Valeria Molinero


Valeria Paula Molinero is an Argentinian physicist who is the Jack and Peg Simons Endowed Professor of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Utah. Her research investigates the simulation of the behavior of materials. She was awarded the American Physical Society Irving Langmuir Award in Chemical Physics in 2023.
WWW molinero.hec.utah.edu

Early life and education

Molinero was born in Argentina. She earned her undergraduate and doctorate degrees and was a doctoral researcher at the University of Buenos Aires, where she specialized in electrochemistry.

Research and career

After her PhD, Molinero moved to the California Institute of Technology and Arizona State University for postdoctoral research, working alongside Austen Angell and William Andrew Goddard III.
In 2006, Molinero joined the University of Utah, where she built a research program focused on the use of computer simulations to understand the structure and phase dynamics of materials. Her research has mainly investigated the transition between water and ice, and how the environment in which that transition occurs influences the process.
Molinero has developed simulations to understand the materials properties of zeolites, and to predict the specific polymorph from a synthesis mixture. In 2020, she investigated the smallest limits of ice, showing that in nanodroplets of fewer than 90 molecules of water it is impossible for ice to form.

Awards and honors

Selected publications

according to Google scholar her most cited publications are:
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