Dr. Kenneth T. Park

Education

• Ph.D. - Physics, University of Rochester - 1993
• M.A. - Physics, University of Rochester - 1990
• B.A. - Physics, Univ. of California, Berkeley - 1988

Biography

After obtaining Ph.D. degree in 1993, Dr. Park continued his work with Prof. Kamil Klier at Lehigh University, in the Department of Chemistry as a post-doctoral researcher. Using high resolution X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (Scienta ESCA 300), he investigated surface electronic and atomic structures and their relationship to chemical reactivity on model catalytic systems. In 1997, Dr. Park joined the Baylor faculty as an assistant professor in physics. In 2004, he was awarded tenure and promoted to an associate professor. In June of 2004, he left for Oak Ridge National Laboratory for sabbatical research. After he came back in January of 2005, he assumed the Director of Graduate Study until May of 2006. He has continued his collaboration with colleagues at ORNL and Louisiana State Univeristy.

Academic Interests and Research

Dr. Park's research interests have been centered on understanding of surface atomic and electronic structures and their effect toward adsorbates. In the past couple of decades, he has investigated defect formation, their atomic structure, and local stoichiometry on single crystal TiO2 surfaces. Particularly using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy, he studied the relationship between local stoichiometry and structure in nanometer-sized surface defects and their chemical property. 

More recently, he has been employing all-electron density functional theory (DFT, implemented in Wien2k) to investigate the projection-sensitivity in the Hubbard-corrected DFT methods. The works demonstrate that physically inconsistent Hubbard correction produces artificial DFT+U results and they originate from the combined projection-space dependence of orbital occupancies and enhanced electronic screening associated with orbital spatial extention. In another project, he examines the pressure-induced mechanical and dynamically instabilities in TiO2 polymorphs. Recently, he has addressed the existence and role of a CaCl2-type intermediate in the high-pressure transformation of rutile TiO2. His work shows that although the Pnnm phase is the natural ferroelastic product, it is energetically suppressed by other high-pressure phases, providing a unified explanation for the long-standing discrepancy between theory and experiment. 

Research Interests

Computational Solid State Physics

• Materials modeling using the Hubbard-corrected DFT method
• Dynamical properties using DFPT implemented in Quantum Espresso
• Pressure-induced ferroelastic phase transition & thermodynamic competition

Experimental Solid State Physics

• Surface defects & nanoparticles on TiO₂
• Alkali metal adsorbed on MoS₂: Electron donor-acceptor complex
• Metal-organic interface: Thin films of metallo-phthalocyanine (MPc, M = Cu, Ni, Co, and Fe)

Selected Publications

"Ferroelastic instability in rutile TiO2 and thermodynamic suppression of the CaCl2-type phase," Jared Pohlmann, Anjy-Joe Olatunbosun, and Kenneth Park, a preprint available in ArXiv (https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.08860) (2026).

"Controlling Projection-Space Artifacts in DFT+U via Projection-Consistent U_eff," Manjula Raman and Kenneth Park, APL Computational Physics 2, 026110 (2026).

“Stability of TiO₂ phases studied using r²SCAN in the Hubbard-corrected density functional theory,” Jared Pohlmann, Manjula Raman, Lily Bonds, and Kenneth T. Park, Molecules 30, 560 (2025).

Editor’s Pick “Revisiting DFT+U Calculations of TiO₂ and the Effect of the Local-projection Size,” Kenneth T. Park, Manjula Raman, Anjy-Joe Olatunbosun and Jared Polhmann, AIP Advances 14, 065114 (2024). 

Courses Taught

PHY 1408 - General Physics for Natural and Behavioral Sciences
PHY 1409 - General Physics for Natural and Behavioral Sciences II
PHY 1420 - General Physics I
PHY 4372 - Introduction to Solid State Physics
PHY 5180 - Graduate Physics Colloquium
PHY 5340 - Statistical Mechanics
PHY 5360 - Mathematical Physics I
PHY 5361 - Mathematical Physics II

PHY 5381 - Special Topics in Physics: Introduction to Density Functional Theory

PHY 5381 - Special Topics in Physics: Symmetry, Group Theory, and Tensor
PHY 5372 - Solid State Physics
PHY 5V95 - Graduate Research
PHY 5V99 - Thesis
PHY 6V99 - Dissertation

Current Graduate Students

Jared Pohlmann, Anjy-Joe Olatubosun

Former Ph.D Students(Degree Year)

Manjula Raman (Ph.D. 2026)

Ke "Zack" Zhu (Ph.D. 2016)
Nan-Hsin "Nancy" Yu (Ph.D. 2012)
Kedar Manandhar (Ph.D. 2007)
Aroshan Jayasinghe (M.S. 2006)
Trinity Ellis (Ph.D. 2005)
Jie (Jay) Kong (Ph.D. 2000)

External Grants and Contracts

"Role of sub-stoichiometric defects in the formation of nanoparticles," Kenneth T. Park, Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, user access to Scanning Tunneling Microscopy facility; December, 2006 till December, 2007

"Heteroepitaxial Thin Films of Organic Molecules Studied by Angle-Resolved Ultraviolet Photoelectron Spectroscopy," Kenneth T. Park, Brookhaven National Laboratory - National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS), Proposal # 4785, 28 days of beam time; May 1, 2002 till April 30, 2004

ACS-PRF Summer Research Fellowship, Kenneth T. Park; a Supplementary Grant to PRF# 36245-G5; June 1, 2002 till August 2, 2002

Experimental and Theoretical Study of Electron Donor-Acceptor Surface Complexes;, Kenneth T. Park, American Chemical Society, Petroleum Research Fund, PRF# 36245-G5; September 1, 2001 till August 31, 2004