BY Jennifer L. Berghom
Dr. Shervin Fatehi, a UTRGV assistant professor of chemistry, has received a three-year, $195,000 grant from the Robert A. Welch Foundation to research accurate methods for simulating the motions of molecules and the flow of energy and charge within and between them.
“I’m going to be working on extending the new methods that have been developed to do those dynamic calculations, really understanding how molecules move, how electrons can be traded back and forth between molecules, and how energy can be sloshing around in those assemblies,” he said.
Specifically, Fatehi said, he will focus on stochastic electronic-structure methods, such as the full configuration interaction Monte Carlo approach originally developed at the University of Cambridge.
“I’m excited to get a real rubber-meets-the-road understanding of everything from small molecules like benzaldehyde, all the way up to the really complicated iron-sulfur protein machinery that drives the production of our bodies’ molecular fuel,” he said.
Fatehi, who has been with the university since August 2015 and has previously held post-doctoral positions at the University of Utah and the University of Pennsylvania, said the grant will enable him to hire a post-doctoral fellow to work with him on his research.
“The postdoctoral fellow I’m going to recruit will develop the complement of tools we need to account for the full richness of molecular motion,” he said.
The Houston-based Welch Foundation, founded in 1954, is one of the largest private funding sources in the United States for basic chemical research. According to its website, the foundation has supported the advancement of chemistry through its donations for research grants, departmental programs, endowed chairs and other special projects at educational institutions throughout Texas.
The grant Fatehi was awarded begins in June 2017 and lasts through the end of May 2020.
