Lukas Bongartz
I received my PhD (Dr. rer. nat.) in Physics in Summer 2025, which I pursued at TU Dresden and Stanford University, fortunate to have been advised by Karl Leo and Alberto Salleo. My research focused on transistors with carbon semiconductors, developing a thermodynamic model for their applications in novel computing paradigms. I derived theoretical predictions and evaluated them experimentally, developed automated fitting algorithms for a quantum-mechanical model from detector data, and built a tensor framework in PyTorch that, for the first time, brings together equilibrium and non-equilibrium data. I am very grateful to have received the Best PhD Thesis Award in November 2025 for this work.
Beyond my PhD research, I explored self-organization in computational systems using information theory as a fellow at cimc.ai. During my undergraduate studies, I specialized in molecular-dynamics simulations and worked on neural interfaces with Tsuyoshi Sekitani in Osaka, Japan. I also completed a second Master’s degree in Economics during the early years of my PhD, which was a goal I had long set for myself. I see economics as the most powerful framework for understanding human behavior, and it is no coincidence that physics is reflected throughout. Nature is self-similar across scales.
I currently work on improving transformer models through thermodynamics and optimal transport.
Some paper (more here)
- Statistical mechanics for organic mixed conductors: phase transitions in a lattice gas
arXiv:2512.20727, under review (2025) - Electron–ion coupling breaks energy symmetry in bistable organic electrochemical transistors
Nature Communications Materials (2025) - Bistable organic electrochemical transistors: enthalpy vs. entropy
Nature Communications (2024)
Some projects (more here)