Meet Barnabas Agbodekhe and Hear About His Experience as a Grad Student at FOMMS 2024
I am Barnabas Agbodekhe, a 4th-year Ph.D. graduate researcher working with Professor Edward Maginn at the University of Notre Dame. Working in Prof. Maginn's group at Notre Dame has been one of the greatest joys of my life. I have seen myself grow in many ways as a researcher. I have learned many valuable technical skills in molecular modeling, problem-solving, and technical communication. I aspire to be a seasoned researcher, inventor, and professor of Chemical Engineering like Professor Maginn in the future. Before joining Notre Dame, I was a junior lecturer at a state-owned university in my home country, Nigeria. I hold an M.Sc. in Advanced Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London, where I met, was taught, and was inspired by Professor Claire Adjiman and several other outstanding professors. I also hold a B.Eng. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Benin, Nigeria, where I was trained in the fundamentals of chemical engineering and had my thirst for research kindled. My doctoral research at Notre Dame focuses on using molecular dynamics simulations to study ionic liquids and their mixtures with refrigerant fluids. I have also been working on integrating molecular modeling and machine learning to address the challenge of discovering new refrigerant fluids. My doctoral research aims to enable the recycling, repurposing, and replacement of environmentally harmful, high global warming potential refrigerant mixtures. My work on new refrigerant discovery was the subject of my lightning talk and poster presentations at the 2024 Foundation of Molecular Modeling and Simulation (FOMMS) conference.
FOMMS is a triennial conference that, in my opinion, is the most important, prestigious, and niche international conference for advanced practitioners of molecular modeling, molecular simulation, and applied machine learning for molecular modeling. I believe the best science happens when ideas are cross-pollinated across several fields and disciplines. I saw this happening at FOMMS 2024. The first talk of FOMMS 2024 was delivered by Professor Mark Tuckerman, who described inspiring work and progress in the synergistic use of applied mathematics, machine learning, and molecular modeling to address the crystal structure prediction problem. There were many excellent talks after, and then the last talk was given by the 2024 FOMMS Medal winner, Professor Sharon Glotzer, who demonstrated the elegance of fundamental science and the power of theoretical and modeling research to unravel the nature of matter when she led the audience on a journey towards the discovery and investigation of a phenomenon she called 'entropic bonds' and how this could be impactful for advanced materials engineering.
A high point for me personally was when I was awarded the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing Poster Prize for Outstanding Poster at FOMMS 2024. This was humbling and highly motivating at the same time. FOMMS 2024 demonstrated that excellence can be recognized and rewarded without discrimination or favoritism based on gender, race, nationality, sexuality, or other personal or cultural characteristics. I built many valuable connections with colleagues and senior personnel in academia and industry. As a result of FOMMS 2024, I am extra-motivated and better equipped to continue taking giant strides in research to address some of humanity's most significant technical challenges. I see an even brighter future and numerous opportunities for greater impact by the molecular modeling community due to not only advances in molecular modeling but also rapid advances in other fields, such as machine learning and quantum computing.
