Physical/Theoretical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Robert DiStasio, Cornell University

Physical/Theoretical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Robert DiStasio, Cornell University
Date
Wed June 2nd 2021, 4:00 - 5:00pm
Location
Zoom

Physical/Theoretical Chemistry Seminar: Robert DiStasio, Cornell University (Host: Tom Markland)

About the Seminar

"How Dimensionality, Topology, and Void Space Influence the van der Waals Scaling Landscape across the Nanoscale"

About the Speaker

Robert A. DiStasio Jr. is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. His research group focuses on development, implementation, and application of novel methodologies that extend the frontiers of Electronic Structure Theory in complex condense-phase environments. Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, DiStasio was the first member of his family to attend college. He graduated summa cum laude from Portland State University in 2003 with degrees in Chemistry and Biology while working with Carl C. Wamser and the late George S. Hammond. DiStasio then relocated to the Bay Area to begin graduate studies at UC Berkeley with Martin Head-Gordon. In 2009, he received a Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry for his work on local and canonical approximations in Møller-Plesset perturbation theory with applications to dispersion interactions. This was followed by postdoctoral research at Princeton, where he worked with Roberto Car, Salvatore Torquato, and Frank H. Stillinger, as well as Alexandre Tkatchenko and Matthias Scheffler (at the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society in Berlin). 

DiStasio has given more than 75 seminars and colloquia worldwide, published more than 60 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals, and is an active contributor to the Q-Chem and Quantum ESPRESSO software packages. He is the proud recipient of the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the 2020 American Chemical Society (ACS) OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry. In 2020, DiStasio was also awarded a Sloan Research Fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 

Photo courtesy of Laura Rutherford.