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The Light & Molecules Research Group

Welcome to Light and Molecules by Mario Barbatti.

This website is dedicated to presenting the work of my research group at the theoretical chemistry team of the Institut de Chimie Radicalaire of the Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France.

Our research is mainly focused on nonadiabatic processes occurring after molecular photoexcitation. These investigations are done using quantum-chemical and excited-state dynamics simulations.

About Mario Barbatti

I am a theoretical chemist specializing in the development and application of mixed quantum–classical methods for studying molecular excited-state dynamics and photochemistry. My research combines methodological development, scientific software implementation, and applications to nonadiabatic molecular processes. I have authored more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and am the creator and leading developer of the Newton-X software platform.

I have been a professor of chemistry at Aix-Marseille University since 2015, where I currently lead the Theoretical Chemistry group at the Institut de Chimie Radicalaire and teach Computational Modeling of Nanosystems in the Erasmus Mundus Master’s programme in Chemical NanoEngineering. I coordinate the Quantum Simulations sector of the QuantA Institute and I am also a member of Section 31 of the French National Council of Universities (CNU).

From 2015 to 2019, I held an Amidex Chair of Excellence, and from 2019 to 2024, I coordinated the SubNano project funded by an ERC Advanced Grant. In 2021, I was appointed a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France (IUF) and elected to the European Academy of Sciences. My IUF appointment was renewed for a second term, covering 2026–2031.

I earned a PhD in physics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 2001. From 2003 to 2010, I worked at the University of Vienna, first as a postdoctoral researcher and subsequently as a senior scientist in Hans Lischka’s group. In 2008, I obtained my habilitation in theoretical chemistry there. From 2010 to 2015, I was a group leader at the Max Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany.

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Funding

The research in the Light and Molecules group has been supported by the following:

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