Biography
Morten is a computational physicist whose research spans quantum many-body theory, computational science, quantum computing, and machine learning. He has devoted his career to developing and applying advanced computational methodologies for tackling some of the most challenging problems in modern physics, with a particular emphasis on the quantum mechanics of interacting particles.
Morten’s work centers on the idea that computation is a fundamental theoretical tool, on equal footing with analysis and experiment. He has made many contributions to the development of state-of-the-art numerical algorithms, including large-scale many-body methods, quantum Monte Carlo techniques, and machine-learning–enhanced computational frameworks. His research connects nuclear physics, condensed matter theory, quantum chemistry, and quantum information science, providing unified computational approaches across these traditionally separate fields.
He has also been deeply involved in the rapidly developing interface between quantum technologies and machine learning, contributing to the advancement of quantum algorithms, quantum state engineering, and hybrid quantum–classical computational strategies. His work extends from fundamental theoretical problems—such as emergent phenomena and entanglement in strongly correlated systems—to practical algorithmic development for simulation platforms and quantum devices.
In addition to his research contributions, Morten is an active educator and mentor, known for promoting and firmly advocating open science and open access to computational resources, developing widely used teaching materials, and contributing to community-building efforts in computational and quantum science. All course material developed by Morten is openly available from his GitHub address. Feel free to download codes and teaching material of interest. And don't hesitate to use the material wherever you are located.
Research interests
Quantum Many-Body Theory
• Emergence of correlations and entanglement in complex quantum systems
• Strongly interacting fermionic and bosonic systems
• Collective phenomena in nuclear systems, ultracold atoms, and condensed matter
Condensed Matter & Nuclear Physics
• Quantum entanglement in materials and many-body phases
• Nuclear structure and reactions
• Dense matter and astrophysical applications (neutron stars, EOS modeling)
Many-Body Computational Methods
• Full Configuration Interaction (FCI) and exact diagonalization
• Mean-field theories: Hartree–Fock
• Green’s function methods and many-body self-energy approaches
• Coupled-Cluster theory across physics and chemistry
• Many-Body Perturbation Theory (MBPT) and diagrammatic expansions
• Quantum Monte Carlo methods
Machine Learning in Physical Sciences
• Physics-informed neural networks and surrogate modeling
• ML-enhanced many-body solvers and variational approaches
• Classification and clustering of quantum phases and transitions
• Representation learning for configuration spaces and quantum states
Quantum Computing & Quantum Engineering
• Quantum algorithms for simulation of interacting systems
• Error mitigation and noise-aware state preparation
• Quantum state engineering and control
• Hybrid quantum–classical computational workflows
• Entanglement structure and resource characterization in quantum devices
Quantum Machine Learning
• Quantum-enhanced learning architectures
• Variational quantum circuits and parametrized quantum models
• Quantum kernel methods and quantum feature spaces
Quantum Science & Technology
• Benchmarks for quantum sensors and metrological protocols
• Simulation of noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) hardware
• Cross-disciplinary development of software tools and computational frameworks
Education
- 1993 PhD Physics, University of Oslo, Norway
- 1988 Siv.Ing. (MSc equivalent) Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway
Awards and fellowships
- University of Oslo award for excellence in teaching, 2000 (250kNOK)
- Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society, 2007
- Oak Ridge National Laboratory excellence in research award, 2008
- Outstanding referee award of the American Physical Society, 2008
- University of Oslo award for excellence in teaching for the Computing in Science Education project, 2011 (250kNOK)
- NOKUT (Norwegian entity of quality assessment in higher education) award for excellence in teaching for the Computing in Science Education project, 2012
- Elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters, 2013
- Elected member of the Royal Norwegian Society of Sciences and Letters, 2015
- University of Oslo award for excellence in teaching for developing the Computational Physics group, 2015 (250kNOK)
- Favorite graduate teacher at the Department of Physics and Astronomy at Michigan State University, 2016
- Olav Thon Foundation National prize for excellence in teaching award (National, all Norwegian higher education institutions, 500kNOK), 2018
- Thomas H. Osgood Faculty Teaching award at Michigan State University, 2018
- University of Oslo merited teacher award 2020
- College of Natural Science Norman L and Olga K. Fritz Excellence in Teaching Award, Michigan State University, 2021
- Elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2024
Teaching
- FYS-STK3155/4155 - Applied Data Analysis and Machine Learning, developed and taught since fall semester 2018
- FYS4480/9480 - Quantum Mechanics for Many-Particle Systems. Developed and taught 2009-2014 and since Fall 2022
- FYS3150/4150- Computational Physics I. Developed and taught 1999-2021
- FYS4411/9411 - Computational Physics 2: Quantum-Mechanical Systems. Developed and taught since spring semester 2004
- FYS5419/9419 - Quantum Computing and Quantum Machine Learning. Developed and taught since spring semester 2023
- FYS5429/9429 - Advanced Machine Learning for the Physical Sciences. Developed and taught since spring semester 2023
- PHY321, Classical Mechanics (Michigan State University), taught spring 2020-2023
- PHY981, Nuclear Structure (Michigan State University), taught 2013-2016
- PHY480, Computational Physics (Michigan State University, taught 2016-2019
- PHY989, Nuclear Forces (Michigan State University), taught 2018
- FYS2140, Quantum Physics (University of Oslo), taught 1999-2004
- Several intensive courses over the years.
In the News
- Titan UiO March 2025
- Apollon UiO 2025, on quantum technologies (Norwegian text)
Publications
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