Kenneth Merz was installed as the Joseph Zichis Chair in Chemistry March 14.
Merz comes to MSU from the University of Florida where he was a UF Research Foundation Professor, the Edmund H. Prominski Professor of Chemistry and a member of the Quantum Theory Project.
Beyond academia, Merz has worked in industry as senior director of the Center for Informatics and Drug Discovery at Pharmacopeia and senior director of the ADMET Research and Development Group’s Accelrys software division. He also is the founder of QuantumBio, a software company in State College, Pa.
“The recognition that comes with this chair means a lot to me,” Merz said. “This is an incredibly important position that will allow me to advance the computational chemistry field,” Merz said.