Laird Research Group

Who are we?

The ultimate goal of computational materials chemistry is the understanding of the macroscopic properties of materials in terms of the microscopic molecular interactions. This is a common theme in all of the natural sciences. The differences between the various scientific disciplines (chemistry, biology, physics, materials sciences, etc.) often disappear as the traditional macroscopic phenomenology is replaced by a more molecular approach.

At present, most of what is known about the chemical and physical properties of materials is still largely empirical, especially in the case of amorphous, macromolecular or interfacial systems. The development of a microscopic theoretical description for a variety of such complex systems is the primary focus of our research.

Laird Group News

May 2024: Our collaboration with the Yang group in Physics at East China Normal University in Shanghai, China has been published in PRL: Z.-F. Yuan, B.B. Laird, C.-J. Xia, X.-M. Ma, H.-T. Jiang and Y. Yang, "Intrinsic stress fields for liquid surfaces" 132, 214001 (2024).

May 2024: Micah Welsch's paper "Cation dependence of gas adsorption in clinoptilolite and RHO zeolites using Monte Carlo simulation: A linear model" has been published in the Journal of Chemical Engineering Data: M.L. Welsch and B.B. Laird, J. Chem. Eng. Data 69 2031-2040 (2024). Our paper was chosen as the theme for the cover of the May issue.

November 2023: Our collaboration paper with the Davidchack group at the University of Leicester has been published in the Journal of Chemical Physics. "Analysis of probability of inserting a hard spherical particle with small diameter in hard-sphere fluid", R.L. Davidchack, A. Elmajdoub, and Brian B. Laird, J. Chem. Phys. 159 184503 (2023).

November 2023: Congrats to Joyce Nguyen! Her paper "Generation of amorphous silica surfaces with controlled roughness", N.P Nguyen and B.B. Laird, has been published as J. Phys. Chem. A. 127 9831-9841 (2023).

October 2022: Our paper "Inside and out: Surface thermodynamics from positive to negative curvature" by Seth C. Martin, Hendrik Hansen-Goos, Roland Roth and Brian B. Laird was chosen as the September 2022 recipient of the KU Chemistry Faculty Research Impact Award.

April 17, 2022: Congratulations to former group member Dr. Zeke Piskulich has been selected as the 2022 Marnie and Bill Argersinger Dissertation Award for the top KU dissertation in a STEM field.

March 15, 2022 Former Laird and Thompson Group member Zeke Piskulich has been announced as the winner of the 2022 Jankunas Doctoral Dissertation Award in Chemical Physics from the American Chemical Society.

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