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2023

November

  • Dr. Rehin Sulay joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher! Our warmest welcome to Dr. Sulay!
  • August

  • Anna Lester and Yi Yang joined the group as graduate students! Our warmest welcome to both of them!
  • Our group received an NSF collaborative research grant to develop new type of polymers to protect environment!
  • June

  • Dr. Palanisamy Kandhan joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher! Our warmest welcome to Dr. Kandhan!
  • May

  • Our group received an NIH R15 research grant to develop novel optogenetics tools through computer modeling!
  • April

  • Hao Tian defended his Ph.D. dessiertation on April 21! Congratulations to Dr. Tian!
  • Mayar Mohamed defended her Ph.D. dessiertation on April 12! Congratulations to Dr. Mohamed!
  • Sian Xiao was selected a recipient of SMU Computational Science and Engineering graduate fellowship! Congratulations to Sian!
  • 2022

    August

  • Hao Tian was just awarded competitive Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students from the American Chemical Society Division of Computers in Chemistry (total of five nationwide)! Congratualtions, Hao!
  • May

  • Chao Yin was the recipient of Department of Chemistry Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award of the year! Congratulations to Chao!
  • April

  • Francesco Trozzi defended his Ph.D. dessiertation on April 27! Congratulations to Dr. Trozzi!
  • Zilin Song defended his Ph.D. dessiertation on April 19! Congratulations to Dr. Song!
  • 2021

    Nov

  • Sian Xiao participated in the SMU Three Minutes Thesis (3MT) competition and won the 2nd place! Well done, Sian!
  • May

  • Ashley Montgomery received ACS Organic Chemistry Award! Nice achievement at the graduation, Ashley!
  • Hao Tian was the recipient of Department of Chemistry Graduate Research Achievement Award! Congratulations to Hao!
  • April

  • Allison Kim received the annual SMU President’s Excellence Award for Scholar Volunteer! WOW, Allison!
  • March

  • Both Zilin Song and Hao Tian won Dean’s Award for their poster presentation on SMU Research Days! Well done, Zilin and Hao!
  • 2020

    October

  • Mayar Mahmoud participated in the SMU Three Minutes Thesis (3MT) competition and won the People's Choice Award! Well done, Mayar!
  • August

  • Sian Xiao and Chao Yin joined the group as graduate students! Our warmest welcome to all of them!!!
  • May

  • Hao Tian was the recipient of Department of Chemistry Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award of the year! Congratulations to Hao!
  • Francesco Trozzi was the recipient of Department Citizenship Award! Congratulations to Francesco!
  • Daniel Chavez was the recipient of Department of Chemistry Undergraduate Research Achievement Award! Congratulations to Daniel!
  • Trevor Heinzmann was the recipient of Department of Chemistry Charles T. Kenner Award! Congratulations to Trevor!
  • January

  • Trevor Heinzmann received admission offer into graduate school from both UCLA and UCSD! Congratulations to Trevor!
  • 2019

    November

  • Feng defended her Ph.D. dessiertation on November 20! She is the very first female graduate student to obtain a Ph.D. Degree from our group! Congratulations to Dr. Wang!
  • September

  • Trevor Heinzmann was selected as one of three Summer Research Fellows for his excellent work as a Summer Research Assistant in 2019! Well done, Mr. Heinzmann!
  • Both Daniel Chavez and Trevor Heinzmann were selected as Hamilton Scholars for 2019! Congratulations to both Daniel and Trevor!
  • August

  • Mayar Mohamed, Hao Tian, and Tingting Zhao joined the group as graduate students! Our warmest welcome to all of them!!!
  • May

  • Trevor Heinzmann was the recipient for the Undergraduate Research Award, Jesky Scholarship and Lazenby Scholarship from our department! Very impressive, Mr. Heinzmann!
  • Francesco Trozzi competed in the DFW 3 minutes thesis competition representing SMU! Well done, Mr. Trozzi!
  • April

  • Hongyu defended his Ph.D. dessiertation on April 18! He is the very first graduate student to obtain a Ph.D. Degree from our group! Congratulations to Dr. Zhou!
  • Allison Kim joined the group as an undergraduate researcher! Our warmest welcome to Allison!
  • January

  • Daniel Chavez joined the group as an undergraduate researcher! Our warmest welcome to Daniel!
  • 2018

    August

  • Zilin Song and Francesco Trozzi joined the group as graduate students! Our warmest welcome to both Zilin and Francesco!!!
  • July

  • Our group has been awarded an NIH R15 research grant to explore protein allostery using high-performance computing facility (ManeFrame II) at SMU! We are excited about this great opportunity!
  • June

  • Our group has been awarded an NSF CAREER grant! See more information on Dedman college blog.
  • April

