Simon Grabowsky

Simon Grabowsky is a Research Group Leader and Privatdozent at the Department of Chemistry, Biochemistry and Pharmacy at the University of Bern. He leads a vibrant research team including senior researchers, postdocs, PhD students, and technicians focused on quantum crystallography and electron density analysis.

His research interests center on method development in quantum crystallography, particularly X-ray Wavefunction Refinement (XWR), which includes Hirshfeld Atom Refinement (HAR) and X-ray constrained wavefunction (XCW) fitting. His work extends to studying relativistic effects in electron density using organo-metallic compounds with heavy elements and investigating electron-density-property relationships in inorganic chemistry through systematic compound arrays.

His recent publications demonstrate a strong focus on quantum crystallographic protocols, bonding analysis, and electron density studies across various chemical systems. His work bridges theoretical quantum chemistry with experimental crystallography to extract detailed electronic structure information from diffraction data.

• Emmy Noether Research Group Leader
• Australian Postdoctoral Fellow

Grabowsky actively mentors PhD, Master's, and Bachelor's students while teaching courses in quantum chemistry, inorganic chemistry, and chemical crystallography. His research group maintains strong international collaborations and has developed software implementations like HARt in Olex2. The group also provides crystallography services for single crystal X-ray diffraction analysis to the broader scientific community.