chemistry

Laura Gagliardi

Laura Gagliardi is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Laura Gagliardi rather than just read about it. In short: Laura Gagliardi (born 6 April 1968) is an Italian theoretical and computational chemist and the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She is known for her work on the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems.

Key takeaways

Laura Gagliardi belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Laura Gagliardi to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Laura Gagliardi from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Laura Gagliardi (born 6 April 1968) is an Italian theoretical and computational chemist and the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago. She is known for her work on the development of electronic structure methods and their use for understanding complex chemical systems.

Education Gagliardi earned her Master of Science degree in chemistry at the University of Bologna in 1992 for which she was awarded 'Toso Montanari' for the student with the highest-mark graduation in chemistry. She earned her PhD at the same university in 1997. She was a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Cambridge from 1998 to 1999.

Career and research Gagliardi became an assistant professor at the University of Palermo in 2002. In 2005, she became associate professor at the University of Geneva in Switzerland, and in 2009 she joined the University of Minnesota as a professor of chemistry. She was the director of the Nanoporous Materials Genome Center from 2012 to 2014 and of the Inorganometallic Catalyst Design Center from 2014 to 2022. She was also the director of the Chemical Theory Center from 2011 to 2020 at the University of Minnesota. She was appointed as Distinguished McKnight University Professor in 2014 and awarded a McKnight Presidential Endowed Chair in 2018. In 2020, she joined the University of Chicago as the Richard and Kathy Leventhal Professor in chemistry and molecular engineering. Since 2022 she has been serving as Director of the Catalyst Design Center for Decarbonization She currently serves as Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, and has served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of the American Chemical Society (2021), the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (2016-2020), and is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the following journals: Journal of Catalysis (2018–present), Chemical Reviews (2015-present), ACS Central Science (2014–present), The Journal of the American Chemical Society (2013-2018), Inorganic Chemistry (2014-2016), Theoretical Chemistry Accounts (2009–present), Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation (2012-2016), and the Journal of Physical Chemistry (2011-2016).

Honours and awards 2026: ENI Energy Frontiers Award https://www.eni.com/en-IT/strategic-vision/innovation/eni-award.html 2026: WATOC Schrödinger Medal https://www.watoc.net/watoc.schroedinger.html 2025: Solvay Chair in Chemistry http://www.solvayinstitutes.be/html/chair.html 2023: Pauling Medal Award https://acspss.org/pauling-medal-award/ 2022: Elected Member of the Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina 2021: Elected Member of the National Academy of Sciences 2021: Elected Foreign Member of the Accademia dei Lincei 2021: Faraday Lectureship Prize 2020: Peter Debye Award in Physical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society 2020: Elected Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 2019: Award in Theoretical Chemistry from the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society 2019: Elected Member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science 2018: Humboldt Research Award 2018: Elected Member of the Academia Europaea 2017: Elected Member of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists 2016: Elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2016: Bourke Award of the Royal Society of Chemistry 2016: Isaiah Shavitt Lectureship Award, Technion 2016: Elected Fellow of the American Physical Society 2004: Annual Award of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences

Personal life Gagliardi is married to Christopher J. Cramer; the couple has three children from a prior marriage.

References

External links The Gagliardi Research Group

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Laura Gagliardi

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Laura Gagliardi claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Laura Gagliardi before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Laura Gagliardi ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Laura Gagliardi

In research: Laura Gagliardi appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Laura Gagliardi in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Laura Gagliardi is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1968 births, 20th-century American chemists, 21st-century American chemists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Laura Gagliardi outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Laura Gagliardi in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Laura Gagliardi means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Laura Gagliardi out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Laura Gagliardi in simple terms?

Why does Laura Gagliardi matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Laura Gagliardi?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Laura Gagliardi.