Embedded Files
Current:
Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Michigan State University
Formerly:
Department of Physics, Scientific Computing, Materials Science and Eng., Florida State University
Condensed Matter Theory, National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University
Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering
Education:
PDF, University of California, Berkeley & Berkeley National Lab, 2014
Staff Scientist, California Institute of Technology & Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis, 2013
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 2012
M.Sc., California Institute of Technology (Caltech), 2010
B.Sc., Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), 2008. University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2008
Short Bio:
I am a theoretical condensed matter physicist and material scientist, that specializes in computational - physics/materials science/chemistry/engineering, and many-body theory. In other words, I study methods for solving the Schrödinger's or Dirac's equation, machine learning equations, among others. These methods include development of computational algorithms and their mathematical properties.
Dr. Mendoza's research has been featured in Forbes magazine, CNBC, Public Radio, MRS Bulletin, C&EN News, Laser Focus World magazine, and the DOE Highlights. His research has been disseminated through 53 invited talks both nationally and internationally. Dr. Mendoza's research has received funding from NSF, DOE, DOD, APS, Sloan Foundation, to name a few.
Dr. Mendoza was awarded the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Newcomb Cleveland Award, this Society's oldest and most prestigious award; the International Center for Material Research (ICMR) fellowship; and the Roberto Rocca Fellowship. More recently, he has been awarded the ONR Faculty Fellowship (2017), and the Carl Storm Fellowship (2018). In 2018, he was named an Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry and was named a 2020, 2021 and 2022 Scialog Fellow.
Dr. Mendoza has made significant contributions to the understanding of structure in 2D-materials, energy storage, catalysis, and how to use data-mining and machine learning on the physical sciences. More specifically, he has provided significant advances on understanding defects in 2D-materials, future 2D-materials, next-generation Li-batteries, hydrogen storage, and catalysis for clean energy (CO2 reduction, water splitting, and hydrogen evolution), materials design principles, machine learning force fields, and material databases for data mining.
Because of graduate and post-graduate studies advisors, Dr. Mendoza-Cortes' academic great grand parents are Marie Curie and Paul Dirac.
Honors and Awards:
2025 Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society of Chemistry, UK.
2024 Telly Award.
2023 Speaker for the annual Blue/Green Seminar
2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 Scialog fellow, 50 faculty/year including both USA and Canada.
Emerging Investigator by the Royal Society (RSC), 2018.
Carl Storm Fellowship, Gordon Research Conference, 2018.
ONR Summer Faculty Research Fellow, 2017.
CRC assistant professor award, 2016.
Caltech Graduate Student Travel Award, 2010.
Roberto Rocca Graduate Fellowship, 2009.
International Center for Materials Research fellowship, 2009.
AAAS Newcomb Cleveland Prize, 2007; AAAS's oldest award (AAAS = American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS is the 'The World's Largest General Scientific Society')
Snyder Research Fellowship (UIUC), 2005.
Scientific pedigree:
* J.L. Mendoza-Cortes obtained his Ph.D. in 2012 from William A. Godddard at Caltech in USA.
* William A. Goddard III obtained his Ph.D. in 1964 from Pol Duwez at Caltech in USA.
* Pol Duwez received his D.Sc. in 1933 from Emile Henriot at U. Brussels in Belgium.
* Emile Henriot received his D.Sc. in 1912 from Marie Curie at the Sorbonne in France.
* J.L. Mendoza-Cortes did his PDF in 2014 with Martin Head-Gordon at Berkeley in USA.
* Martin Head-Gordon obtained his Ph.D. in 1989 from John Pople at Carnegie Mellon in USA.
* John Pople received his D.Sc. in 1951 from John Lennard-Jones at Cambridge in England.
* John Lennard-Jones received his D.Sc. in 1924 from Ralph H. Fowler at Cambridge in England.
* Ralph H. Fowler gave his D.Sc. in 1926 to Paul Dirac at Cambridge in England.
Heroes: Marie Curie, Paul Dirac, Grigori Perelman.
Random facts:
I met the president of a country as one of the best students in the national academic Olympiad, which included all the 6th graders.
