Farnaz Kaboudvand

Biography

Farnaz grew up in Tehran, Iran and moved to the US to pursue her PhD in materials science. She is a 3rd year PhD student at UCSB, co-advised by Ram Seshadri and Stephen Wilson in the Materials Department. She utilizes first-principles tools to study quantum materials, with an emphasis on topological semimetals. In her research, she works on the phase stability, electronic structure, and dynamic instabilities (though the calculation of phonons) of different materials that are of interest to the Quantum Foundry. Farnaz has also received the Eddleman Graduate Fellowship. Her work is mostly computational, which means she writes and uses MATLAB and Python scripts to process, visualize, and understand her data daily. Besides playing with atoms computationally, she enjoys playing volleyball, hiking, cooking, and hanging out with her friends.