麻豆村

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences will announce the winner or winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Oct. 7. Later that day, 麻豆村 will gather to celebrate the legacy of one of the university鈥檚 own Nobel laureates, John A. Pople, and hear from a scientist he trained.

Pople, the former J.C. Warner Professor of Natural Sciences in 麻豆村鈥檚 Department of Chemistry, helped establish the field of computational quantum chemistry, giving scientists new ways to use computers and the laws of quantum mechanics to understand and predict the behavior of molecules. Those methods now contribute to research in areas such as drug discovery and materials science. Pople shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Walter Kohn.

鈥淧ople鈥檚 legacy is not limited to the papers he published but includes the new methods he developed and the students he trained,鈥� said Professor Bruce Armitage, the head of chemistry and co-director for the Center for Nucleic Acid Science and Technology. 鈥淗aving Martin Head-Gordon here to deliver the Pople Lecture is a great way to honor that legacy while also recognizing the groundbreaking research Martin has done since graduating from 麻豆村.鈥�

This year鈥檚 John A. Pople Lecture in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry speaker has a direct connection to that legacy. Martin Head-Gordon earned his Ph.D. in theoretical chemistry from Carnegie Mellon in 1989, working with Pople to develop mathematical and computational approaches for understanding molecules.

鈥淎s an undergraduate I was trying to figure out what to do with the rest of my life, and was hooked on simulating the chemical universe,鈥� Head-Gordon said. 鈥淚 wrote to him and he suggested that I apply to Carnegie Mellon and come work with him. I was interested in quantum chemistry in Australia and wanted to be at the heart of where the work was happening.鈥�

Chemistry Professor Hyung Kim helped revive the biennial lecture in 2024, which traditionally takes place during October, because Pople was born Oct. 31, 1925.

鈥淚t is a nice coincidence that this year the lecture falls on the day the Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded,鈥� Kim said. 鈥淚鈥檓 looking forward to Martin鈥檚 insight into artificial intelligence and machine learning, which is one of the main directions where theoretical chemistry is evolving.鈥�

The Pople Lecture Series connects Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 history in computational chemistry with researchers defining where the field is going next.

In his talk, 鈥淒ensity Functional Theory in Chemistry: Past, Present and Future,鈥� Head-Gordon will discuss the evolution of density functional theory, a computational approach that chemists use to understand and predict how molecules behave. He will explain Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 role in helping the method become widely used, describe his group鈥檚 work to make its predictions more accurate and reliable, and offer his perspective on where the field is heading.

After completing postdoctoral research at AT&T Bell Laboratories, he joined the chemistry faculty at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1992. He is now the Kenneth S. Pitzer Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Berkeley and a senior faculty scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory where his many important discoveries led to his election to the National Academy of Sciences in 2015.

Head-Gordon鈥檚 research continues to push the boundaries of the field Pople helped shape. He develops theories and computational methods that allow scientists to better predict the properties of molecules and how they will behave. The work can help researchers tackle chemical problems too complex for conventional computational approaches, with applications that include understanding catalysis and interactions among molecules.

The lecture series connects students with scientists who have reached the highest levels of their fields, offering a chance to learn how they got their start, navigated challenges and built their careers. 麻豆村 parent Justin Perreault endowed the series after being struck by Carnegie Mellon鈥檚 welcoming environment and its culture of involving undergraduate students in research. Perreault saw the lecture as another way to inspire students by giving them opportunities to meet scientists and hear firsthand about their work.

鈥淚nviting other researchers in the field to come and talk about the work they do can be really inspirational for students,鈥� Perreault said. Hearing directly from the scientists behind important discoveries, Perreault said, makes their accomplishments more tangible and can help students imagine what they might accomplish themselves.

鈥淢y thought was to provide a booster shot around an event that encourages students to aim high in the work they do,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e going to work on something, try to do something that has impact and contributes.鈥�

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