We’re delighted to welcome Dr Vassiliki-Alexandra (Vanda) Glezakou to the Advisory Board of Digital Discovery. Dr Glezakou is a a Distinguished Scientist and Section Head of Chemical Transformations in Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Chemical Sciences Division. Her research focuses on understanding the effects of electronic structure in bonding, reactivity and local structure in condensed environments.
She and her co-workers are developing methods using global optimization approaches to evaluate reactivity in large molecular assemblies, by combining quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and data science. Her research portfolio addresses problems in catalysis, separations and nuclear energy technologies, with emphasis on the chemistry and dynamic evolution of the structure of f-elements in molten salts. Cross-cutting components in all these areas include the use of data science/AI to accelerate molecular simulations, extract chemical descriptors and enhance datasets under FAIR principles.
In her role as Section Head, she leads four groups of 45 scientists who investigate problems related to energy storage and conversion, geochemistry and interfacial science, surface chemistry and catalysis, and chemical dynamics. She graduated from the University of Athens, Greece, and obtained her PhD from Iowa State University. After a post-doc at University of California San Diego and an appointment as staff scientist at Caltech, she moved to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as Senior and Chief Scientist, until 2022 when she joined the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.