Media Contacts  |
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March 2, 2005 -- A
University of Utah chemist will lead a new $3.5 million project
to develop the next generation of computer simulation technology
to study collections of molecules, including their chemical reactions.
About $1.7 million of the money – awarded by the Department
of Defense’s Office of Naval Research – will go directly
to the University of Utah, with the rest shared by three other participating
research institutions, says Gregory A. Voth, professor of chemistry
and director of the U’s Center for Biophysical Modeling and
Simulation.
“This new project will be devoted to the development of cutting-edge
computer simulation methods to describe chemical reactions,”
says Voth, who directs the effort.
For the past 35 years, chemistry, biology and materials science
have enjoyed extraordinary advances in quantum mechanics (the theory
of the structure and behavior of atoms and molecules) and computer
software that simulates that arrangement of atoms in molecules and
the motion of molecules.
But researchers have yet to fully develop computer simulation software
with the ability to accurately describe chemical reactivity in complicated
molecular systems such as biological proteins and hydrogen fuel
cells.
Voth was selected by the Office of Naval Research to lead a team
of researchers to develop and add this capability to molecular simulation
software. This advance, in turn, will greatly expand the application
of molecular simulation techniques to many new scientific and engineering
problems, such as the design of new sensors to detect chemical and
biological warfare agents, and new fuels for rocket propulsion,
he says.
“The Office of Naval Research is interested in using computer
simulation in the design of many new materials for weapons systems,
energy storage and delivery, and sensing and detection (for example,
of chemical and biological warfare agents),” Voth says. “They
see computer simulation as being a logical, efficient and cost-saving
basic research approach to aid in these efforts.”
The research team also includes Thomas L. Cheatham, III, a University
of Utah assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutics
and pharmaceutical chemistry, as well as scientists from the University
of California, Berkeley; the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,
Calif.; and Wayne State University in Detroit.
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| Media Contacts: |
| Gregory Voth, professor of chemistry |
(801) 581-7272, voth@chem.utah.edu |
| Lee Siegel, science news specialist, University of
Utah Public Relations |
office (801) 581-8993, cellular (801) 244-5399, leesiegel@ucomm.utah.edu |
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