Professor David Wales is a distinguished scholar and leading authority in theoretical chemical physics at the University of Cambridge, where he serves as Professor of Chemical Physics and Chair of the Theory Group in the Department of Chemistry. Following his BA degree from Cambridge University in 1985 and PhD in 1988 under Anthony J. Stone, he conducted postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago with R. Stephen Berry as an English-Speaking Union Lindemann Trust Fellow. His academic career at Cambridge progressed through prestigious appointments including Research Fellowship at Downing College, Lloyd's of London Tercentenary Fellowship, and Royal Society University Research Fellowship before his appointment as Lecturer in 1998 and promotion to Professor of Chemical Physics in 2008. Professor Wales has earned international recognition through distinguished visiting positions including Baker Lecturer at Cornell University, Inaugural Henry Frank Lecturer at the University of Pittsburgh, and Distinguished Visiting Professor appointments at New York University and Harish-Chandra Research Institute.
Professor Wales pioneered the theoretical framework of energy landscapes, providing a unifying approach to understanding molecular behavior across diverse systems from atomic clusters to protein folding and glassy materials. His seminal development of discrete path sampling methodology has revolutionized computational studies of molecular dynamics, enabling efficient calculation of transition mechanisms and folding rates that were previously intractable for complex systems. His influential book Energy Landscapes: Applications to Clusters, Biomolecules and Glasses established foundational principles that have guided research across chemistry, physics, and biology for decades. This theoretical framework has proven instrumental in addressing fundamental questions about self-assembly processes, phase transitions, and the intricate relationship between thermodynamics and kinetics in complex systems.
Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2016, Professor Wales has received numerous prestigious honors including the Tilden Prize from the Royal Society of Chemistry and the Humboldt Research Prize for his transformative contributions to theoretical chemistry. His research continues to evolve with contemporary scientific challenges, recently extending energy landscape concepts to machine learning optimization and healthcare applications such as predicting patient deterioration in intensive care settings. As Chair of Cambridge's Theory Group, he mentors the next generation of computational scientists while advancing interdisciplinary collaborations that bridge chemical physics with artificial intelligence and biomedical research. Professor Wales' theoretical insights continue to shape how scientists understand complex energy surfaces across diverse scientific domains, cementing his legacy as a foundational thinker in modern theoretical chemistry.
