Nicola Marzari

Nicola Marzari
Name	Nicola Marzari
Birth date	1966
Birth place	Verona
Nationality	Italy
Fields	Condensed matter physics, Materials science
Workplaces	École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT
Alma mater	University of Bologna, Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, ETH Zurich
Known for	Density functional theory, First-principles calculations, Materials informatics
Awards	SNSF professorship, Cécile and Oskar Vogt Prize

Nicola Marzari is an Italian-born computational physicist known for pioneering work in first-principles materials modeling and multiscale simulation methods. He has developed electronic-structure techniques that bridge quantum mechanics, materials science, and computational chemistry to predict properties of nanomaterials, two-dimensional materials, and complex solids. His career spans leading research groups at European and North American institutions and contributions to open-source software used across academia, industry, and national laboratories.

Early life and education

Marzari was born in Verona and studied physics at the University of Bologna and Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa, where he trained under mentors connected to the Italian National Research Council and Italian theoretical physics traditions. He pursued doctoral studies at institutions allied with ETH Zurich and undertook postdoctoral work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and research visits to Centre Européen de Calcul Atomique et Moléculaire-affiliated groups. During his formative years he interacted with researchers from CNR (Italy), Max Planck Society, CNRS (France), and European Research Council-funded centers.

Research and career

Marzari established a research group at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne after positions at MIT and collaborative appointments with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory. His lab has worked closely with teams at the National Institute for Materials Science, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Paul Scherrer Institute. He has served on panels organized by Swiss National Science Foundation, European Commission, ERC, and advisory boards for initiatives involving IBM Research, Intel Corporation, Toyota Research Institute, and Samsung Research. His career includes collaborations with investigators from Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford, Columbia University, Princeton University, Yale University, University of California, Berkeley, University of Tokyo, Tohoku University, Seoul National University, National University of Singapore, KAIST, Tsinghua University, Peking University, University of Toronto, McGill University, ETH Zurich, EPFL, and CERN-affiliated computational physics efforts.

Scientific contributions and theories

Marzari is noted for methodological advances in density functional theory implementations, construction of localized electronic representations such as maximally localized Wannier functions, and approaches to reduce scaling in electronic-structure calculations. His theoretical developments connect to studies of graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, topological insulators, perovskites, thermoelectric materials, battery materials, catalysis, and superconductivity. He introduced algorithms that impacted codes used at Los Alamos National Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratories, Riken, Hiroshima University, and open-source projects maintained by consortiums including Quantum ESPRESSO, Wannier90, SIESTA, and VASP user communities. His work ties into theoretical frameworks explored by researchers associated with the Nobel Prize-winning traditions in condensed matter, alongside scientists from Bell Labs, IBM Watson Research Center, Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, and Shanghai Institute of Ceramics. Marzari's contributions have influenced experimental programs at facilities like the Advanced Light Source, Swiss Light Source, European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Diamond Light Source, DESY, National Synchrotron Light Source II, and Institut Laue–Langevin.

Selected publications

Marzari's widely cited papers include foundational articles on Wannier functions, electronic structure methods, and materials prediction. Representative works have appeared in journals such as Physical Review Letters, Physical Review B, Nature Materials, Nature Communications, Science Advances, Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, Nature Physics, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Nano Letters, Computational Materials Science, npj Computational Materials, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Physical Review X, Reviews of Modern Physics, and Annual Review of Materials Research. He has coauthored with collaborators from MIT, UC Berkeley, EPFL, Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, Stanford, Argonne, Berkeley Lab, NERSC, Fritz Haber Institute, Institut Pasteur, MPI for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, SISSA, Scuola Normale Superiore, CNR, and INRIM.

Awards and honors

Marzari has received recognition from European and international bodies including Swiss National Science Foundation grants and fellowships, honors associated with the European Physical Society, prizes from national academies such as the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, and awards from institutions like ETH Zurich and EPFL. He has been invited to deliver keynote lectures at meetings held by MRS (Materials Research Society), ICMM, IUPAP, APS March Meeting, European Materials Research Society, Gordon Research Conferences, Faraday Discussions, TMS (The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society), and AVS Science and Technology of Materials, Interfaces, and Processing symposia. His recognition includes memberships and fellowships linked to Royal Society-associated programs and national research academies.

Teaching and mentorship

At EPFL Marzari has supervised doctoral students and postdoctoral researchers who have gone on to positions at MIT, Stanford, Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College London, Columbia, Princeton, UMich, ETH Zurich, Max Planck Institutes, National Labs, University of Tokyo, and leading technology companies including Google DeepMind, Microsoft Research, IBM, NVIDIA, Toyota, BASF, and Rivian. He has taught courses drawing on syllabi from Graduate School of Engineering Science programs, contributed to summer schools organized by ICTP, CECAM, Psi-k, EMMI, and served on thesis committees for students at University of Seoul, UNSW Sydney, Monash University, McMaster University, and University of British Columbia.

Category:Italian physicists Category:Computational physicists