Dr. Steven G. Louie stands as a preeminent figure in theoretical physics and computational materials science, renowned for his transformative contributions to understanding quantum phenomena at the nanoscale. He currently holds the distinguished position of Professor of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley and serves as Senior Faculty Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, where he directs the Theory of Nanostructured Materials Facility at the Molecular Foundry. Born in Taishan, Guangdong, China in 1949 and raised in San Francisco from age ten, Dr. Louie earned his PhD in Physics from UC Berkeley in 1976 under the mentorship of Professor Marvin L. Cohen. His early career included impactful research positions at IBM Watson Research Center, Bell Laboratories, and the University of Pennsylvania before he returned to Berkeley as faculty in 1980, establishing what would become one of the most influential theoretical physics groups in the field.
Dr. Louie's pioneering development of the ab initio GW method revolutionized the field of computational materials science by resolving the longstanding bandgap problem in semiconductors and founding the discipline of first-principles study of excited-state properties of materials. His seminal work on surfaces, interfaces, and nanostructures has been instrumental in advancing our understanding of quantum phenomena in low-dimensional systems including carbon nanotubes, graphene, and molecular junctions, with his research group publishing over 580 highly cited scientific papers that form the theoretical foundation for modern nanoscience. The computational frameworks he created have been adopted worldwide as standard approaches for predicting material properties without empirical parameters, enabling accurate calculations of electronic, optical, and transport properties that have guided experimental work across multiple continents. His theoretical predictions of giant excitonic effects in nanotubes and chiral currents in graphene have been experimentally verified, demonstrating the remarkable predictive power of his computational approaches and their profound impact across condensed matter physics and materials engineering.
As a founding scientific director of the Molecular Foundry, a DOE national nanoscience center, Dr. Louie has played a pivotal role in shaping the national research infrastructure for nanoscale science and technology, fostering collaboration between theorists and experimentalists worldwide. His leadership extends to editorial roles including editor of Solid State Communications and authorship of the influential graduate textbook Fundamentals of Condensed Matter Physics that has trained generations of physicists. Mentoring numerous students and postdoctoral researchers who have become leaders in their own right, Dr. Louie continues to push the boundaries of computational physics with current research focusing on quantum phenomena in novel materials, topological systems, and quantum information science. His ongoing work promises to further bridge theoretical predictions with experimental realizations in quantum computing platforms and next-generation electronic materials, ensuring his legacy as a visionary who transformed how we understand and design materials at the atomic scale.
