PhD Candidate Nathan Lim awarded 2018 MoISSI Software Fellowship
PhD Candidate Nathan Lim has been awarded a Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) Software Fellowship! Out of 50 applicants, 10 were selected to receive six months of support for their research; Nathan was the only recipient from UCI.
The Molecular Sciences Software Institute serves as a nexus for science, education, and cooperation serving the worldwide community of computational molecular scientists. The Institute spurs significant advances in software infrastructure, education, standards, and best-practices that are needed to enable the molecular science community to open new windows on the next generation of scientific Grand Challenges, ranging from the simulation of intrinsically disordered proteins associated with a range of diseases to the design of new catalysts vital to the global chemical industry and climate change.
Nathan currently works in the Mobley Lab which focuses on applying computational and theoretical methods to understand and quantitatively predict fundamental biological processes at a level of accuracy that can be useful in industrial application.
Tell us about the research you are currently working on.
My research revolves around using molecular simulations for predicting properties important for pharmaceutical drug discovery. I am currently developing software that accelerates simulations for efficient binding affinity calculations and automated tools for identifying potential ligand binding poses. Part of my work also includes designing these toolkits to take advantage of GPU and cloud computing technologies.
Tell us your proudest accomplishment.
In the summer before starting my PhD program, I did an internship at Schrodinger doing scientific software development. Despite having no coding background, the internship went well enough that I was asked to return next summer–which lead to my first publication.
What do you enjoy most about your work?
I love that I can work “behind-the-scenes” by developing computational tools/software and knowing that my work will enable others to do greater things in the future as computers continue to get faster.