The UNT Chemistry Department is pleased to announce that Dr. Omar Valsson will be joining us as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in January 2022.

Dr. Valsson is an expert in computational and theoretical studies of chemical systems, and he plans to build a research program focused on enhanced sampling methods. These methods can enable the study of long-timescale phenomena that are important in many areas of science but cannot be addressed with conventional simulation techniques. Dr. Valsson's research efforts will encompass new sampling methods development and incorporation of machine learning, providing new approaches to important research problems that include protein-protein interactions and crystal polymorphism.

We are excited to have Dr. Valsson joining our outstanding group of computational and theoretical chemistry researchers at UNT, where his expertise will lead us into new and impactful areas of research. Dr. Valsson will be a member of the Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling (CASCaM), a UNT-wide center that supports student-focused research in computational science.

Dr. Valsson completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Physics at the University of Iceland and his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. He then did postdoctoral studies with Prof. Michele Parrinello at ETH Zürich and USI Lugano in Switzerland. Dr. Valsson is currently a group leader in the Theory Group at the Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany.