Dr. David O'Regan

Biography

David completed his PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, in 2011, after which he carried out post-doctoral research first there, and then at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL). In 2014, he came to Trinity College Dublin and founded what is now the Quantum Theory of Materials Group. David is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics, a CRANN Institute Principal Investigator with an affiliation to the SFI AMBER Research Centre, and a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin since 2022. David's research is dedicated to finding unexpected, innovative ways to transform the accuracy, efficiency, and applicability of theory and simulation software for understanding the material world using quantum mechanics. He is known for his work on simulating, from the electrons up, systems that are both spatially complex (e.g., disordered crystals or molecules) and harbour strong interactions that are beyond the predictive capacity of standard techniques. David is particularly known for his work on extending and refining the class of methods known as constrained DFT and DFT+U. David is actively involved in the development of linear-scaling density functional theory. Here, he implements and improve corrective approaches such as DFT+U, constrained DFT and DFT+DMFT in addition to researching new Wannierisation and time-propagation (TDDFT) algorithms. David maintains a long-term programme in the development of tractable and user-friendly methods moving beyond Kohn-Sham DFT, via the density-matrix and Green's function, not only for spectra but for energies and their derivatives. He's interested in magnetic and multiple-valence properties, generally, and optical, magneto-optical, and photoemission spectroscopies. A particular focus is placed on these properties as exhibited by transition-metal comprising materials, complexes, and nanostructures. David's recent grants and awards include the EPSRC-SFI Joint Funding of Research award, SFI AMBER II Funded Investigator status, an AMBER Director's Fund award, a Trinity Provost's PhD Project award, Irish Research Council postgraduate award mentorship, leadership of a competitively-awarded College infrastructure project, as well as research partnership with industry and sponsorship from Enterprise Ireland and the Royal Irish Academy. David's current roles include that of Director of Teaching & Learning (Undergraduate), Physics; Chair, School of Physics Teaching & Learning Committee; College Tutor, Member, School Executive Committee; Member, Trinity Undergraduate Studies Committee; Member, Trinity Central Scholarship Committee; Member, School Athena SWAN Committee, Member, Theoretical Physics Degree Course Committee. In recent years he has served as School of Physics Examinations Coordinator; as Assistant DUTL; Chair, School of Physics Resumption of Teaching Steering Committee; CRANN seminar series Convenor; Coordinator of the School of Physics Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) programme, and as the Theoretical Physics Degree Coordinator in Physics.