榝oundational development of First Principles methods鈥, and the 2009Gutenberg听Award听(Germany) on correlated electron systems. 听He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society; Fellow of the Materials Research Society, Sakler Fellow of the Institute of advanced studies of Tel Aviv University.听He received his Ph.D. from Tel-Aviv University, Tel Aviv Israel where he worked with Prof. Joshua Jortner and Binyamin Englman on quantum theory of molecular solids.听 He did his postdoctoral research at the Physics Dept. of Northwestern University (with Art Freeman). He then received the听IBM Fellowship, which he spent at the Physics Dept. of U.C. Berkeley (with Marvin Cohen).听 Dr. Zunger established the Solid-State Theory group at the听National听Renewable Energy听Laboratory (NREL) Golden, Colorado, a position he held 1978-2010 where he has been an听鈥淚nstitute Research Fellow鈥. He has been the founding Director of the $20 million 鈥楥enter for Inverse Design鈥 (a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center). He moved to CU Boulder in 2010 where he continued as Chief Scientist of the NREL EFRC for 3 years. The impact of Dr. Zunger鈥檚 work is partially reflected by the high number of citations his papers have received (over 95,000, according to Google Scholar) and by his 鈥渉-number鈥 of 140 (i.e., 140 of his papers were cited each at least 140 times).听 He is the听author听of the fifth-most-cited paper in the 110-year history of Physical Review (out of over 350,000 articles published in that journal) .In the course of his research; he has authored more than 600 articles in refereed journals, which includes over 150 articles in Physical Review Letters and Rapid Communications (PRB) and three citation classics.听 He has also trained more than 82 post-doctoral fellows. Declared by the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) as the 39th most-cited physicist out of more than 500,000 physicists examined, based on publications in 1981鈥1997 in all branches of physics.听Nominator and consultant for the Physics Nobel Committee in past 5 years.
Alex's Recent RASEI Activities
Impact of symmetry breaking and spin-orbit coupling on the band gap of halide perovskites
PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 2024, 110, 035160 Read more
Light-Induced Frenkel Defect Pair Formation Can Lead to Phase-Segregation of Otherwise Miscible Halide Perovskite Alloys
ADVANCED ENERGY MATERIALS, 2023, 2301539 Read more
Uncovering spin-orbit coupling-independent hidden spin polarization of energy bands in antiferromagnets
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 2023, 14, 5301 Read more
Insulating band gaps both below and above the N茅el temperature in d-electron LaTiO3, LaVO3, SrMnO3, and LaMnO3 perovskites as a symmetry-breaking event
PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 2023, 074406 Read more
Degeneracy Removal of Spin Bands in Collinear Antiferromagnets with Non-Interconvertible Spin-Structure Motif Pair
ADVANCED MATERIALS, 2023, 35, 31, 2211966 Read more
Hidden Zeeman-type spin polarization in bulk crystals
PHYSICAL REVIEW B, 2023, 107, L081201 Read more
Rise and fall of Mott Insulating gaps in YNiO3 paramagnets as a reflection of symmetry breaking and remaking
PHYSICAL REVIEW MATERIALS, 2023, 7, 044409 Read more
Density functional description of spin, lattice, and spin-lattice dynamics in antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases at finite temperatures
Phys. Rev. B., 2022, 106, 134406 Read more
Bridging the gap between density functional theory and quantum materials
Nature Computational Science, 2022, 2, 529-532 Read more
Density functional thermodynamic description of spin, phonon and displacement degrees of freedom in antiferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic phase transition in YNiO3
Materials Today Physics, 2022, 27, 100805 Read more
Intrinsic local symmetry breaking in nominally cubic paraelectric BaTiO3
Phys. Rev. B., 2022, 105, 224108 Read more
Dependence of band gaps in d-electron perovskite oxides on magnetism
Phys. Rev. B., 2022, 105, 165111 Read more