Sandeep Sharma

Assistant: Mi Kyung Kim

Sandeep Sharma moved to California Institute of Technology (Caltech) as a Professor at the beginning of 2025. He earned his bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai and a Ph. D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2009) under the supervision of William H Green. His postdoctoral work was done in the groups of Garnet Chan (then at Princeton University) and Ali Alavi (at the Max Planck Institute in Stuttgart) before starting his independent career at University of Colorado, Boulder in 2016.

His group's research focuses on developing advanced algorithms for electronic structure theory. Central to this work is solving the Schrödinger equation, given the positions of nuclei and the number of electrons in a system, to determine the electronic wavefunction. The electronic wavefunction encapsulates all the information about the system, including its energies and spectroscopic properties. The ultimate goal is to use these methods to predict the energies and reactivities of diverse chemical systems, such as gas-phase molecules of atmospheric significance, transition metal-containing materials relevant to catalysis in synthetic and biological contexts, and extended condensed matter systems. His work has been recognized by awards, including the NSF Career Award, Sloan Research Fellowship, Camille-Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Awards, and medal from the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Scientists (IQIM).