National and foreign researchers review advances in quantum chemistry and molecular modeling

Doubling the attendance projected in the early stages of its organization, this Thursday the Symposium began in Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Modeling, QQMM 2022a two-day meeting designed to review and discuss advances in the field of theoretical and computational chemistry.

The symposium is organized by the Research Group in Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Modeling (QCMM) of the UdeC and is carried out in hybrid mode, with the Faculty of Chemical Sciences as the meeting point.

Academics, researchers, researchers and undergraduate and graduate students from different study houses arrived there to participate in the opening of the meeting, in which prominent national exhibitors and speakers from Germany, Canada and the United States, who connect via remotely with attendees.

The academic of Chemical Sciences and researcher of the QCMM Group, Adelio Matamala Vasquezhighlighted the value of the symposium as a space for reunion “after two years away from attendance” and as an opportunity to generate scientific links and bonds of camaraderie.

He also referred to the successful call for the activity. “We want to express our joy for this magnificent response that really filled us with challenges; we thought it was going to be something more intimate, on a smaller scale. Thanks to the tenacity and work of everyone and the collaboration of different actors, we were able to shape this congress”, indicated Dr. Matamala.

In fact, the 70 attendees doubled the expectations that the group had, in August, when they launched the call, as recognized by the academic and member of the Organizing Committee, Nery Villegas-Escobar.

Dr. Villegas expressed his gratitude for the support received from the National Agency for Research and Development (ANID), the Max Planck Institute, the faculties of Chemical Sciences and Chemistry and Pharmacy, and particularly from the Vice-Rector’s Office, through its fund for National and International Congresses.

These funds, he said, made it possible to attend to 100% of the scholarship applications destined to finance the participation of undergraduate and graduate students in the meeting. “With this we want to highlight our commitment to the training of new scientists in the field of quantum chemistry and molecular modeling,” she asserted.

Meanwhile, the member of the Scientific Committee of the symposium, Dr. Esteban Vöhringer-Martinezexplained that the meeting has been structured on the basis of conferences by experts and the presentation of oral and poster papers, favoring the reunion of students and colleagues”.

“In total there are 43 works, 10 oral and 33 poster, almost half of the postgraduate students that we were able to support, 49%; followed by postdoctoral researchers, with 21% and academics who represent 16%. The rest corresponds to undergraduate students”, reported the academic.

“All the accepted works present an excellent level; they also demonstrate substantive progress in the two areas that give the symposium its name,” he said.

Recognition

At the opening of the meeting, Dr. Adelio Matamala commented that the members of the QCMM UdeC decided to institute a recognition aimed at highlighting the career of a scientist “strongly linked to our group”.

The award was given to the dean of the Faculty of Chemical Sciences of the Pontifical Catholic University, Dr. Alejandro Toro-Labbéwho was also responsible for opening the presentations of the meeting with the conference Building a theory of chemical reactions.

Dr. Toro thanked the recognition, while highlighting the ties that bind him to the UdeC researchers. “They have welcomed me in a very generous and very affectionate way; We have had spectacular moments with the friends of the club, who have always had a good scientific disposition. One does not expect these things to happen, it is really exciting to be recognized for the work one does, when one does science one has to do the best possible, it is an honor for me to receive this recognition”, he expressed.

In his presentation, the researcher addressed the immense value of knowing the composition of things, of matter, “and having a theory that explains this is tremendously relevant, because everything is matter and knowing how it is transformed gives infinite. You can transform something into other things, which is what chemists have sought since alchemy,” he noted.

In the case of quantum chemistry, the interest is at the level of atoms and molecules “which are made up of electrons and electrons are described through quantum mechanics. So if you want to know what’s going on in matter, you have to go to the finest particle, you have to go to the electrons, and there’s quantum mechanics,” he explained.

For the academic, this “control” over the reactions of matter can be a source of solutions to problems that humanity is experiencing today, as is the case of pollution. “What a chemist does is try to see what the molecules are for, if one finds molecules that capture C02 -and it has already been done- you get rid of C02”, he cited as an example.