Henryk A. Witek is a chemist of Polish origin, and is a Professor of Chemistry in the National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. [1] He obtained his scientific degrees from the Jagiellonian University (MS) and the University of Tokyo (PhD). His research interests encompass quantum and physical chemistry, applied linear algebra, as well as perturbation theory.
Using computational methods, he carried out simulations of infrared spectra of Criegee intermediates (CH2OO). [2] This achievement (published in Science ) has important implications on the understanding of fundamental processes in environmental chemistry. [3] [4]
In 2005, he obtained Young Faculty Award and Scholarship from the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship. [5] In 2006, he became one of four awardees of the American Chemical Society Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, [6] in 2010, he received the Distinguished Young Chemist Award from the Chinese Chemical Society, [7] and in 2014, he was awarded the APATCC Pople Medal "for his innovative contributions to theoretical and mathematical aspects of quantum chemistry, particularly his contributions to multireference perturbation theory and the density-functional tight-binding method". [8]
As an academic teacher, he offers semestral courses in general and quantum chemistry. Some of them are available online via the OpenCourseWare platform. [9] In fall 2017, he taught "Perturbation theory for linear operator", using the book titled the same as the course by mathematician Tosio Kato.
Robert Floyd Curl Jr. was an American chemist who was Pitzer–Schlumberger Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of chemistry at Rice University. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1996 for the discovery of the nanomaterial buckminsterfullerene, and hence the fullerene class of materials, along with Richard Smalley and Harold Kroto of the University of Sussex.
Rudolph Arthur Marcus is a Canadian-born American chemist who received the 1992 Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for his contributions to the theory of electron transfer reactions in chemical systems". Marcus theory, named after him, provides a thermodynamic and kinetic framework for describing one electron outer-sphere electron transfer. He is a professor at Caltech, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore and a member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.
Leonard Mlodinow is an American theoretical physicist and mathematician, screenwriter and author. In physics, he is known for his work on the large N expansion, a method of approximating the spectrum of atoms based on the consideration of an infinite-dimensional version of the problem, and for his work on the quantum theory of light inside dielectrics.
Michael James Steuart Dewar was an American theoretical chemist.
Rodney Joseph Bartlett is Graduate Research Professor of Chemistry and Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, US.
In quantum and theoretical chemistry, an intruder state is a particular situation arising in perturbative evaluations, where the energy of the perturbers is comparable in magnitude to the energy associated to the zero order wavefunction. In this case, a divergent behavior occurs, due to the nearly zero denominator in the expression of the perturbative correction.
A Criegee intermediate is a carbonyl oxide with two charge centers. These chemicals may react with sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in the Earth's atmosphere, and are implicated in the formation of aerosols, which are an important factor in controlling global climate. Criegee intermediates are also an important source of OH. OH radicals are the most important oxidant in the troposphere, and are important in controlling air quality and pollution.
Anna Igorevna Krylov is the USC Associates Chair in Natural Sciences and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC). Working in the field of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry, she is the inventor of the spin-flip method. Krylov is the president of Q-Chem, Inc. and an elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, the Academia Europaea, and the American Academy of Sciences and Letters.
Edgar Bright Wilson Jr. was an American chemist.
Animesh Chakravorty FNA, FASc is a Bengali Indian inorganic chemist. In 1975, he was awarded the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology in chemistry by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
Donald Gene Truhlar is an American scientist working in theoretical and computational chemistry and chemical physics with special emphases on quantum mechanics and chemical dynamics.
Marsha Isack Lester is an American physical chemist. She is currently the Edmund J. Kahn Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. Lester uses both theoretical and experimental methods to study the physical chemistry of volatile organic compounds present in the Earth's atmosphere. Her current work focuses on the hydroxyl radical and Criegee intermediates.
Robert Walter Zwanzig was an American theoretical physicist and chemist who made important contributions to the statistical mechanics of irreversible processes, protein folding, and the theory of liquids and gases.
Martin Quack is a German physical chemist and spectroscopist; he is a professor at ETH Zürich.
Bidyendu Mohan Deb is an Indian theoretical chemist, chemical physicist and a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata (IISER). he is known for his studies in theoretical chemistry and chemical physics. He is an elected fellow of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, The World Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy and the Indian Academy of Sciences. The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards, in 1981, for his contributions to chemical sciences.
Yuan-Pern Lee is a Taiwanese chemist.
David N. Beratan is an American chemist and physicist, the R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry at Duke University. He has secondary appointments in the departments of Physics and Biochemistry. He is the director of the Center for Synthesizing Quantum Coherence, a NSF Phase I Center for Chemical Innovation.
Eran Rabani is an Israeli theoretical chemist. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, holding the Glenn T. Seaborg Chair in Physical Chemistry, and at the Tel Aviv University. Rabani serves as the director of The Sackler Center for Computational Molecular and Materials Science, and as a faculty scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Anastassia N. Alexandrova is an American chemist who is a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her research considers the computational design of functional materials.
Theodore Goodson III is an American chemist who is the Richard Barry Bernstein Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. Goodson studies the non-linear optical properties of novel organic materials. He was elected fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2012 and the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering in 2021.