Shedding light on molecular mysteries: Physical chemist wins CAREER Award

Modeling light interactions is far from straightforward. Two challenges stick out: nonadiabatic effects and environmental influences.

Nonadiabatic effects occur when multiple excited states of a molecule interact, making it difficult to model their behavior with standard quantum chemistry methods. One of the focuses of Zuehlsdorff’s CAREER award research is studying computationally efficient approaches that can capture these effects. While nonadiabatic effects are present in most systems, they are difficult to model with current quantum chemistry approaches.

Environmental influences come into play because most of the time molecules are not isolated, they are embedded in something. “This makes it very, very hard to calculate,” he said.

Take photosynthesis for example. The way light energy is absorbed and transferred is influenced by pigment-protein complexes, proteins that work with pigments to capture light energy and convert it to chemical energy. That interaction is responsible for the interesting properties researchers notice.

Zuehlsdorff’s goal is to address this complexity by developing new computational tools that combine quantum mechanical and molecular mechanical simulations with tensor network approaches. This innovative combination will allow researchers to simulate the dynamic, multi-state interactions of molecules in complex environments.

“We run a lot of our calculations on big supercomputers so the new upcoming supercomputer that we will have at Oregon State is going to be really useful for that kind of work. It’s kind of an ideal machine to run these calculations,” he said.

The new computer will be part of the Jen-Hsun Huang and Lori Mills Huang Collaborative Innovation Complex, set to open in 2026. The $213 million complex will increase OSU’s support for the semiconductor and technology industry in Oregon and beyond.

"I am excited to use some of the funding from the CAREER award to enhance undergraduate education.”

Zuehlsdorff’s is keen to share his love of quantum chemistry, and his CAREER award provides support for him to do just that. His research team will design interactive learning materials based on Jupyter Notebooks, a powerful online tool for developing and presenting data science projects. The aim is to enhance Oregon State’s physical chemistry curriculum and ultimately improve student performance through developing students’ conceptual understanding of quantum chemistry.

“Quantum mechanics is hard to picture for students,” Zuehlsdorff said. “I teach both the on-campus and Ecampus version. Because you don’t have the direct connection teaching online, it’s hard for me to understand whether students grasp the concepts, so I am excited to use some of the funding from the CAREER award to enhance undergraduate education.”

UK to Corvallis

Originally from Germany, Zuehlsdorff attributes his passion for science to his father, a software engineer. “He would read science books for children to me and correct them if there were any errors he found in the book,” he said.

When he was 16 years old, he moved to the United Kingdom for the last two years of high school before attending the Imperial College of London for both his B.S. and Ph.D. in physics, the latter with theoretical physicist Peter D. Haynes. After graduating, he completed two postdocs, one at Cambridge University and the other at the University of California, Merced.

He joined Oregon State in September of 2020 but didn’t step on campus until over a year later due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Everything was up in the air when I started but people were and continue to be so helpful,” he said. “My physical chemistry colleagues are incredibly supportive and encouraged me to go for the CAREER award.”