Our research

ICN2 Groups and Units

Theory and Simulation

Group leader: Pablo Ordejón

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Overview

Main research lines

  • Development of theoretical methods, numerical algorithms and simulation tools for atomic-scale simulations: towards massive HPC facilities
  • Computational tools: SIESTA development and its connection with other codes and computational infrastructures like AiiDA
  • First-principles simulations at the nanoscale
  • Physical properties and chemical processes in materials

Group leader

Ordejón Rontomé, Pablo Jesús

Distinguished Researcher, Group Leader and Director

Prof. Pablo Ordejón earned his degree in physics (1987) and his PhD in science (1992) at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (USA) from 1992 to 1995 and as assistant professor at the Universidad de Oviedo from 1995 to 1999. In 1999, he obtained a research staff position at the Institut de Ciència de Materials de Barcelona of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC). In 2007 he moved to the former CIN2 (now ICN2) as the leader of the Theory and Simulation Group, where he is currently a CSIC Research Professor. Since July 2012 he has served as Director of the ICN2.

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He has published more than 210 scientific articles, which have received over 30,000 citations (h-index of 59). He was co-editor of EPL (formerly Euro Physics Letters) from 2010 to 2015, and is member of the Editorial Boards of the Physica Status Solidi journals since 2004 and Nanomaterials since 2018. He oversaw the Condensed Matter Physics subject area of the Physics Panel of the Spanish National Evaluation and Foresight Agency (ANEP) from 2003 to 2006, and was the head of the Physics and Engineering Panel of the Access Committee to the Spanish Supercomputing Network from 2005 to 2011. He became a fellow of the American Physical Society in 2005, and received the Narcis Monturiol medal from the Catalan Government in 2018.

His research is focused on the development of efficient methods for electronic structure calculations in large and complex systems, with contributions to the development of techniques for large-scale atomistic simulations based on first-principles methods such as SIESTA. He has also been involved in the study of the fundamental properties of materials at the atomistic level. His current interests include electronic transport in nanoscale devices and electronic processes at surfaces and 2D materials, among many others. He maintains frequent collaborations with industrial laboratories on the simulation of material processes at the atomic level. He is a co-founder of the spinoff company SIMUNE.