About David O'Regan

David is an Associate Professor in the School of Physics at Trinity College Dublin, and a CRANN Institute Principal Investigator with an affiliation to the SFI AMBER Research Centre. He 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, David moved to Trinity College Dublin to take up an academic position, and he was elected Fellow of Trinity College Dublin in 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’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.

At Trinity, David has recently served as Director of Teaching & Learning (Undergraduate), Physics (3 years); Chair, School of Physics Teaching & Learning Committee; Member, Central Scholarship Committee; College Tutor (6 years); Member, School Executive Committee; Member, Trinity Undergraduate Studies Committee; Member, Institutional Academic Integrity Working Group; Member, School Athena SWAN Committee, Member, Theoretical Physics Degree Course Committee. In previous years he has served as School of Physics Examinations Coordinator; 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.

David's Research

David’s research is dedicated to the development and application of novel, accurate, but computationally tractable methodology for atomistic electronic structure simulations, both of solid state materials and molecular systems. David focuses on the interface between techniques for treating large length-scales, the strong electronic correlations almost ubiquitous in systems of technological interest, and theoretical spectroscopy.

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 is particularly known for his work on extending and refining the class of methods known as constrained DFT and DFT+U.

David's Publications

See the Publications page or David's Google Scholar profile for a list of his publications.

Dr. David D. O'Regan

FTCD, Associate Professor
School of Physics
Trinity College Dublin
Phone: +353 1896 3138
e-mail: david.o.regan@tcd.ie

An Dr Daithí D. Ó Ríogáin

Comhalta, Ollamh Comhlach
Scoil na Fisice
Coláiste na Tríonóide
Fón: +353 1896 3138
Ríomhphost: david.o.regan@tcd.ie