David Reichman

Biosketch

David R. Reichman is a theoretical chemist who has made advances in understanding the behavior of classical and quantum disordered systems, the structure, dynamics and rheology of soft materials (e.g. colloids, polymers and gels), non-equilibrium self-assembly problems, and the electronic, optical and magnetic properties of novel crystalline materials. He was born in New York City, attended the Bronx High School of Science, graduated with a BA in Physics from the University of Chicago (‘92), a PhD in Chemistry from MIT (’97) and was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Utah (’97-’99). He has served on the faculty at Harvard (’99-2004) and Columbia University (2004-present), where he is currently the Centennial Professor of Chemistry.

Research Interests

The Reichman group is actively working to understand the optical, electronic and magnetic properties of novel materials such as two-dimensional semiconductors and heterostructures, the transport behavior of charge and spin in condensed phases, the role of strong electron-phonon interactions in solids, and novel aspects of light-matter interactions. His group has also had a long-standing interest in the behavior of glassy systems and soft materials, as well as the statistical mechanics of non-equilibrium self-assembly processes. A major focus of his group’s current efforts is the development of numerical methods, often Monte Carlo approaches, to attack these problems.