  • Ashley Montgomery joined the group as an undergraduat student. Welcome Ashley!
  • Hongyu Zhou was just awarded competitive Chemical Computing Group Excellence Award for Graduate Students from the American Chemical Society Division of Computers in Chemistry (total of five nationwide)! Hongyu is apparently having a heck of a year!
  • March

  • Hongyu Zhou won Dean's Award for his poster on SMU Research Day, March 28! Well done, Hongyu!
  • Hongyu Zhou won a Wiley Best Poster Award at 27th Austin Symposium at Dallas. Congratulations to Hongyu!
  • February

  • Check out a short online liveslides presentation featuring our work published in ACS Omega. link
  • January

  • Check out a short online liveslides presentation featuring our work published in JCTC. link
  • Our recent work through collaboration with Professor Sung Joon Kim about anitibiotic Vancomycin is published on ACS Omega!
  • 2017

    November

  • A new simulation method to sample reaction pathway is published on the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation!
  • October

  • Our recent work about protein evolution through structural and dynamical analysis is published on Protein Science!
  • September

  • Trevor Heinzmann joined the group as an undergraduat student. Welcome Trevor!
  • August

  • Yifan Sun joined the group as a graduat student. Welcome Yifan!
  • June

  • Congratulations to Zheng, who successfully defended his master thesis in June!
  • May

  • Congratulations to Hao, who successfully defended his master thesis on May 5, 2017!
  • April

  • Our recent work through collaboration with Professor Brian Zoltowski about allostery of circadian protein Vivid is published on Scientific Report!
  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the symposium "Allosteric interactions and regulation of complex biomolecular systems: From proteins to cell signaling" at the 253rd ACS National Meeting, San Francisco, CA, April 2-6, 2017
  • March

  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the BioMath Monthly Seminar Series of SMU, March 6th, 2017
  • January

  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the ACS DFW 4th Young Investigators Symposium, University of Texas Dallas, Dallas, TX, January 28, 2017
  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the Department of Chemistry, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA, January 20, 2017
  • 2016

    December

  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the Department of Chemistry, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, December 2, 2016
  • November

  • Peng gave an invited seminar in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Baylor University, Waco, TX, November 18, 2016.
  • Peng gave two oral presentations at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM), Galveston, TX, November 12, 2016.
  • October

  • Peng's application for American Chemical Society Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF) Doctoral New Investigator (DNI) Grants was approved!
  • July

  • Peng gave a presentation in College of Chemistry, Peking University, P. R. China, July 26, 2016.
  • June

  • Our collaborative work with Prof. Sung Joon Kim (Baylor University) about antibiotics is published on Biochemistry!
  • April

  • Our second protein allostery simulation paper is published on PLoS Computational Biology now.
  • Peng gave a presentation titled "Bolstering Antibiotics: How to Fight Superbugs and Conquer Drug Resistance" as part of Inside SMU 2016 on April 16th.
  • Peng gave a departmental seminar at SMU Math Department on April 7th.
  • March

  • Peng visited Wichita State Univeristy in Kanasa to give a seminar in Chemistry Department on March 9th.
  • Peng was selected as one of the four recipients of Dean’s Research Council grants to fund our research titled as "Extending the Protein Evolution Paradigm to Combat Antibiotic Drug Resistance"!
  • All of our graduate students, Zheng Dong, Li Shen, Feng Wang, Hao Xu, and Hongyu Zhou presented posters during 26th Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure and Dynamics at Dallas, March 5-7, 2016!
  • February

  • Mark Honrales gave an oral presentation about his research of human P-glycoprotein on in SMU Engaged Learning Symposium, February 12! Great job, Mark!
  • Shilpa Kudva gave an oral presentation about her research of beta-lactamase enzymes on February 10, SMU Research Day! Great job, Shilpa!
  • January

  • Feng Wang and Zheng Dong joined the group as graduat students. Welcome Feng and Zheng!
  • 2015

    November

  • Peng gave an oral presentation at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM), Memphis, TN, November 7, 2015.
  • August

  • Li Sheng and Hao Xu joined the group as graduat students. Welcome Hao and Li!
  • July

  • Professor Qin Huang from China will be visiting our group as a visiting scholar for one year. Welcome Qin!
  • May

  • Peng was selected to receive Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. He is one of 35 awardees among 134 applicants from 115 universities.
  • February

  • Check out Jenna's presentation about Computational Simulation of Unimolecular Micelles as SMU Summer Research Fellow, on October 24, 2014 in fall Engaged Learning Symposium on youtube!
  • January

  • Congratulations to Shilpa! Her research project “The Evolution of Beta-Lactamase Enzymes” has been approved and funded by SMU Engaged Learning program!
  • Congratulations to Joon for being selected to give a poster AND oral presentation about his work in nitric oxide (NO) autoxidation on the next SMU Research Day, Wednesday, February 25, 2015!
  • Our collaborative paper about chemiluminescent with Professors Lippert's and Bauer's groups was accepted and currently in press on Chemical Science (Impact factor 8.6). Among coauthors from our group, Catherine Jiang is a high school student. Joon Yong Moon is an undergraduate student.
  • 2014

