People

The Qian Lab celebrates diversity, and is committed to fostering an Inclusive, Diverse, Equal, and Accountable scholarly environment (IDEA). We are grateful for the opportunity to interact with researchers from a diverse background, and love the "Eureka!" moment of discussions. We welcome collaboration, promote communication, and respect voices from different perspectives; and more importantly, we welcome you to join our research family

Principal Investigator

Dr. Jin Qian (Google Scholar)

Career-Track Staff Scientist

Chemical Sciences Division | Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Education

Ph.D. California Institute of Technology, 2014-2019

B.S. Rice University, 2010-2014

Contact

jqian2@lbl.gov

Short Bio

As a computational chemist working seamlessly with experimental groups, Jin is strongly devoted to bridge the gap between theory and experiment. Part of her vision is to build a “Digital Twin” (see Research), so that we could walk into future experiments with foresight versus hindsight. The other part of her research is to build the tools and apply them to simulate increasingly large and complex renewable energy scenarios. She is a recipient of the prestigious DOE Early Career Award in 2023 (see Here).

In her free time, she loves exploring the beautiful bay area, hanging out with friends, and taking care of animals. She is also dedicated to classical music and piano performance (see My Interview & Music Interpretations), a dynamically-evolving, life-time hobby of hers.

Postdoc Scholars

Dr. Asmita Jana (Google Scholar)

Postdoc (2022-)

Education

Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017-2022

B.S.  Integrated B.Tech and M.Tech (Dual degree) Indian Institute of Technology Madras 2012-2017

Contact

ajana@lbl.gov 

Short Bio

Asmita uses computational chemistry tools for sustainable energy applications. Her areas of interest include interface dynamics, adsorption, and carbon capture. She uses Molecular Dynamics (MD) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) to model processes and obtain thermochemical and kinetic properties. In her free time, she likes reading fantasy fiction, watching anime, and practicing Indian classical dances.

Dr. Carlos Mora Perez (Google Scholar

Postdoc (2024-)

Education

Ph.D. University of Southern California, 2018-2024

M.S. California State Polytechnic University-Pomona, 2015-2018

B.S. California State University-San Bernardino, 2011-2015

Contact

camoraperez@lbl.gov

Short Bio

Carlos is an expert in Nonadiabatic Excited State Molecular Dynamics (NAMD), Density Functional Theory (DFT), and Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory (TD-DFT) for both molecular and condensed phase systems. His research focuses on developing and applying these methods to better understand complex chemical processes of ground and excited state systems. Carlos enjoys hiking, exploring the woods on his motorcycle, and having movie nights in his free time.

Graduate Students

Drew M. Glenna 

Graduate Student

Education

Ph.D. University of Idaho, 2021-

M.S. University of Idaho, 2021-

B.S. University of Minnesota, 2016-2020

Contact

glen3534@vandals.uidaho.edu 

Short Bio

Drew is driven by tackling renewable energy and climate change related challenges. He is an upcoming PhD candidate from University of Idaho. He is affiliated with the group through ongoing research projects on computational investigations of carbon capture. In his free time, he loves hiking and mountain biking with friends. He also loves to meditate, read, and play guitar. 

Zeyi Zhang

Graduate Student

Education

Ph.D. UC Berkeley, 2022-

B.S. Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2018-2022

Contact

zhentan007@berkeley.edu

Short Bio

Zeyi is interested in theoretical and computational chemistry, especially in electronic structure theory development. He is co-advised by Jin Qian and Martin Head-Gordon and is now working on real-space KS-DFT and complex restricted open-shell Hartree-Fock (cROHF) developments.

Undergraduate Students

Siddarth Menon 

Undergraduate

Education

UC Berkeley, 2020-

Contact

sidmenon@berkeley.edu 

Short Bio

Sid is a rising third-year student at UC Berkeley and he's studying Math and Computer Science. Right now he's working on using Gaussian processing to approximate reaction constants for chemical reaction networks. In his spare time, Sid like reading math, hiking, and computer games.

Andrew E. Bogdan 

Undergraduate

Education

UC Berkeley, 2019-

Contact

andrewbogdan@berkeley.edu 

Short Bio

Andrew is a rising senior at UC Berkeley studying Electrical Engineering/Computer Science and Math. While his education is in formal science, his interests are much wider, and he is always searching for a chance to learn something new. Andrew is presently exploring different avenues of ab-initio simulations of experimental observables. He is also interested in scaling up the calculation throughput by leveraging efficient workflows and databases.

Alums

Will Heneghan (Current:  UC Berkeley)

Katherine Zhou (Current: Apple)

Dr. Qiang Xu (Current: UC Riverside)

Dr. Soumyadeep Ghosh (Current: LBNL)

Dr. Zihao Chen (Current: Intel Corporation)

Ye Wang (Current:  Brown University)

Rithvik Panchapakesan (Current:  UC Berkeley)

Rahul Khorana (Current:  Imperial College of London)

The Qian Group won't be here without these brilliant people :-)