Gonçalo Catarina (Atomistic Simulations group of the nanotech@surfaces Laboratory, Empa)

Gonçalo Catarina obtained his PhD in Physics from the University of Minho, Portugal in February 2023. His work was carried out at the Theory of Quantum Nanostructures Group, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory, Portugal and the Departamento de Física Aplicada, Universidad de Alicante, Spain, under the supervision of Prof. Joaquín Fernández-Rossier and Prof. Nuno Peres. During his PhD, Gonçalo focused on low-dimensional materials where electronic correlations play a critical role, modelling electronic and optical properties and connecting with state-of-the-art experiments.

Gonçalo joined the Atomistic Simulations group of the nanotech@surfaces Laboratory at Empa in April 2023 and he is currently developing a theoretical framework to derive effective model parameters from first principles to better describe, understand and predict the quantum properties of atomically-precise carbon-based nanostructures with unpaired electrons.