    December

  • Congratulations to Yao, who successfully defended her master thesis on December 4, 2014!
  • Our first protein allostery paper about a novel simulation approach (rigid residue scan) developed in our group was just accepted by J. Phys. Chem. A: link
  • November

  • Peng was awarded Sam Taylor Fellowship.
  • Rob gave an oral presentation at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM), Fort Worth, TX on November 22: “Using Rigid Body Molecular Dynamics to Explore Key Residues of Protein Allostery”.
  • Joon presented a poster about his research at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM), Fort Worth, TX on November 21: “Computational Investigation of Nitric Oxide Autoxidation Intermediates: N2O4 and N2O3”.
  • Peng gave an oral presentation at the ACS Southwest Regional Meeting (SWRM), Fort Worth, TX on November 19: “Application of rigid body dynamics in free energy simulation and protein allostery”.
  • Peng gave a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the Texas Christian University on November 13: “Computational Enzymology: QM/MM, Free Energy and Allostery”.
  • October

  • Check out our most recent publication through collaboration on J. Phys. Chem. A about QM/MM method development.
  • September

  • Jenna Kleiman was selected as SMU Summer Research Assistant Fellowship for her joint research project with Professor David Son about unimolecular micelles simulation using CHARMM. Congratulations!
  • Our free energy simulation paper is published on JCTC now.
  • August

  • Hongyu Zhou joined the group as a graduat student. Welcome Hongyu!
  • July

  • Congratulations to Rob who became a dad on July 22.
  • June

  • The group had a great time at Burleson Park close to SMU on June 12. Check it out on facebook.
  • May

  • Congratulations to Mark Honrales, Jenna Kleiman, Shilpa Kudva, Joon Yong Moon, and Phuong Nguyen for being selected as SMU Summer Research Assistantships. Jenna will work on a joint project with Professor David Son. Shilpa will work on a joint project with Professor John Buynak. We also congratulate Camille Biard for being selected as a SMU Hamilton Summer Research Scholar.
  • March

  • Yazen talked about his experience in our group.
  • February

  • Check out Camille's SMU Research Day presentation about chemiluminescence on youtube!
  • Check out Yazen's Engaged Learning presentation on youtube!
  • January

  • Peng presented a poster at DFW Young Investigator's Symposium on January 25, at the University of Texas at Arlington. Camille, Joonyong, Rob, and Yazen also attended the symposium.
  • Yazen has been invited to present his Engaged Learning presentation to the Engaged Learning Advisory Council on January 29 during their meeting.
  • Camille will present her work on chemiluminescence at the annual SMU Research Fair, between 10:30am 12:30pm on Feb. 26th in the Hughes-Trigg Forum.
  • Yazen will present his work on nitric oxide in the Spring Engaged Learning Symposium (Thu, Feb 6, 2014 at 9:10am in Hughes-Trigg Forum).
  • Both Camille's and Mark's applications for a research project in our group were approved and funded by SMU Engaged Learning program! Congratulations, Camille and Mark!
  • Tao research group's computational allocation at Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) was increased to 300,000 hours of supercomputing times.
  • Rob Kalescky joined the group as a postdoctoral researcher. Welcome Rob!
  • Shilpa Kudva joined the group. Welcome Shilpa!
  • 2013

    December

  • We held our first group lunch on 20th at Cisco Grill!
  • November

  • Shilpa Kudva will join the group next semester. Welcome Shilpa!
  • Jong Yong Moon joined the group. Welcome Jong!
  • October

  • Congratulations to Profs. Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel as the 2013 Nobel laureates in Chemistry. Their theoretical and methodology development work in computational chemistry and biology has made our research in computational enzymology possible!
  • Phuong Nguyen joined the group. Welcome Phuong!
  • Mark Honrales joined the group. Welcome Mark!
  • September

  • Camille Biard and Ashleigh Miller joined the group as joint undergraduate researchers with Prof. Alex Lippert. Welcome Camille and Ashleigh!
  • Yazen's application for a research project in our group was approved and funded by SMU Engaged Learning program! Congratulations, Yazen!
  • Yazen Abusad joined the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome Yazen!
  • Tao research group was rewarded 100,000 hours of supercomputing times from Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC).
  • Yao just arrived at the campus from China. We welcome her to the group.
  • August

  • Peng will help to organize the 25th Austin Symposium on Molecular Structure and Dynamics at Dallas, March 1-4, 2014.
  • The incoming graduate student, Yao Zhang, will join the group in the Fall semester, 2013. Welcome Yao!
  • Robert Kalescky will join the group as a postdoctoral researcher soon. Welcome Rob!
  • Peng started his position at SMU in August 2013.