Alex Thomson

Headshot of Alex Thomson

Assistant Professor
Office: 415 Physics Building
Phone: 530-752-1500
Email: arthomson@ucdavis.edu

Personal Professional Website: https://physics.ucdavis.edu/directory/faculty/alex-thomson

Research Interests:

Alex Thomson's research is in the area of theoretical condensed matter physics. She uses analytical calculations as well as computation to treat the complex interactions among electrons that may ultimately lead to new devices and other applications. Additional research interests include twisted bilayer graphene, transition metal dichalcogenides, 2d materials, quantum criticality, spin liquids, and disordered field theories. During her graduate studies, she spent time as a Graduate Fellow at UCSB’s Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and she received the Gertrude and Maurice Goldhaber Prize as one of the most outstanding students of her year at Harvard University. She began her prestigious Sherman Fairchild fellowship immediately upon her graduation.

Thomson received her B.S. in Mathematics and Physics in 2011 from McGill University, Montreal. She earned her Ph.D. in Physics in 2018 from Harvard University under the guidance of Professor Subir Sachdev.

Research Areas

Career History

  • Research Assistant, Physics Department, McGill University, Quebec, 2009 - 2011
  • Ph.D. Student, Harvard University, 2012-2018
  • Graduate Fellow, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, 2017
  • Ph.D., Harvard University, 2018
  • Sherman Fairchild Postdoctoral Scholar Research Associate in Theoretical Physics, Walter Burke Institute for Theoretical Physics, California Institute of Technology, 2018 - Present

Honors

  • Caltech Burke Fellowship, 2018
  • Maurice and Gertrude Goldhaber Prize, 2018
  • Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics Graduate Fellow, 2017
  • NSERCPGS D, 2015-2017
  • NSERCPGS M, 2012-2013
  • Harvard Purcell Fellowship, 2012-2013
  • McGill Student Undergraduate Research Award, 2011
  • NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, 2010
  • NSERC Undergraduate Student Research Award, 2009
  • D' Arcy M. Doherty Scholarship, 2007-2011