Please join Yale Chemistry for a Silliman Seminar in theory/ physical chemistry with Prof. Anastassia Alexandrova, a Charles W. Clifford Jr. Professor in Chemistry and Biochemistry, and Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, from University of California Los Angeles.
The principal effort of the Alexandrova research program is the design of new functional materials. One focus is on heterogeneous (electro)catalysis, especially the dynamics of interfaces in operando conditions. Here, a significant emphasis is on environmentally important problems such reactive capture of CO2. Another important direction is the design of qubits with increasing chemical complexity, and their assemblies, as well as quantum sensors. The group studies fundamental effects of electric fields on chemical reactivity, particularly in enzymes, and designs artificial metalloenzymes. Efforts are guided by insights into electronic structure and chemical bonding, and driven by novel algorithms developed by the group. We use a large range of methods (DFT, ab initio, QM/MM, MD, MC, novel reaction path samplings, global optimizations, etc), and often make them multi-scale, combining several different approaches, and powering them by tricks from artificial intelligence and machine learning. Both applied and method-development efforts are prominent in the group, and they are a warm home for students of many different backgrounds, from chemistry and biochemistry, to physics, material science and engineering, computer science, and applied mathematics. For more information on the Alexandrova Lab: chem.ucla.edu/~ana/research.html
Faculty Host: Prof. Mark Johnson
Sponsored by the Mrs. Hepsa Ely Silliman Memorial Fund
Location: Sterling Chemistry Lab (SCL), Room 160