Can Ataca joins Physics Department of University of Maryland Baltimore County starting August 2017. Dr. Ataca conducted his PhD study with Prof. Salim Ciraci at the Department of Physics, Bilkent University. He was a postdoctoral associate in the group of Prof. Jeffrey C. Grossman at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) between 2012-2016. He then worked with Prof. Brenda M. Rubenstein at the Department of Chemistry, Brown University as a Senior Research Associate/Scientist between 2016-2017.
Dr. Ataca’s research focuses on the theoretical investigation of materials (crystals, molecules, alloys, amorphous systems, junctions, surfaces, porous media …) for next generation device, green energy, coating and filtration applications. His group tries to understand the physics of devices and correlated systems, as well as how materials react under extreme environments and growth/nucleation processes. The methodologies that are used range from DFT (Density Functional Theory to QMC (Quantum Monte Carlo) to ab-initio, force-field and classical MD (Molecular Dynamics). Some of the materials simulated in Ataca Lab include low dimensional materials (1D, 2D), concrete, high-capacity electrode materials and specific molecules. His group not only employs quantum mechanical approaches that span multiple time and length scales to accurately predict and engineer the electronic, magnetic, optical, mechanical, thermal, piezo-electric, dielectric and transport properties of materials, but is also involved in the development of new computational methodologies for higher accuracy and post-processing approaches to bridge different time/length scales.
Dr. Ataca is currently searching for motivated Ph.D. students and postdoctoral fellows/associates. If you are interested in a theoretical/computational condensed matter career at a globally recognized university surrounded by many national laboratories and organizations (including NASA), please contact him directly.
Contact Information:
Dr. Can Ataca
Assistant Professor of Physics,
University of Maryland-Baltimore County
ataca@umbc.edu
410-455-2821
Physics, Rm 315
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