Jonathan Hirst

Jonathan Hirst is Professor in Computational Chemistry at the University of Nottingham. He was Head of Chemistry at Nottingham (2013-2017) and his tenure saw some significant transformations, including the building of the GSK Carbon Neutral Laboratory and a successful bid for an Athena Swan Silver Award. His research group applies molecular modelling approaches to challenging problems in the chemical and biological sciences. Areas of research include computational chemistry; computational biophysics; machine learning; quantum chemistry; molecular simulation; computer-aided molecular design; protein structure, dynamics and spectroscopy. Using multi-reference ab initio calculations on the peptide chromophore, he developed protein electronic structure calculations, the accuracy of which has still to be surpassed. In 2020, he was awarded a £2.8M Royal Academy of Engineering Chair in Emerging Technologies.

Looking for expertise in: Complementary experimental molecular biophysics