About Me

Hi, I’m Ardy! 

I’m a postdoctoral scientist in the Berkelbach group at Columbia University, developing methods to study electron transfer and ion transport in electrochemical cells. 

I received my PhD in chemistry (Advisor: Prof. Adam P. Willard) from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2024, where I was an NSF GRFP Fellow and MIT Presidential Fellow. During my PhD, my primary project was to study the role of phonons on reaction dynamics at metal catalyst surfaces. I developed a general theory, based on mapping the physics to a generalized Langevin equation, that describes how phonons couple to molecular adsorbates depending on the adsorption strength.

I also studied charge carrier recombination in quantum dots, and exciton dynamics in organic semiconductors. In general, my PhD work investigated how memory alters chemical dynamics in these condensed phase systems. 

I am interested in using theory and computation to understand — and in turn inform the design of — novel materials, particularly in application to clean energy and renewability. Renewability is not only our best option to fight climate change, but a significant hurdle toward global peace. In a nutshell, too much blood is spilt and too many bad people are left in power due to humanity's crippling addiction to carbon. 

Previously, I earned my bachelor's degree at UC Davis in chemical physics (graduating summa cum laude in 2017). While at UC Davis, I mainly studied the role of water in internal protein pockets using classical molecular dynamics simulations.