# About our group
Our group is located at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in Berkeley, California. LBNL is managed by the University of California at Berkeley, which is located just down the hill. 13 Nobel prizes have been awarded to scientists from LBNL. The lab has spectacular views of San Francisco, which is located across the bay and is about a 30 minute drive or BART train ride away. Berkeley itself is a vibrant city of 115,000 people filled with cafes, restaurants of all types, and cultural activities.
Our group aims to tackle some of the most important problems lying at the intersection of materials science and computer science. We differ from a traditional materials theory group in our emphasis on building long-term software, in leveraging large supercomputers, and in applying machine learning to materials problems.
The size of our research group fluctuates, but is usually around 10 people, making it a medium-sized research group. Our group is linked to the larger theory groups of Kristin Persson, Gerbrand Ceder, Jeffrey Neaton, and Mark Asta – creating a close-knit community of materials theory within Berkeley (we have a shared Slack organization). We also collaborate with groups external to the Berkeley area, and thus it is almost always the case that someone within our collaboration circle has experience with any new methods or applications you might be interested in. We hope you are able to leverage many of these resources during your stay!
Many new discoveries remain to be uncovered in the field of materials design and in our relatively new subfield of materials informatics. Your contributions are urgently needed to make this new vision a reality - welcome!
HackingMaterials group in 2023
View of the Bay from Building 67 @ LBNL
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