Bourke-Liversidge Prize

2024 Faraday mid-career Prize: Bourke-Liversidge Prize winner

Professor Scott Habershon, University of Warwick

Awarded for the development of innovative computational simulation methods to predict molecular dynamics across the timescales of chemistry.

The dynamics of molecular motion and chemical reactions span an enormous range of timescales, from the ultrafast photochemistry of vision and photosynthesis to the years-to-decades-long breakdown of plastics.

Professor Habershon’s research team uses computers to simulate this wide range of chemical timescales: they write video-game-like simulations that mimic the real world and help us understand how chemical reactions happen at the microscopic level of atoms and molecules.

The group’s simulations enable them to make predictions about how different molecules will react and behave in the future and offer an important alternative to experimental chemistry. For example, the group is building computer models of how plastics might break down in the environment over the coming decades – an approach that is faster than waiting for plastics to degrade in the lab. They are also using computers to search for new catalysts that can transform carbon dioxide into other useful chemicals rather than letting it escape into the atmosphere. These examples show how computer simulations can complement lab-based chemistry in addressing some of the most important global challenges that we face.

See full profile