Professor Sapna Sarupria receives 2024 CoMSEF Impact Award

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (8/16/2024) – Department of Chemistry Professor Sapna Sarupria was recently awarded the 2024 CoMSEF Impact Award from the Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum (CoMSEF) of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). The award recognizes one person within 15 years of their highest degree for their outstanding research in computational molecular science and engineering each year. This highly competitive award represents the top computational chemists in the field. 

Sarupria is recognized for her numerous contributions to the advancement of computational methods for studying rare events. She is also recognized for her service to the broader research community and her dedicated advocacy for diversity and inclusivity in STEM and higher education.  She will deliver a presentation titled “Seeing the Invisible: In Nucleation (and in society)” during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2024 AIChE Annual Meeting. CoMSEF Impact Award winners receive a plaque commemorating their accomplishment and an honorarium.

The Sarupria lab is called the SAMPEL lab (SAMPEL = Simulations and Advanced Methods for Probing Energy Landscapes). SAMPEL uses molecular simulations and statistical mechanics to study condensed phase phenomena. They also develop and apply rare event path sampling techniques. These techniques enable accessing processes that involve high free energy barriers and are typically inaccessible in straightforward molecular simulations. Current projects in the SAMPEL lab include ice nucleation, enzyme engineering, polyamide desalination membranes, enzymatic breakdown of polymers, and stabilization of vaccines. These projects are motivated by applications in energy, biology and sustainable technologies. In addition to leading the research efforts of SAMPEL lab, Sarupria is engaged in several education and equity efforts. She co-founded the NSF funded Institute for Computational Molecular Science Education (i-CoMSE) and has led the organization of two workshops focused on Machine Learning in Molecular Science which were held at UMN – Twin Cities. She also co-organizes a virtual seminar series “Statistical Thermodynamics and Molecular Simulations (STMS)” that has been successfully running since 2020 and attracts over 80+ participants at every event! So far STMS has hosted 82 seminars with 164 speakers. Additionally, Sarupria is the Chair of the ACS PHYS Theory sub-division, elected trustee of the not-for-profit Computer Aids for Chemical Engineering (CACHE), and member-at-large of the Executive Board of the Program Committee (EBPC) of AIChE. She is also the co-Director of the recently established NSF-funded National Research Traineeship program (NRT) Data-Driven Discovery and Engineering from Atoms to Processes (3DEAP) housed in the Department of Chemistry and the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at UMN.