NEWS AND CONGRATULATIONS!
From 2011
Pan Wu Wins Zielek Fellowship
Graduate Student Pan Wu was awarded the Kathleen Zielek fellowship from the Department of Chemistry. The award is based on Pan's excellent record at Duke including his publications, research interests, and donors' intent, and faculty recommendations. Congratulations to Pan on receiving this award in recognition of his acheivements!
Fernanda Duarte, a Fullbright Fellow from Chile, has left after her ten months here with the Yang group working on "Catalysis by Water on Proton Transfer Reactions of Amino Acids: QM/MM Study from the Perspective of Reaction Force." She returns to Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile to finish her PhD.
We welcomed:
Dr. Robin Chaudret, newly hooded with PhD, arrived from his Universite Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris to become a postdoc studying Quantum mechanical/molecular method development with applications to biological systems. Fall 2011.
Dr. Helen van Aggelen, fellowship postdoctoral associate from Ghent University in Belgium, arrived November 1, 2011 to become a Visiting Scholar, working on developing density functional theory, employing many electron density matrix and green function
Dr. Hao Hu, formerly a Visiting Assistant Professor at Duke, now Chemistry Professor with the University of Hong Kong, is here as Research Scientist for nine months to collaborate with Dr. Yang on research involving simulating chemical processes and investigating catalytic mechanism of enzymes. Left in March 2012 to return to Hong Kong.
Freija de Vleeschouwer, fellowship postdoctoral associate from Brussels , Belgium, worked with the Yang group from September through December 2011 on theoretical and computational chemistry.
Research Scholar Rogelio Cuevas-Saavedra, PhD from McMaster University, residing in the snowy north from his original Mexico came here in September 2011.
Dr. Jun Wang from the University of California, Irvine in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry. He is now Research Scientist with the Yang Group June 2011.
Professor Xiaoli Fan, Northwestern Polytechnical University, China, is here as Research Scholar for a year to do research with Dr. Yang using density functional theory and multiscale stimulation methods to study catalysis, energy transfer and other interface issues.
Visiting Professor Dr. Marco T. Gallo, Dept. of Chemical Engineering, Autonomous University of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, is here for the summer to research theory and simulation of molecular and nanoelectronics with Dr. Yang.
Dr. Weiliang Wang from the School of Physics and Engineering, Zhongshan University, China, is here as a Research Scholar to develop density functional calculation tools for describing electron transport and emission in carbon nanotubes and nanoparticles.
Dr. Julia Contreras-Garcia, a Spanish Fullbright Fellow Research Associate, left Duke in July to visit at the University of Barcelona under the supervision of Francesc Illas to further her research on molecular structures-- before moving to her next post in Paris.
Dr. Ganglong Cui became a Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the Max Plank Institute for Coal Research in Muelheim, Germany, March 2011.
Graduate Student Xiancheng "Fox" Zeng completed his PhD, became a Postdoctoral Associate, and moved to University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, beginning Feb. 2011.
During the month of November 2010, Professor Weitao Yang (Philip Handler Professor of Chemistry at Duke University, USA), one of the world's most renown specialists in the field of Density Functional Theory, held the prestigious International Solvay Chair of Chemistry . On this occasion, a symposium "Frontiers of Density Functional Theory: a One Day Symposium in Honor of Weitao Yang" was organized.
This symposium was held Monday November 15, 2010 in the Academy palace of the Royal Flanders Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts in Brussels. This activity was organized by the Scientific Research Community (WOG) " Quantum Chemistry : Fundamental and Applied aspects of Density Functional Theory " of the Research-Foundation Flanders (FWO) , in collaboration with the International Solvay Institutes and the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts .
Dr. Zhigang Sun became a "One Hundred Talents" Professor at Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, China, beginning December 2009.
Dr. Xiangqian Hu was promoted to Research Scientist, as was Dr. Xiao Zheng.
We welcome Dr. Neil Shenvi from Yale as Research Scientist. He joined the Yang Group June 2010.
Our new graduate students are Pan Wu, May 2009; Degao Peng, May 2010; and Fullbright fellowship student from Chile, Fernanda Durarte, October 2010.
Research Assistant Professor San-Huang Ke has become a Professor of Physics in the Department of Physics, Tongji University, Shangahi, China as of January 2010.
Postdoctoral Associate Erin Johnson has accepted the position of Assistant Professor in the School of Natural Sciences, University of California, Merced. She will start there July 2010.
Summer of 2009, we welcomed the new postdocs Dr. Aaron Virshup from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and Dr. Julia Conteras-Garcia from
the Universidad de Oviedo, Spain.
Ganglong Cui has earned his PhD and is here in his new role of Postdoctoral Associate. Tim Heaton-Burgess has also earned his PhD and is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Yang Group.
Xiangsong Lin has joined the group as a Visiting Scholar Jan 2010 to Feb. 2011, and Dr. Quibao Lin served as Research Scholar from August 2010 to February 2011.
From 2009:
Paula Mori-Sanchez received the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship in Spain; joined Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. She left Duke July 2009.
Former PhD student Andres Cisneros became Assistant Professor at Wayne State University, started Fall 2009.
Felipe Bulat is a staff scientist with Naval Research Laboratory,
Global Strategies Group
in Washington, DC. He left Duke Jan. 2009.
Christopher Rinderspacher is a staff scientist with the Army Research Laboratory
Baltimore, MD. He left Duke Jan. 2009.
Aron Cohen is a Royal Society University Research Fellow at Cambridge, U K,. He left Duke Dec. 2008.
Hao Hu is a Tenure Track Professor, University of Hong Kong. He left Duke Oct. 2008.
Graduate Student Jerry Parks received his PhD and is now a Research Associate with
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Center for Molecular Biophysics. He left Duke June 2008.
