MARVEL Distinguished Lecture — Alexandre Tkatchenko

It will take place on Thursday March 6, 2025, 4 pm (CET).

Practical details:

• In-person participation: room MED 2 1124 (Coviz2), EPFL
• Remote participation possible: a Zoom link will be provided later.

About the speaker

Alexandre Tkatchenko is a Professor of Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics at the University of Luxembourg. He is also Head of the Department of Physics and Materials Science and Head of the Theoretical Chemical Physics group. His research pushes the boundaries of quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, and machine learning to develop efficient methods to enable accurate modeling and new insights into complex materials. Tkatchenko has given more than 230 invited talks, seminars and colloquia worldwide, published more than 150 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals (h-index=58), and serves on the editorial boards of Physical Review Letters (APS) and Science Advances (AAAS).

He has received a number of awards, including elected Fellow of the American Physical Society in 2019, the 2020 Dirac Medal from the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists and the 2011 Gerhard Ertl Young Investigator Award of the German Physical Society. He has also received five flagship grants from the European Research Council (ERC): a Starting Grant in 2011, a Consolidator Grant in 2017 (BeStMo), a Proof of Concept Grant in 2021 (Chemical Space Machine), an Advanced Grant in 2022 (FITMOL), a Proof of Concept Grant in 2023 (MACHINE-DRUG).

Between 2008 and 2010, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin. Between 2011 and 2016, he led an independent research group at the same institute. He joined the University of Luxembourg in 2016.

Prof. Alexandre Tkatchenko obtained his Bachelor in Computer Science and a PhD in Physical Chemistry at the Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana in Mexico City.

Did you miss previous MARVEL Distinguished Lectures? You can watch them on the Materials Cloud dedicated page.