NYU Shanghai Impresses Leading Computational Chemists

Sep 23 2015

Frontiers in Computational Chemistry Symposium Held on Campus

The NYU-ECNU Center for Computational Chemistry at NYU Shanghai hosted the 2015 Shanghai Symposium on Frontiers in Computational Chemistry in August, successfully attracting over 100 top scholars and students from China and around the world.  The Shanghai gathering was the culmination of a significant effort by the Institute and the Office of Research to introduce NYU Shanghai as an effective international platform for research and collaboration among leading Chinese and international computational chemists. 

 Professor John Zhang, the Center’s Director and an organizer of the symposium, noted, “we were able to show first hand NYU Shanghai’s commitment to meaningful research with top quality results.” The participants were delighted by the quality of the speakers, the range of interdisciplinary topics, and the integrated approach blending novel research ideas, methodology development and innovative applications. Attendees included members of the US National Academy of Science and the Chinese Academy of Science, ChangJiang chair professors, NSFC outstanding young investigators and others from major universities around the world.  

Martin Head-Gordon of UC Berkeley, a newly elected member of the US National Academy of Science, apparently was so impressed by the program that he took the long journey from Berkeley to Shanghai to attend just one day of the conference, due to his teaching obligations. Others broke away from meetings elsewhere in China to participate in the symposium.

"For many, this was their first opportunity to experience the unique environment at NYU Shanghai and they came away with great enthusiasm for our future,” said Prof. Zhang, recalling as well the bitter-sweet moment when Prof. Michael Collins of the National University of Australia visited with his wife a WWII prison camp in northern China where his father-in law was held at the time by the occupying Japanese army.