A personal perspective on density functional theory: its origin, prominence and future

by Zheng Liu (Beihang University)

Thursday 2 Apr 2026, 15:10 → 16:10 Asia/Shanghai

B105 (CHEP)

Density functional theory (DFT) is widely perceived to be the “standard model” for electronic band computation, but incapable for strongly-correlated electrons. Notwithstanding, Walter Kohn’s original statement on DFT is clearly beyond this scope. From the modern perspective, DFT represents a tomography technique, which aims to recover the complete information of the electronic system from local density measurements. This talk will provide a bird’s eye view of this broad field, and discuss how further progress can be made at the foundational level.

Bio:
Zheng Liu obtained his PhD in physic from Institute for Advanced Study, Tsinghua University (IASTU) in 2012. After three years of postdoctoral research at the University of Utah, he returned IASTU working for 9 years. In 2024, he joined Beihang University as a Professor of Physics.