Dr. Neil Shenvi grew up in Delaware and attended Princeton University as an undergraduate where he worked on high-dimensional function approximation with Professor Herschel Rabitz. He became a Christian in Berkeley, CA where he did his PhD in Theoretical Chemistry at UC – Berkeley with Professor Birgitta Whaley. The subject of his PhD dissertation was quantum computation, including topics in quantum random walks, cavity quantum electrodynamics, spin physics, and the N-representability problem. From 2005-2010, He worked as a postdoctoral associate with Prof. John Tully at Yale where he did research into nonadiabatic dynamics, electron transfer, and surface science. He moved down to Durham in 2010 to do research into nonadiabatic dynamics and electronic structure theory with professor Weitao Yang at Duke University. A list of his publications can be found there.
A few days after arriving in Durham, He had a seizure caused by an undiagnosed 5cm brain tumor between his cerebellum and occipital lobe. By God’s grace, the emergency surgery was a success and he’s been healthy ever since.
In 2015, he quit his job at Duke to homeschool his four children, although he still fiddles with quantum mechanics now and then for fun. In addition to his duties as the principal of the South Durham Academy for Math and Science (also known as Daddy Academy), He tutors the Master’s class at their local Classical Conversations homeschool co-op. In his spare time, he enjoys reading, weightlifting, and video games.
He and his wife are members of the Summit Church. If you have questions about Christianity or anything else, feel free to email him at: nashenvi@gmail.com