Author biographies

Denis G. Artiukhin received his Diploma in Chemistry from Moscow State University, Russia in 2014 and his Dr. rer. nat. degree in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry from Münster University, Germany in 2018 working under the supervision of Prof. Johannes Neugebauer. Subsequently, he joined the group of Prof. Ove Christiansen in Aarhus University, Denmark for a postdoctoral Marie Curie fellowship. Since 2021, he has worked as an independent scientist at Freie Universität Berlin, Germany. His research focuses on the development of new electronic-structure theoretical approaches with a particular interest in simulations of large biomolecular systems and accounting for nuclear quantum effects.

Leonardo Biancorosso is currently a PhD student at the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences of University of Trieste (Italy), under the supervision of Professor Emanuele Coccia. His thesis is about the development of time-domain multiscale quantum/classical methods to study plasmonic effects on the properties of molecular systems interacting with a metal nanostructure.

Emanuele Coccia is Associate Professor of Physical Chemistry at the Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences of University of Trieste (Italy). He got his PhD in Chemistry at “Sapienza” University of Rome (Italy) in 2009. He spent several years as a postdoc in Italy and France, before joining the University of Trieste in 2018. His research activity focuses on his development and application of time-domain quantum-based methods to study light–matter interaction. His interests include molecular plasmonics, high-harmonic generation spectroscopy of atoms and molecules, modelling open quantum systems, and quantum Monte Carlo approaches for electronic structure.

Kimberly Daas received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a Joint Degree at both the Universiteit van Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), respectively in Chemistry (2017) and Molecular Sciences (2019). The research for both theses was done in the group of Prof. Dr. Gori-Giorgi at the VU, which is also the group she did her PhD research in. She is currently working as a postdoc with Prof. Dr. Kieron Burke at the University of California, Irvine. Her research is focused on increasing our current understanding of electronic structure theory and in particular density functional theory. In her dissertation, The Strong Interaction Limit of The Moller-Plesset Adiabatic Connection, she not only derived a new exact theory but also provided accurate practical approximations for it. Her work has been supported by the University Research Fellowship and the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO). She was also awarded the Dutch Young Talent Encouragement Award by the Royal Dutch Society for Sciences (KHMW).

Eric W. Fischer studied Geoecology (BSc, 2014) at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Chemistry (MSc, 2017) at Philipps University of Marburg, Germany. He pursued his PhD studies in Theoretical Chemistry (Dr. rer. nat., 2022) under the supervision of Prof. Peter Saalfrank at University of Potsdam and the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society Berlin (International Max Planck Research School). Since 2023, he has been a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Michael Roemelt at Humboldt University of Berlin on a Walter Benjamin position funded by the German Research Foundation. His research topics are Quantum Dynamics, Molecular Spectroscopy and Electronic Structure Theory with a focus on Polaritonic Chemistry.

Born in Berlin, Germany, Jan P. Götze studied Biochemistry at the nearby University of Potsdam, receiving his diploma in 2006 and his doctoral degree in Theoretical Biochemistry in 2011 in the group of Prof. Peter Saalfrank. He then continued as a postdoctoral researcher at the Max Planck Institute in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany with Profs Walter Thiel and Alfred Holzwarth. Thereafter, from 2014 to 2016, he was employed at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, United Kingdom in the group of Prof. Michael Bühl, followed by two years of entrepreneurship for various software projects. He then returned to science in 2018, working until the current day as an independent group leader at the Freie Universität Berlin. Jan’s main interests involve the accurate description of spectroscopical features for organic chrmophores and biological pigments. He studies their reactions and interactions on an atomistic level, using quantum and hybrid quantum/classical computational approaches.

Bernard Kirtman received his PhD at Harvard University under the supervision of E. Bright Wilson Jr. in 1961. After a postdoctoral position with Paul C. Cross at the University of Washington (1960–62) he became an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley. In 1965 he moved to the University of California, Santa Barbara where he is currently a Distinguished Professor. His research in theoretical and computational quantum chemistry has covered a broad range of topics in electronic structure, spectroscopy and vibrational–electronic interactions. A major focus has been on the development of perturbation theory and related methods for computation of electric and magnetic field properties. In recent years he has been working on applications primarily for periodic systems in conjunction with the CRYSTAL group in Torino.

Elias Polak obtained the Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics at Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany (2016) and the Master of Science degree in mathematics with minor chemistry at the University of Geneva in Switzerland (2018), both studies were supported by the German National Academic Foundation. His master's thesis was awarded the Edouard Gans prize for the best thesis 2018. He then embarked on an interdisciplinary PhD program with Prof. Tomasz A. Wesolowski (from Chemistry) and Prof. Martin Gander (from Mathematics) at the University of Geneva, where his research focused on bridging established mathematical theory with quantum chemistry applications. After defending his PhD in 2023, he started working as a postdoc at the University of Fribourg in the group of Prof. Stefan Vučković. His current research focuses on the development of next generation density functional approximations by combining well-defined correlation descriptors with modern machine-learning techniques.

Peter Saalfrank studied chemistry at the University of Erlangen–Nürnberg in Germany, where he also did his PhD in Theoretical Chemistry in 1991 under the supervision of Janos Ladik. From 1992–1993, he was a postdoc at the University of California at Berkeley with William H. Miller. After habilitation in Theoretical Chemistry at the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) in 1996, Saalfrank served first as Senior Lecturer at University College London (UK) from 1998 to 2000, and then as an Associate Professor for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Regensburg (Germany) from 2000–2003. Since then, he has held the Chair for Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Potsdam (Germany). Saalfrank’s main research topics are Theoretical Surface Science, Quantum Dynamics and Molecular Spectroscopy. He has published around 250 papers in these areas.

Michael Springborg studied engineering at the Technical University of Denmark with a focus on theoretical solid-state physics and theoretical chemistry. After post-doc stays at the Max Planck Institute of Solid-State Physics in Stuttgart and at Nordita in Copenhagen, he worked at the University of Konstanz in Physical Chemistry until in 2000 he became a professor of physical and theoretical chemistry at the University of Saarland, where he stayed until his retirement in 2022. Since then, he has been a visiting scientist at the University of Namur. He is working on the development and application of theoretical methods and accompanying computer codes for the study of properties of materials, ranging from smaller molecules, via polymers and chain compounds, to nanoparticles and surfaces of crystals and crystals without and with defects. Of special interest are responses to electromagnetic fields, structural properties, chemical reactions, and materials optimization using inverse-design methods.

Prof. Stefan Vučković born and raised in Serbia, completed his B.S. in Chemistry in Belgrade before being directly admitted to a PhD program with Prof. Paola Gori-Giorgi at VU Amsterdam. He then worked as a postdoc at the University of California, Irvine, with Prof. Kieron Burke, followed by brief research stays with Dr. Hilke Bahmann in Germany and Fabio Della Sala at CNR, Italy. Vučković’s research group at the University of Fribourg, Switzerland, develops electronic structure methods for strongly correlated systems and noncovalent interactions, along with the critical application of artificial intelligence in (quantum) chemistry. His work has been recognized by an ERC Starting Grant, an SNSF Starting Grant, Marie Skłodowska-Curie and Humboldt Fellowships, a Rubicon NWO Fellowship, the Löwdin Outstanding Postdoc Award, and the Dick Stufkens Prize, among others.