Dr. Can Ataca
Associate Professor
Department of Physics
University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
E-mail: ataca@umbc.edu
Phone: 410 455 2821
Department of Physics, Room 315, UMBC
1000 Hilltop Circle, Baltimore, MD 21250
Education:
Ph. D. Physics – Bilkent University, National Nanotechnology Research Center, Turkey, 2011
M. Sc. Physics – Bilkent University, National Nanotechnology Research Center, Turkey, 2008
B. Sc. Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Physics (Double Major) – Bilkent University, Turkey, 2007
Previous Experience:
Dr. Ataca 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. Dr. Ataca then worked with Prof. Brenda M. Rubenstein at the Department of Chemistry, Brown University as a Senior Research Associate/Scientist between 2016-2017.
Professional Interests:
Our 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. We try to understand the physics of devices and correlated systems, as well as how materials react under extreme environments and growth/nucleation processes. The tools we use 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 our group include low dimensional materials (1D, 2D), concrete, high-capacity electrode materials and specific molecules. Our 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.