Laura Gagliardi

Born April 6, 1968 in Bologna, Italy.

Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois

Email:lgagliardi@uchicago.edu
Web: external link

Annual award of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (2004); Bourke Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry UK (2016); Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry UK (2016); Fellow of the American Physical Society (2016); Humboldt Foundation Research Award (2016); Elected Member of Academia Europea (2018); Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (2019); Elected Member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science (2019); Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (2020); Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2020); Elected to the US National Academy of Science (2021)

Author of:

Important Contributions:

• Development of multireference methods for strongly correlated systems including: generalized active space self-consistent field (GASSCF); localized active space SCF (LASSCF), split generalized active space (Split-GAS); multi-configuration pair-density functional theory (MC-PDFT); density matrix embedding theory with multireference solvers for molecules and periodic systems (CAS-DMET).
• Derivation of force fields for classical simulations from first principles.
• Applications of the above methods to the computational design of novel materials and molecular systems for energy-related challenges. Special focus is devoted to modeling catalysis and spectroscopy in molecular systems; catalysis and gas separation in porous materials; photovoltaic properties of organic and inorganic semiconductors; separation of actinides; magnetic materials.

Education and Appointments:

• M.A./M.S. University of Bologna, Italy, 1992
• Ph.D./J.D. University of Bologna, Italy, 1997
• Postdoctoral Appointment University of Cambridge (U.K.), 1998-2000
• Assistant Professor, University of Palermo 2000-2004
• Associate Professor, University of Geneva, 2005-2009
• Professor, University of Minnesota, 2009-2020
• Distinguished McKnight University Professor, University of Minnesota, 2014-2020
• McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair, University of Minnesota, 2019-2020
• Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, The University of Chicago, 2020-present