Facility Director, Theory of Nanostructured Materials
510.486.4948
Biography
David Prendergast is the Director of the Theory of Nanostructured Materials facility. He is also a Senior Staff Scientist. David received his Ph.D. in physics from University College Cork in Ireland in 2002 and joined the Foundry as a staff scientist in 2007. In his time at the Foundry, he has developed a remarkably broad multidisciplinary research program, involving x-ray science at the Advanced Light Source, and spanning chemical and materials sciences. David’s research combines first-principles electronic structure theory and molecular dynamics simulations to study energy relevant processes in complex materials systems at the nanoscale, especially at interfaces, often through direct simulation and interpretation of X-ray spectroscopy experiments.
Education
- 2002 Ph.D., Physics, University College Cork, Ireland
- 1999 B.Sc., Physics and Mathematics, University College Cork, Ireland
Research Interests
- Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
- Interfacial phenomena, Solvation, Electrochemistry
- Energy Storage and Conversion
- Ultrafast dynamics in molecules and materials
- Prediction and Interpretation of X-ray Spectroscopy
- Molecular Dynamics and Free Energy Sampling
- First-principles electronic structure theory
- Electronic Excited States and Many-body Perturbation Theory
- Algorithmic Development for Large Scale Simulation
