Theoretical/Computational Chemistry

[scarecrow]

This fall I plan to go to graduate school and probably (most likely) do research in this area. Can someone shed some light on it? Possible careers? Difficulty?

I'm really interested in ab initio calculations, molecular orbital theory, and reaction mechanisms.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Gokul43201]

Teaching is the easiest option, but definitely not the only one. National Labs, like NIST, do tons of ab-initio and semi-empirical calculations.

If you get to be good at simulating/prediction reaction mechanisms, solving structures through energy minimization and such, then there's room for you in the biochemical/pharma R&D field.

 

[scarecrow]

Great! Thanks.