Gia-Wei Chern

Gia-Wei Chern joined the Physics Department at the University of Virginia (UVa) in the fall semester of 2015. Before coming to UVa he was a J. R. Oppenheimer Fellow at the Theoretical Division of Los Alamos National Laboratory. He received his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D in Optoelectronics Engineering at the National Taiwan University. After briefly working in the optics and fiber industry, he decided to pursue a career in Physics and enrolled in the Johns Hopkins University, where he received his Ph.D in Physics. His primary research interests are in theoretical condensed matter physics with a special focus on novel phases of matter and nonequilibrium phenomena in complex systems and quantum materials. Such material systems are crucial building blocks for the next generation multifunctional devices. Indeed, recent breakthroughs in materials science such as high-temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, and multiferroics are all canonical examples of functional quantum materials. In particular, many of these materials exhibit the formation of complex nano-scale patterns, which not only are of fundamental interest, but also have important technological implications. A complete modeling of these functional materials require a multi-scale task integrating microscopic quantum calculations with large-scale dynamical simulations. Dr. Chern’s recent efforts focus on applying the artificial intelligence and data science methods to the multi-scale modeling of quantum materials. One central goal of his research is to develop analytical and numerical tools that can reliably predict collective behaviors and new emergent phases of these materials.