This self-contained book takes the reader on a journey from the basic facts about atoms to topics at the forefront of current condensed matter research, giving students a broad view of materials science.The contents grew out of the lectures on solid state physics given to both theorists and experimentalists in the US who had little previous background in the area. The topics are of direct relevance for the interpretation of experimental data. Even if they may not be of chronological order, their universality is emphasized. The mathematics is simplified without sacrificing precision, providing an intuitive understanding of the phenomena discussed.The book is easily accessible to any mathematically inclined scientist or engineer with a basic knowledge of quantum mechanics.

Prof. Castro Neto is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Material Science Engineering and Physics, he is also Professor at the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at the National University of Singapore. In 2003, Prof. Castro Neto was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) and in 2011 he was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He received his PhD in Physics at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1994. His thesis studied the fundamentals of the theory of metals. In 1994, he moved to the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of California at Santa Barbara as a postdoctoral fellow where he dedicated his attention to low dimensional materials such as high temperature superconductors and conducting polymers. In 1995, he became an Assistant Professor at University of California at Riverside where he wrote fundamental work on the theory of disordered magnetic materials. In 2000, he moved to Boston University as Professor of Physics. At Boston, Prof. Castro Neto became one of the leading theorists in the study of graphene and other two dimensional materials. Since 2010, Prof. Castro Neto is the Director of the Graphene Research Center and in 2014 he became Director of the Centre for Advanced 2D Materials funded by the National Research Foundation of Singapore. In 2021, Prof. Castro Neto became co-Director, jointly with Kostya Novoselov (Physics Nobel Prize, 2010), of the Institute for Functional Intelligent Materials (IFIM). Prof. Castro Neto is a fellow of the Singapore Academy of Science and corresponding member of the Brazilian Academy of Science.