Nancy Makri

Nancy Makri (born September 5, 1962) is the Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Chemistry and Physics at the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign, where she is the principal investigator of the Makri Research Group for the theoretical understanding of condensed phase quantum dynamics. She studies theoretical quantum dynamics of polyatomic systems, and has developed methods for long-time numerical path integral simulations of quantum dissipative systems.
Early life and education
Nancy Makri was born in Athens, Greece on September 5, 1962. She graduated from the University of Athens in 1985 with a B.S. in Chemistry, after working with Professor C. A. Nicolaides. She then attended the University of California at Berkeley and received her Ph.D. in 1989 under the direction of William H. Miller. Her thesis title was Theoretical methods for the study of chemical dynamics. In 1992 she married physical chemist Martin Gruebele.
Career
Makri spent two years as a Junior Fellow at Harvard University, from 1989-1991. She joined the Chemistry faculty of the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in 1992. In 1996 she became Associate Professor with tenure, and in 1999, Professor of Chemistry and Physics. She is the principal investigator of the Makri Research Group for the theoretical understanding of condensed phase quantum dynamics, and has co-authored over 100 scientific articles. She is also an affiliate of the Beckman Institute for Science and Technology.
Makri works in the area of theoretical chemical physics. She has developed new theoretical approaches to simulating the dynamics of quantum mechanical phenomena. Makri has developed novel methods for calculating numerically exact path integrals for the simulation of system dynamics in harmonic dissipative environments. Her simulation algorithms address the limitations of the Schrödinger equation, which can only describe physical changes exactly in the quantum state of small molecules. By identifying aspects of simulations which can be effectively simplified, Dr. Makri's group have developed "the first fully quantum mechanical methodology for calculating the evolution of a quantum system in a dissipative environment by performing an iterative decomposition of Feynman’s path integral expression". Such simplifications make it possible to calculate outcomes that otherwise would not be mathematically feasible. Her careful examinations of the system-harmonic bath model have resulted in techniques for avoiding the Monte Carlo sign problem.
The ability to model proton and electron transfer reactions has been successfully applied to biological systems such as the quantum simulation of electron transfer in bacterial photosynthesis, offering "a complete and unambiguous picture of the process". More recent work has focused on developing a methodology for forward-backward semiclassical dynamics using classical trajectory calculations. This approach has been used to model the activity of helium in both normal and superfluid phases, examining Bose-statistical effects in relationship to phase transitions.
Awards
Makri has received a number of awards and honors, including the following:
Arnold O. Beckman Research Award, University of Illinois Research Board, 2003
Fellow, American Physical Society, 2001, "For developing novel real time path integral methods and decisively quantifying how condensed phase environments affect quantum barrier crossing and biological charge transfer."
Academic Prize in Physical Sciences, Bodossaki Foundation, 2000
Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award, 1999, "for her work with photosynthesis and the charge transfer reactions which occur in photosynthetic systems"
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998
Camille Dreyfus Teacher Scholar Award, 1997
Annual Medal of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science, 1995
Cottrell Scholar Award, 1994
Sloan Research Fellowship, 1994
David and Lucille Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, 1993
National Science Foundation Young Investigator Award, 1993
Beckman Young Investigators Award, 1993
References
1962 births
Living people
20th-century Greek physicists
21st-century Greek physicists
20th-century women scientists
21st-century women scientists
Greek women physicists
National and Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty
Scientists from Athens
Fellows of the American Physical Society