Nikhil Seshadri is a post-bachelor’s student at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) working on fundamental problems in theoretical chemistry, chemical physics and the physics and chemistry of materials. He will pursue doctoral studies at the California Institute of Technology in fall 2026.
At LANL, Seshadri works with Dr. Yu Zhang on cavity quantum electrodynamics, specifically extending the Gutzwiller wavefunction method to account for nonlocal electron-electron and electron-photon interactions. This work aims to provide a unified framework for studying the interplay between these interactions, and how they can be tuned to discover new quantum phases and control material properties. He seeks to apply rigorous mathematical methods and first-principles approaches to address fundamental problems in chemistry and physics, particularly in systems where the principles of quantum mechanics become relevant.
Seshadri received a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University with a double concentration in chemistry and physics (chemical physics) and computer science, with a secondary in mathematical sciences. While in high school, he worked on quantum thermodynamics with Professor Michael Galperin at the University of California, San Diego. As an undergraduate, he was actively engaged in research in open quantum systems, porphyrin chemistry and X-ray diffraction. While working with Professor Galperin, he employed standard and Hubbard Nonequilibrium Green’s function (NEGF) techniques to derive expressions for entropy production and information flow in open quantum systems strongly coupled to baths. He also employed NEGF and Bloch quantum master equation formulations to assess the applicability of the Liouvillian exceptional points approach to nanoscale open quantum systems. The critical finding was that introducing a Markov approximation to describe a system exhibiting non-Markovian evolution can result in the artificial appearance of exceptional points that did not exist in the dynamics of the original system.
Born in San Diego, Seshadri enjoys playing the violin and piano, with a special interest in baroque music. He was a member of the Harvard Baroque Chamber Orchestra and performed at the Harvard Memorial Church.
