Improving Design of Materials by Exploring and Utilizing Novel Chemistry

My achievements in both research and teaching at CSUN make me a very competitive candidate for this prestigious award. Since started working at CSUN in 2015, I have published 59 papers in high impact journals including Nature Communications, Nature Reviews Chemistry, Physical Review Letters, JACS, Angewandte Chemie, etc.; I have secured two major NSF grants including the CAREER award and the MRI grant; I have mentored more than 25 undergraduate students doing research in my lab and they have coauthored 6 papers including one in Nature Communications; I have created a new Computational Molecular and Materials Chemistry course (Chem555 & Chem555L); I have taught classes at all three levels; I have trained and helped several students from other labs carrying out DFT calculations. The nomination not only will reward my past effort and accomplishments but also will greatly enhance our momentum in research and teaching in the next stage. It will help to establish an integrated research and education program that explores new chemistry and designs novel materials of atypical compositions. The research program will be tightly integrated with educational activities through the involvement of the undergraduate students in research projects, the incorporation of the simulations in the curriculum.