Woochang Kim

I am a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Physics at the University of California, Berkeley. My research focuses on developing high-performance computing programs for materials simulations based on quantum mechanical first-principle approaches and on applying these tools to model and predict real-world experiments. I am fortunate to be advised by Prof. Steven G. Louie.

Publications

Google Scholar

In preparation

1. Z. Xiang, J. Xiao, H. Li, W. Kim, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, S. G. Louie, M. F. Crommie, and F. Wang, “Imaging quantum melting of anisotropic Wigner crystals” (2025).
2. Z. Liu, G. Espitia, W. Kim, X. Liu, X. Yu, K. Hao, Y. Li, F. Zhang, S. Arash, S. Lee, J. B. Haber, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, K. Ueno, E. Tutuc, F. H. da Jornada, C.-K. Shih, M. H. Naik, S. G. Louie, and X. Li, “Giant intervalley exciton absorption in a large twist-angle semiconductor bilayer”, (2025).
3. M. D. Ben et al., “BerkeleyGW-4.x: A portable exascale-ready software package for electronic excited-state properties of materials”, (2025).

Preprint

1. T. Wang*, M. Wang*, W. Kim*, S. G. Louie, L. Fu, and M. P. Zaletel, “Topology, magnetism and charge order in twisted MoTe₂ at higher integer hole fillings”, arXiv (2023).

Peer-reviewed Articles

1. Y. Yoon, Z. Lu, C. Uzundal, R. Qi, W. Zhao, S. Chen, Q. Feng, W. Kim, M. H. Naik, K. Watanabe, T. Taniguchi, S. G. Louie, M. F. Crommie, and F. Wang, “Terahertz phonon engineering with van der Waals heterostructures”, Nature 631, 771 (2024).
2. H. Li, Z. Xiang, T. Wang, M. H. Naik, W. Kim, J. Nie, S. Li, Z. Ge, Z. He, Y. Ou, R. Banerjee, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, S. G. Louie, M. P. Zaletel, M. F. Crommie, and F. Wang, “Imaging tunable Luttinger liquid systems in van der Waals heterostructures”, Nature 631, 765 (2024).
3. H. Li, Z. Xiang, M. H. Naik, W. Kim, Z. Li, R. Sailus, R. Banerjee, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, S. Tongay, A. Zettl, F. H. da Jornada, S. G. Louie, M. F. Crommie, and F. Wang, “Imaging moiré excited states with photocurrent tunnelling microscopy”, Nature Materials 1 (2024).

* Equal contribution

Conference Presentations

1. Electron crystallization in weakly doped semiconductors from first principles, contributed talk, APS Global Physics Summit, Anaheim, CA, Mar 16–21 2025.
2. Moiré effect on the higher-energy excitonic states in WSe₂/WS₂ superlattice, APS March Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, Mar 3–8 2024.
3. Diverse Nature of Excitonic States in Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Moiré Superlattices, EFRC-Hub-CMS-CCS PI Meeting, virtual, Oct 18–26 2023.
4. GW-BSE study on interlayer moiré excitonic states in twisted bilayer WSe₂, APS March Meeting, Las Vegas, NV, Mar 5–10 2023.
5. First-principles study of electronic structures and topological properties of hexagonal networks of carbon, Korean Physical Society Spring Meeting (online), Apr 21–23 2021. Excellent Presentation Award

Technical Skills

• Programming Languages: Python, C++, Fortran
• HPC & Parallel Programming: MPI, OpenMP, CUDA
• ML & Data Analysis: PyTorch, scikit-learn, Pandas
• Quantum Computing: Qiskit
• Developer Tools: CMake, Git, Slurm
• Material Simulation Packages: BerkeleyGW, Quantum ESPRESSO, SIESTA, LAMMPS

Awards & Honors

• Winner, Lightning Talk Challenge – EFRC PI Meeting, U.S. Department of Energy (2023)
• Excellent Presentation Award – Korean Physical Society Spring Meeting (2021)
• Graduated with High Honors – Top 3% of College of Science, Yonsei University, (2021)
• Seoam Scholarship – Full scholarship with stipends, SBS Foundation (2015 - 2016)

Military Service

Republic of Korea Air Force
Jan 2016 – Jan 2018