Emily Crabb

Emily Crabb is an Assistant Professor of Physics at Centre College, where she joined the faculty in 2022. She serves as the Dual-Degree Engineering Program Advisor and is affiliated with the Department of Physics within the Faculty of Science. Her academic training includes dual bachelor’s degrees in Physics and Computer Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh and a PhD in Physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

• BS: Physics, University of Pittsburgh
• BSE: Computer Engineering, University of Pittsburgh
• PhD: Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Her research lies at the intersection of computational condensed matter physics and materials science, with a strong emphasis on simulating atomic-level interactions using supercomputers. She investigates lithium-ion transport in battery electrolytes and light-matter interactions in magnetic metamaterials, integrating undergraduate researchers into her projects. Her work bridges fundamental physics with practical applications in energy storage and advanced materials.

The published articles reflect a consistent focus on computational modeling of energy materials, particularly batteries, using classical and ab initio molecular dynamics. There is a growing trend toward data infrastructure development, as seen in her 2023 paper on cloud-based platforms for polymer simulation data, indicating a shift toward scalable, collaborative computational research.

Scientific Awards and Grants:

• Co-Investigator on DOE EPSCoR Grant: 'Light-matter Interactions in Artificial Spin Lattices'
• NERSC supercomputing time allocation
• ACCESS supercomputing time allocation

Crabb has been actively involved in securing external research funding and computing resources, enabling high-level simulations. She mentors undergraduate researchers and integrates them into her funded projects. She teaches foundational courses such as General Physics I (PHY 210), General Physics II (PHY 230), and Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics (PHY 360), contributing significantly to physics education at the undergraduate level.

She is a member of the American Physical Society and continues to advance research in computational materials physics through simulation-driven discovery, with future work likely expanding into machine learning-aided analysis and open science platforms for materials data.