Alain Vaucher

The 2018 IBM Research Forschungspreis was awarded to Dr. Alain C. Vaucher of the research group of Prof. Markus Reiher at ETH Zurich for his PhD thesis entitled “Interactive Control of Quantum Mechanical Calculations in Chemistry.” He also participated decisively in the development of a research environment based on a haptic device for the interactive exploration of chemical reactivity and related phenomena, using first-principles quantum chemical methods. The interactive exploration of molecular systems will open new opportunities in chemical education, and may also become a powerful tool assisting and inspiring research chemists in the exploration of chemical reactions.