Research summary
The goal of most chemical research is to identify substances—such as drug molecules or high-tech materials—that have properties suited to particular applications. However, it is impossible to systematically test all the possible substances that exist. That is why researchers develop qualitative rules to guide chemists’ intuition and quantitative computational methods. These can then be shared as software so that chemists are able to rapidly generate and test new ideas and refine and redirect existing research.
As Canada Research Chair in Theoretical Chemistry, Dr. Paul Ayers is developing methods for describing substances where the correlation between electrons is strong, given that traditional methods are either inaccurate or computationally intractable for such systems. Ultimately, he and his research team hope to enhance chemical research by making it easier to identify substances.