Leeor Kronik - Biography#

Prof. Leeor Kronik received a B.Sc. in Electrical Engineering, Summa Cum Laude, in 1991 and a Ph.D. in Physical Electronics, with distinction, in 1996, both from Tel Aviv University. Following mandatory military service, he was a Rothschild and Fulbright Postdoctoral Fellow and Minnesota Supercomputing Institute Fellow at the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, University of Minnesota (1999-2002). He then joined the Weizmann Institute as a Senior Scientist, where he is now a Chaired Professor and Director of the Center for Advanced and Intelligent Materials. Between 2012 and 2021 he was Chair of the Department of Materials and Interfaces.

Prof. Kronik presently advises a group of ~10 graduate students and post-docs. The group’s research is focused on understanding unique properties and behavior of materials and interfaces, using first principles quantum mechanical calculations based mostly on density functional theory and many-body perturbation theory. The group is actively engaged in the prediction and interpretation of novel experiments, as well as in the development of formalism and methodology. Current research interests include optimally-tuned functionals, ensemble methods, real-space calculations, halide perovskite, molecular solids, spintronic materials, and 2d materials. He has co-authored >250 peer-reviewed scientific articles, cited > 28,000 times with an h-index of 86, and has presented >290 invited lectures, seminars, and colloquia.

Prof. Kronik has received multiple awards for his work, most recently the Outstanding Scientist Award of the Israel Chemical Society (2021), the Helen and Martin Kimmel award for innovative investigation (2021), and the Israel Vacuum Society Excellence Award for Research (2018). He was elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (2013) and appointed (in the inaugural group) as a member of the Young Israel Academy (2012).