Something like a resume

Contact details

Evgeni S. Penev
Rice University
Department Materials Science and NanoEngineering – MS 325
6100 Main St, Houston, Texas 77005-1892

Summary of Interests

Collective phenomena in soft and hard condensed matter systems: hydrogen-bonding cooperativity in biomolecular systems and protein secondary structure formation, self-assembled quantum dots in semiconductor nanostructures for optoelectronic applications, conventional and high-temperature superconductivity.

Education

• Ph.D. in Computational Materials Science
  Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin, Germany
  Thesis: On the theory of surface diffusion in InAs/GaAs(001) heteroepitaxy (graduated summa cum laude)
• M.S. in Solid State Physics
  St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia, Bulgaria
  Thesis: Persistent currents and interference effects in multichain mesoscopic rings

Academic genealogy

E. Penev → (1)Peter Kratzer → (2)Wilhelm Brenig → (3)Werner Heisenberg → (4)Arnold Sommerfeld | (3) Richard Becker → (4)Max Planck

Awards

• Otto Hahn Medal for outstanding scientific achievement (Max Planck Society, Germany )
• Gold Medal for academic achievement (Mathematics and Natural Sciences High School, Shumen, Bulgaria)

Work Experience

• Department of Materials Science and NanoEngineering, Rice University, Houston, Texas
• Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Santa Barbara
  Research Scholar
  -- coarse-grained models of lipid bilayers
  -- hydrogen bonding and polypeptide energetics: force fields vs. DFT
• Department of Physics and Astronomy, Basel University, Basel, Switzerland
  Postdoctoral Assistant
  -- Minima search algorithms
  -- Protein folding
  -- Empirical force fields, Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics
• Fritz-Haber-Institut der Max-Planck-Gesellschaft, Berlin, Germany
  Graduate student (computational materials science, surface physics, density-functional theory)
  -- Effect of strain on surface diffusion in semiconductor heteroepitaxy
  -- Reconstructions of III-V (001) semiconductor surfaces
  -- Surface stress and phase equilibria in InGaAs surface alloys
  -- Quantum dot growth kinetics
  -- Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations
  -- H₂ adsorption/desorption on Si(001)
• Institute of Catalysis, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria
  Research Assistant
  -- Parameterization of model Hamiltonians
  -- First-principles electronic structure calculations of metal-oxide clusters
  -- Electronic structure of high-T_c superconducting materials
• Center for Space Research & Technologies, St. Clement of Ohrid University of Sofia, Bulgaria
  Research Fellow
  -- Persistent currents in disordered mesoscopic rings
  -- Electronic structure of high-T_c superconducting materials

Tutoring and Teaching Experience

• MSNE 433/533: "Computational Materials Modeling", Spring 2010–present (Rice University)
• CECAM Tutorial: "Kinetic Monte Carlo: From Phase Transitions and Crystal Growth to Econophysics" (Lyon, France, 2002)
• "Application of Density-Functional Theory in Condensed-Matter Physics, Surface Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, and Biology" (Berlin, Germany, 2001, 2003)
• "Total Energy and Force Methods and ab initio Molecular Dynamics" (Trieste, Italy, 1999)
• "Computational Physics" (2004/2005, University of Basel, Switzerland)
• "Introduction to Physics I for students in biology, geosciences and pharmacy" (2005, University of Basel, Switzerland)

Computing Skills

• Software packages: molecular mechanics (LAMMPS , NAMD, TINKER, DYNAMO), ab initio quantum-mechanical calculations (QuantumEspresso, Siesta,VASP)
• Programming Languages: Fortran 90/95, parallel programming (MPI), C/C++, UNIX shells, Tcl, Python, HTML
• Operating Systems: UNIX (Linux, AIX, etc.), Mac OS X, M$ Windows
• Hardware Systems: commodity clusters, IBM Power4/5, Cray T3E, HP
• Software Applications: Scientific computing/visualization tools (Mathematica, VMD, etc.); vector and raster graphics editors (GIMP, CorelDRAW, etc.); web design tools, typesetting systems (LaTeX, OpenOffice,M$Word)