82 University Pl
Innovation E222
Burlington, VT 05405
United States
- Postdoctoral Study, University of Montreal, 2000-01
- Postdoctoral Study, University of Chicago, 1997-2000
- Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1997
Areas of expertise
Theoretical and Computational Chemical Physics
Principal Research Interests
- Quantum Dynamics of Chemical Reactions and Nanomaterials
- Theoretical and Computational Methods (quantum trajectory methods, wavelets, massive parallelization, transition state and minima searching)
- Quantum Algorithms
Research and/or Creative Works
Professor Poirier's research group is concerned with the development and application of new methods for performing accurate quantum dynamics calculations for molecular systems. These calculations encompass rovibrational spectroscopy (especially highly excited states), reactive scattering of molecules in the gas phase and in nanomaterials, and resonance phenomena (energies, widths, phase shifts). Applications of interest include hydrogen storage in carbon nanomaterials, dynamics of rare gas and molecular clusters, thermal rate constants pertinent to environmental chemical kinetics, and mass-independent fractionation of SO2 photodissociation products as a proxy for the Archaen Earth atmosphere.
The methods development research is motivated by the inadequacy of conventional numerical techniques for dealing with large molecules, insofar as accurate quantum dynamics calculations is concerned, and/or performing global searches of potential energy surfaces to find all minima and transition states. Traditionally, the computational effort required scales exponentially with problem size, as a result of which such calculations have traditionally been limited to systems with four or fewer atoms. Dr. Poirier's group is exploring a variety of new approaches that improve the computational efficiency by orders of magnitude, thereby making it possible to handle a much larger class of systems than has heretofore been realized.
Among these methods, the interacting quantum trajectory approach (inspired by Bohmian mechanics), also has important ramifications for foundational aspects of quantum mechanics, which is another active area of current research interest in the group. Additionally, several quantum algorithms have been developed in recent years, leading to two patents and a spin-off company, Quantum Galaxies Corporation.