Zhang Donghui, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, from Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, deliver a report named “Watching Chemical Reactions in Computer” for students at the Academic Lecture Hall in Shixian Building at 7:00 pm on May 25th. Through attractive personal stories and dramatic research evidence, the report showed researchers’ effort in the development and application of calculational chemistry with passion and enthusiasm.

    Science of physical and calculational chemistry has enormous scientific value and infinite charm when applied to the reality from environmental protection to astronomic exploration. For example, multifaceted complexity underlies countless elementary reaction—a reaction as simple as the combustion of methane consist of more than 200 elementary reactions. The key to realize elementary reactions is to invest time and effort to simulate chemical reaction with the help of computer.

    “The most fundamental elementary reaction is how hydrogen atom reacts with oxygen forming water.” Academician Zhang started his lecture with concise words, expanded it into how he figure out the kinetics problem in the three- and four-atom reaction systems taking fluorine atom reacting with hydrogen for instance, and improve the related calculating theory. “Face the coming problems and gain the experience to find the way out, this is how we broke the original viewpoints and eventually formed ours.” A brand new resonance states was developed through Zhang’s in-depth researches.

    Speaking of his personal career, Academician Zhang mentioned that how he was engaged in the study of molecular kinetics originated from a lecture heard in the university that inspired his interest in reaction dynamics. Also, The Boling Lecture has been established since 2013, inviting the top chemists at home and abroad to give academic lectures and share scientific research experiences for undergraduate students in the college of chemistry. This series of symposium aims to spread ideas worth spreading to open up students’ academic horizon to find novel perspectives and methods to start up their researching careers.