By: Patrick Xu ‘27
During the Spring term of the 2023-2024 school year, Nate Liang ’25 is doing an independent project (IP) relating to chemistry. Specifically, he is researching computational chemistry, which uses computers to model chemical reactions, different types of molecules, and more, which makes it easier to analyze reaction kinetics, thermodynamics, and molecule interactions.
Liang remarks that his interest in this IP stems from the need for computational chemistry in the real world: “I think for our generation at least, it’s becoming more important to utilize technology when studying and applying science. People are making different types of medicines or other things that will save the environment. Right now, that process is really expensive because you have to buy all the materials to actually do the experiment. With computational chemistry, we can do all of that on a laptop, which cuts down cost, it saves a lot of time. And then you can take the most promising molecules that you find on your laptop and make those in real life. This way, you don’t need to spend as much money on research or on materials.”
In addition, he discusses that the chemistry department is creating a new chemistry class, Chemistry 630, based on laboratory techniques in organic chemistry. Liang mentions that “the chemistry department said if my IP goes really well, and I am able to create a guide on how to use computational chemistry for a high schooler, they might actually implement it into that class. I think even if that doesn’t happen, it’s just nice to know how to code and use technology to make our lives easier, especially in science.”
Liang shares that he is currently working on using technology to facilitate general chemistry, such as the formation of molecules and finding ∆H, which is the amount of heat absorbed or released in a chemical reaction: “What I’m currently doing is using computational chemistry to predict the formation of advanced molecules that haven’t been made yet. Then, as they get made, scientists can verify whether the model is correct or incorrect. So if you’re modeling something that hasn’t been made yet, and let’s say your calculations show that it’s way too unstable, then you don’t need to worry about trying to make it, since you can just use the computer. It saves a lot of time and cuts a lot of costs, especially for drug development, which really requires things like this.”
Of course, what Liang is studying has already been put into place in many labs, with several Nobel prizes earned from this field in the past. For him, his IP is more centered around helping high school students use computational chemistry to help in their studies of general and organic chemistry.
In order to effectively and methodically work through this project, Liang broke it up into three stages. In the first stage, he did fundamental research on the topic, focusing on answering the questions “what is computational chemistry” and “why is it important”. The second stage involved basic modeling, primarily based on what was already available online. His goal in this step was to teach himself the basics. The final stage is to create a handbook for high schoolers on how to get started with computational chemistry, which is what he is currently working on.
Liang stresses the importance of starting research early in this generation: “The thing for our generation is that if you want to get started in research early in any type of science, [computational chemistry] is a skill that you probably need to know. It’s becoming a skill that you need to know earlier and earlier in your career if you want to actually make it [to the higher levels]. So right now there are no resources available for undergraduate or high school students to dip their toes in the water. Hence, the goal of my IP is to learn about the basics of computational chemistry and dull it down into an easy-to-read manual for high schoolers.”
When looking ahead, Liang wants to apply his modeling knowledge to a variety of other subjects. In particular, he wishes to use it to create drugs that will help cure neurodegenerative diseases, which he plans on doing over the summer.
