Troy Van Voorhis

Troy Van Voorhis is the Haslam and Dewey Professor of Chemistry and Department Head at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), part of the School of Science. His research focuses on developing novel electronic structure methods, particularly bootstrap embedding, to study excited electron dynamics in molecular and periodic systems. Key areas include solar energy conversion, molecular electronics, and quantum computing applications. He leads the Van Voorhis Group, which investigates nanocrystal electronic properties, defect states in quantum dots, and super-resolution spectroscopic techniques. The group’s work bridges theory and experiment, collaborating with institutions globally. Current projects involve GPU-accelerated quantum chemistry simulations and multiscale embedding strategies for near-term quantum devices. His team includes postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates engaged in method development and applied materials research.

Research Interests: Electron dynamics, quantum embedding methods, nanocrystal defect analysis, and optoelectronic materials design. The group has pioneered Bootstrap Embedding (QuEmb software) to handle large-scale systems, enabling studies of 2D materials, photovoltaic systems, and quantum computing workflows. Recent work highlights include optimizing semiconductor surfaces via thermal atomic layer etching and simulating electronic spectra at reduced computational cost.