Ross Larsen's research interests involve using a variety of theoretical and simulation methods to solve problems related to energy applications, in collaboration with experimentalists whenever possible. His recent work spans a variety of areas, including: combinatorial computational polymer materials discovery; modeling degradation in optical reflectors and absorbers for concentrated solar power applications; computation of surface-adsorbate interactions for catalysis applications; and using ab initio molecular dynamics methods to understand how thermal fluctuations may alter solid state properties such as band structure. A common theme of this research is finding novel ways to combine classical simulation methods, such as molecular dynamics or diagrammatic statistical mechanics methods, with ab initio electronic structure calculations to understand how atomic motions affect material properties.
