My research centers on understanding and design of novel condensed phases and their properties with theoretical and computational approaches. A major theme of my work is to devise analytical and computational methods that exploit connections between these disparate materials classes to create general approximations and methods, design new materials, and understand novel phenomena. An ultimate aim is the development of new intuition – or “design rules” – connecting emergent properties and function to chemical composition and structure. As such, I draw upon and develop contemporary “first principles” density functional theory (DFT)-based approaches, theoretical methods at the nexus of condensed matter physics, nanoscience, quantum chemistry, and computational materials. My work is multidisciplinary, focuses on both hard and soft matter, and reflects a breadth consistent with the applicability of first-principles DFT-based methods. I interact closely with experimental research groups to guide and be inspired by state-of-the-art studies of real physical systems, and to validate and further develop our fundamental understanding of condensed matter.