Ethan Ritz
I am an assistant professor at Harvey Mudd College. I run a computational materials lab and teach classes involving mechanics, system dynamics, and materials science. My main area of study is the phase change and thermal behavior of periodic crystalline systems, including piezoelectrics, ferroelectrics, and superconductors. I like thinking about how the symmetry of these systems helps constrain and define their behavior. I prefer combining simple analytical models informed by group theory with powerful computational techniques such as density functional theory. My undergraduate degree is from Harvey Mudd College (BS, Engineering 2012). My PhD is from Cornell University (Sibley School of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering 2020), where I worked with Nicole Benedek to explore understand thermal expansion in ferrolectrics. I did a postdoc at the University of Minnesota with Turan Birol in the Theoretical Materials Physics Group, where I focused on a family of metallic Kagome systems.
HMC Engineering
2372 Parsons Hall
Harvey Mudd College
Claremont, CA, 91711
eritz~at~hmc~dot~edu