The Computational and Experimental Design of Emerging materials Research group (CEDER) is a part of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at UC Berkeley and the Materials Sciences Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Our goal is to better design high quality functional materials by mapping the relationship between materials structures and their physical and chemical properties through a combined theoretical and experimental approach. Our group integrates all the aspects of materials research from developing the fundamental understanding to the design, synthesis and testing of new bulk and nano materials. We combine computational approaches in quantum mechanics, solid state physics and statistical mechanics, with selected experiments into a complimentary research strategy to investigate materials in the energy field. We are one of the premier groups in high-throughput computing and the Materials Genome and contribute extensively to the Materials Project.
Applied areas of interest are in energy storage based on Li, Na, and multi-valent ion intercalation, thermoelectrics, and other functional materials. On the fundamental side, the group develops expertise in electronic structure, ab-initio thermodynamics of bulk and nano systems, diffusion, electron transport, structure prediction, and data mining. We are also integrating these methods with newly developed tools for autonomous experimentation and AI-enabled data interpretation. Over the last decade, we have successfully performed many research projects supported by various companies and governments. The CEDER group offers research opportunities for students interested in theoretical, computational, or experimental work or a combination of these.
Available projects for prospective graduate students and postdocs can be found here.