Dr Matt Hodgson
Associate Lecturer of Theoretical Physics
About
I am a researcher with over 10 years of experience in many-body quantum theory. I completed my PhD at the University of York in 2016 and worked as a postdoc at the Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics in Germany until 2019. From 2019 to 2021, I was a visiting researcher at Durham University before becoming an Associate Lecturer of Theoretical Physics at the University of York.
Research
My research focuses on the fundamentals of quantum theory and its application to modelling the electron excitation properties of materials.
Electron excitation
Kohn and Sham's approach to density functional theory is the most popular method in materials science; however, it is notoriously unreliable for calculating electron excitation properties.
Electron dynamics
Modelling the response of electrons to an applied electric field remains a challenge; yet determining the flow of charge through a material is crucial for the design of integrated circuits.
Electron emission
Many-body perturbation theory is commonly used to calculate the spectral function; however, increasing the accuracy of this approach is challenging owing to the computational cost.