Junming Ho

Associate Professor Junming Ho is a computational chemist at the School of Chemistry, University of New South Wales (UNSW), specializing in physical organic chemistry and reaction catalysis. He develops advanced computational methods for solute-solvent interactions and hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) simulations.

• Education: PhD and BSc Hons I (University Medal) from Australian National University (ANU); BSc from University of Western Australia (UWA)
• Previous roles: A*STAR International Research Fellow at Yale University (USA); Research Scientist at Agency for Science, Technology and Research (Singapore)

His research focuses on computational chemistry simulations to understand molecular behavior in various environments. Key areas include:

• Solvent modeling for reaction mechanisms
• Hybrid QM/MM methods for complex systems
• Molecular dynamics simulations in catalysis
• High-level ab initio calculations for precision

Recent publications emphasize PFAS remediation, nanoconfined electrochemistry, and accurate QM/MM modeling for biological and environmental systems. His work bridges quantum chemical predictions with real-world applications in drug design and sustainable technologies.

Scientific recognition includes:

• UNSW Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2023)
• RACI Physical Chemistry Lectureship (2022)
• ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DE160100807, 2016-2020)
• RACI Cornforth Medal (2012)

He supervises five PhD students in computational chemistry and contributes to chemical education through innovative teaching materials in courses like Quantum Nature of Molecules (CHEM3011) and Medicinal Organic Chemistry (CHEM3051).