Principal Investigator
Sijia S. Dong
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Physics
Affiliated Faculty, Department of Chemical Engineering
Core Member, Quantum Materials and Sensing Institute
Member, the Plastics Center
Member, Institute for Chemical Imaging of Living Systems
Affiliated Member, Institute for Experiential AI
Northeastern University
Boston, MA
s.dong (AT) northeastern.edu
322 ISEC
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About
Sijia Dong is an assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Northeastern University.
Sijia is passionate about accelerating science using computation and automation. She received her PhD in Chemistry from California Institute of Technology in 2017, advised by Prof. William A. Goddard III, where she developed a first-principles-based and data-driven computational method to predict the structures of proteins that are crucial drug targets for many diseases. She carried out her postdoctoral research at the University of Minnesota with Prof. Donald G. Truhlar and Prof. Laura Gagliardi, and then at Argonne National Laboratory with Prof. Giulia Galli. Her postdoctoral work was to use and develop quantum chemical methods and workflows to study the photochemistry of molecules and materials. She developed machine learning methods to accelerate electronic structure theory for studying light-matter interactions.
Research in the Dong Lab focuses on developing and applying physics-based and data-driven computational methods on both classical and quantum computers to accelerate chemical discoveries, especially on leveraging microenvironment tuning to design new chemistry and physics. Sijia has been recognized with awards and honors such as the National Institutes of Health Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators, the Inter-American Photochemical Society Young Investigator Award, the American Chemical Society COMP OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Scialog Fellow for Automating Chemical Laboratories by the Research Corporation for Science Advancement, Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Chemical Physics, American Institute of Physics, and the Northeastern University College of Science Excellence in Mentorship Award. Sijia also co-chairs the inaugural Early Career Board of the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, and is a member of the Early Career Board of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry. Research in the Dong Lab has been supported by federal funding agencies including DOE, NIH, NSF, DARPA, and the industry including Mathworks.
Appointments
2021-present Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Northeastern University
2019-2020 Postdoctoral Appointee, Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory (Advisor: Prof. Giulia Galli)
2017-2019 Postdoctoral Associate, University of Minnesota (Advisors: Prof. Donald G. Truhlar and Prof. Laura Gagliardi)
Education
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Minor in Computational Science and Engineering, California Institute of Technology (2017)
B.Sc., First Class Honours, Major in Chemistry, Minor in Mathematics, The University of Hong Kong (2010)
Selected Awards and Honors
2026: American Chemical Society COMP OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
2026: I-APS Young Investigator Award, Inter-American Photochemical Society
2025: Emerging Investigator, The Journal of Chemical Physics
2024: Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) for Early Stage Investigators, National Institutes of Health
2024: College of Science Excellence in Mentorship Award, Northeastern University
2024: Scialog Fellow for Automating Chemical Laboratories, Research Corporation for Science Advancement