Marco Bernardi

Marco Bernardi is a Professor of Applied Physics, Physics and Materials Science at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). His research focuses on theoretical and computational materials physics, developing first-principles methods to investigate electron transport, ultrafast dynamics, and light-matter interactions in materials. His work has applications in electronics, optoelectronics, ultrafast spectroscopy, energy technologies, and quantum devices.

• Education: Ph.D. in Materials Science from MIT (2013), M.S. from University of Rome Tor Vergata (2008), B.S. from University of Rome La Sapienza (2004).
• Research Interests: Electron-phonon interactions, polarons, spin relaxation and decoherence, nonequilibrium electron dynamics, quantum materials, and software development for materials simulations (PERTURBO code).
• Scientific Awards:
  • NSF CAREER Award (2018)
  • AFOSR Young Investigator Award (2017)
  • Psi-K Volker Heine Young Investigator Award (2015)
  • Intel Ph.D. Fellowship (2013)
  • Franco Strazzabosco Award (2020)
• Teaching: Offers graduate courses at Caltech including Structure and Bonding in Materials (MS 131), Computational Solid State Physics (APh/MS 256), and Introduction to Computational Methods (APh/MS 141).
• Group Members: Mentors current graduate students and postdocs in developing advanced computational techniques for materials research, with former advisees now in academic and industry positions.