Theory Seminar Series

The Theory Seminar Series provides a forum for the theory groups in the Division of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering (CCE) to share their research and to learn from and collaborate with one another. Each session is led by a particular theory group, and the format is open-ended. A session can feature one or more speakers, and can be structured as a more traditional research talk, or a tutorial, literature review, overview of a group's research areas, etc.

Organizer: Maddy Murphy

Spring 2026

Time: Every other Wednesday at 2:30-3:30 pm (please see below for dates and any exceptions)
Location: Noyes 153 (unless otherwise specified below)

June 10: Presentations by Goddard Group members

TBA

May 20: Presentations by Chan Group members

TBA

May 6: Presentations by Fong Group members

Eddie Chen: "Constant Potential Molecular Dynamics Lecture"

Apr. 22: Presentations by Sharma Group members

Harrison Tuckman: "Towards Faster Exact Exchange via a Grid-based Approach"Ziyao Luo: "Approaching Linear Scaling DFT with Projector-Augmented Wave"

Apr. 1: Presentations by Wang Group members

Jihoon Oh: "Adsorption of cations on neutral aragonite surface"Vignesh Bhethanabotla: "Polymer lattice models with tensor networks"3 pm

Winter 2026

Time: Every other Wednesday at 3-4 pm (please see below for dates and any exceptions)
Location: Spalding 106 (unless otherwise specified below)

Mar. 18: No meeting

Mar. 4: Presentations by Goddard Group members

Tony Kan: "Recent Developments of Bio Toolkits: SCREAM++, Bio-Forge, and DREID-Forge"Hyeonju Lee: "Design Guidelines to Control Rippeled β-Sheets versus Pleated β-Sheets in Mixed-Chirality Peptides"

Feb. 18: Presentations by Chan Group members

Petra Shih: "High-throughput workflow for discovery of superconducting candidate"Shuoxue Li: "Towards Triplet Superconducting Phase via Density Matrix Embedding Theory"

Feb. 4: Presentations by Sharma Group members

Jo Kurian: "Nuclear gradients from auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo and their applications"Yichi Zhang: "Size-extensive AFQMC with perturbative CCSD Trial"

Jan. 21: Presentations by Wang Group members

Pierre Walker: "When Solvent Matters: Fundamental Phase Reversals in Polyelectrolyte Coacervation"Alexandros Tsamopoulos: "Ion Transport in Polymers: Effects of Glass Transition and Electrostatic Correlations"

Mar. 4: Presentations by Goddard Group members

Fall 2025

Time: Every other Wednesday at 4-5 pm (please see below for dates and any exceptions)
Location: Noyes 153 (unless otherwise specified below)

Dec. 10: Presentations by Goddard Group members

Tridip Das: "Reactive Molecular Dynamics-Guided Deconstruction of Single-Use Plastics for Value-Added Chemicals and Novel Materials"Sejun Kim: "Many-Body Perturbation Theory for Solvated Low-Dimensional Systems"3 pm in Spalding Lab 106

Nov. 26: No meeting

Nov. 12: Presentations by Chan Group members

Chenghan Li: "Achieving Precise Simulations of Biochemistry through a Hierarchical Learning of Quantum Chemistry"Jiace Sun: "Stochastic-Tensor-Contraction Coupled Cluster"3 pm in Spalding Lab 106

Oct. 29: Presentations by Brady Group members

Boyuan Chen: "Microrheology of active suspensions"Edmond Zhou: "Effects of Hydrodynamics in non-equilibrium phase separation"3 pm in Spalding Lab 106

Oct. 15: Presentation by Fong Group member

Maddy Murphy: "Transport-Driven Origins of Specific Ion Effects in Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction"3 pm in Spalding Lab 106

Sep. 24: Presentations by Sharma Group members

Alfred Li: "Unimolecular kinetics of alkoxy and beta-hydroxyalkoxy radicals" - Baljit Singh"On the Origin of Bias in cp-AFQMC"

Sep. 10: Work on coarse-grained theories and simulations for macromolecular systems in the Wang Group

A joint talk by Wang Group members Sam Varner, Pierre Walker, and Chao Duan

Aug. 27: Progress in QM and MD simulations of materials, catalysts, and biomolecular systems in the Goddard Group

Moon Young Yang: "Activation mechanism of the metabotropic GABAb receptor"Prabhat Prakash: "Bicarbonate-carbonic acid equilibrium and pH in microenvironments"Soonho Kwon: "Theoretical Cyclic Voltammogram for Iridium oxide"Sejun Kim: "Understanding the Interface Using Ab-initio Methods and Artificial Intelligence"

Aug. 13: Research directions in the Chan Group

A joint talk by Chan Group members Xing Zhang, Shunyue Yuan, Gunhee Park, and Chris Chen