I appeared in the back cover of all the textbooks of a public high schools system. This was because I participated in all of the available Science Olympiads at the time (Chemistry, Physics, Informatics and Mathematics) and represented a country.
Extended Bio:
Jose L. Mendoza-Cortes is a theoretical and computational condensed matter physicist, material scientist and chemist specializing in computational physics, materials science, chemistry, and engineering. His studies include methods for solving Schrodinger's or Dirac's equation and machine learning equations, among others, developing computational algorithms and their mathematical properties (MSU profile).
Because of graduate and post-graduate studies advisors, Dr. Mendoza-Cortes' academic ancestors are Marie Curie and Paul Dirac (Academic Tree). His family branch is connected to Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés and the first viceroy of New Spain, Antonio de Mendoza.
Mendoza is a proponent of renaissance science and engineering-solving problems by combining and developing several areas of knowledge, independent of their traditional boundaries. He has contributed to Relativistic Quantum Mechanics, models for Beyond-Standard-Model physics, Renewable and Sustainable Energy, Future Batteries, Machine Learning and AI, Quantum Computing, and Advanced Mathematics.
Education:
Throughout his school years he earned top honours in the national Knowledge Olympiad at the primary-school level and, in high school, won national and international Olympiads in chemistry, informatics, mathematics, and physics.
Mendoza completed his B.Sc. in chemistry and physics from Tec de Monterrey (ITESM), Monterrey, Mexico in 2008. During this time, he had an interchange program in the last two years of his B.Sc. to finish all the master's degree classes at the University of California, Los Angeles. Following this, he moved to Pasadena, California to complete his M.Sc. at California Institute of Technology (CalTech)in 2010. After the completion of his M.Sc., he stayed at Caltech and completed his Ph.D. in physics in 2012. His research advisor was William Goddard III and his dissertation title is (Design of Molecules and Materials for Applications in Clean Energy, Catalysis and Molecular Machines Through Quantum Mechanics, Molecular Dynamics and Monte Carlo Simulations). He completed his postdoctoral studies at University of California, Berkeley.
Career:
During his undergraduate studies, Dr. Mendoza was awarded the Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), given annually to the authors of the most outstanding paper in Science. Specifically, he co-authored the first 3D covalent organic frameworks (COFs), COF-103 and COF-108, helping launch the field, and created computational models to simulate their X-ray patterns for structure identification (Science 2007). He also worked on cataloging all the secundary building units (SBUs) used for Metal-Organic Frameworks, which part of the work that was awarded the 2025 Nobel Prize (RSC 2009).
Following graduation, Mendoza joined the Joint Center for Artificial Photosynthesis (JCAP) at Caltech as a staff scientist until 2013 and then as a postdoctoral fellow at Caltech until 2014, starting the theory and simulations arm of JCAP before moving to UC Berkeley.
In 2015, he joined Florida State University (FSU) as faculty in Physics, Scientific Computing, Chemical & Biomedical Engineering, and Materials Science & Engineering (through 2020), and was also a scientist at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory and Condensed Matter group. He is credited with starting and developing the first class in Quantum Computing and Machine Learning at FSU.
Dr. Mendoza is currently on the faculty in Physics & Astronomy and Chemical Engineering & Materials Science at Michigan State University (MSU). He created several courses combining Machine Learning, Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science, and Quantum modeling to design materials from the atomic scale.
He is the only researcher named four consecutive years to the Scialog Fellowship (2020-2023) for contributions to negative-emissions technologies (RCSA Scialog). His work on amphidynamic behavior in oligo-functionalized covalent-organic frameworks was selected for the 2018 Emerging Investigators collection, and he received a 2018 GAP award at FSU for creating a database to predict materials with desirable properties
He served on the American Physical Society's national Committee on Minorities (COM), which developed the Bridge Program, now expanded into the Inclusive Graduate Education Network (IGEN) with 30 societies, corporations, and national laboratories; APS News: IGEN).
His research has been featured in major outlets, including Forbes, CNBC, and MRS Bulletin, among others. He has delivered 60+ invited and keynote lectures worldwide.
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse