VAG

Vanda Glezakou

Distinguished Scientist & Section Head for Chemical Transformations

Vassiliki-Alexandra (Vanda) Glezakou is a native of Greece. She received her undergraduate degree in Chemistry from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens. She obtained her PhD in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry from Iowa State University under the supervision on Prof. Mark S. Gordon. She followed with a post-doc appointment at University of California San Diego working with Profs. Peter R. Taylor and Andrew McCammon. In 2003, she started as staff scientist at Caltech working with the late Prof. A. Kuppermann working of reactive dynamics. In 2004, she accepted a staff position at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where she remained for the next 18 years. In this period, she worked in the areas or catalysis and separations in both basic and applied areas. In the more recent years, her interests include the chemistry, dynamics and properties of heavy elements in the condensed phase, efficient algorithms for global optimization and data science  approaches. Her interests are motivated by scientific curiosity guided by the current problem we face as society.

She joined Oak Ridge National Laboratory as Distinguished Scientist in April of 2022.