Meet Pinchen Xie, 2024 Alvarez Fellow

Berkeley Lab’s Newest Alvarez Fellow, Pinchen Xie, first became interested in multiscale modeling as an undergraduate physics student at Fudan University. Xie said he was fascinated with how physicists could understand and explain the material world with quantum mechanics. This fascination led him to Princeton University’s Computational Chemical Science Center, where he worked at the intersection of machine learning and molecular modeling, focusing on developing methods to simulate mesoscopic physical processes with quantum accuracy. He earned his Ph.D. in Applied and Computational Mathematics, and his research gravitated toward the applications of multiscale methods in solid-state material and biomolecular research. These fields are pivotal in addressing the technical challenges in material discovery and device development.

 “The focus of my work has really been to establish a bridge between the abstract principles of quantum mechanics and classical theories of atomic behavior, ultimately allowing us to model physical processes on the meso- and macro-scale with high accuracy,” Xie said. “I’d like to push quantum-based multiscale modeling further into practical application. ”

Last month, Xie joined the Scalable Solvers Group within the Applied Mathematics and Computational Research Division, working closely with Senior Scientist Chao Yang as his mentor. His focus as an Alvarez Fellow will be on expanding the scope of machine learning-assisted multiscale modeling, essentially attempting to describe rare but important atomic behaviors that have not been simulated with the accuracy of quantum mechanics. “The interaction with fellow lab members also inspired me to investigate the evolution of open quantum systems with multiscale methods,” Xie said. Predicting the evolution of these systems holds the potential to advance the field of quantum computing.

 “Berkeley Lab is such an excellent place for computational research, with the infrastructure and the opportunity to collaborate with so many different scientists across disciplines,” he said.

Xie is no stranger to Berkeley Lab—he was a visiting student at UC Berkeley eight years ago and was intrigued by the Lab back then. He’s been a NERSC user throughout his Ph.D. program and credits the resources and people associated with NERSC for helping him in his past research.

With his recent relocation to the San Francisco Bay Area, Xie has enjoyed diving into local culture when he’s not focused on research. In his downtime, Xie is excited to explore hiking, paddle-boarding, Asian cuisine, and live theaters in his new home.

“I’m so happy to be here in the Bay Area, especially at Berkeley Lab, where there are so many people I can collaborate with and have exciting scientific discussions with,” Xie said. “It is a perfect place for me to move forward with my research.”

Berkeley Lab’s Luis W. Alvarez Fellowship in Computing Sciences offers upcoming or recent Ph.D.s the opportunity to work on some of the most important research challenges in computing sciences at a national lab synonymous with scientific excellence. Since its founding in 2002, the fellowship has cultivated exceptional young scientists who have gone on to make outstanding contributions to computational and computing sciences as researchers, professors, and in the private sector.