About me
Kimberly Daas is working in the field of theoretical chemistry, which is on the
intersection between chemistry, physics, mathematics and even computer science.
Her research interests are increasing our current understanding of electronic
structure theory and in particular Density Functional Theory, the workhorse of
quantum chemistry, and deriving new practical approximations for it. She received
her bachelor’s and master’s degrees as a Joint Degree at both the Universiteit van
Amsterdam (UvA) and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU), respectively in
Chemistry (2017) and Molecular Sciences (2019). The research for both theses was
done in the group of Prof. Dr. Gori-Giorgi at the VU, which is also the group she did
her PhD research in. In her dissertation, The Strong Interaction Limit of The Moller-
Plesset Adiabatic Connection, she not only derived a new exact theory but also
provided accurate practical approximations for it. Using these results, she derived
new functionals that can be used in both chemistry and material science to calculate
non-covalent interactions, which are generally weak interaction that play important
roles in (bio)-chemistry by keeping our DNA double helices together and enabling
enzymatic reactions.
Her work has been supported by the University Research Fellowship and the Dutch
Organization for Scientific research (NWO). She was also awarded the Dutch Young
Talent Encouragement Award by the Royal Dutch Society for Sciences (KHMW).
During her PhD, she supervised three bachelor students all of which finished
successfully and resulted into publications. In addition to her scholarship, Kimberly
Daas will try to help early-career LGBTQ+ and especially trans students and scholars
navigate academia and especially in the traditionally male dominated field of
theoretical chemistry.
