Rate My Professor Evangelos Miliordos

Evangelos Miliordos is the James E. Land Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Auburn University, a role he assumed in 2022 after serving as James E. Land Assistant Professor from 2020 to 2022 and Assistant Professor from 2016 to 2020. He also chairs the Physical Chemistry Division since 2020 and co-directs the Center for Multiscale Modeling of Materials and Molecules since 2024. Miliordos obtained his B.Sc. in Chemistry in 2003, M.Sc. in Physical Chemistry in 2006, and Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry in 2010 from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. His postdoctoral appointments included Michigan State University (2010-2012), Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (2012-2015, where he earned an Outstanding Performance Award in 2013), and the University of Delaware (2015-2016).

In physical chemistry, Miliordos specializes in theoretical and computational methods, including multi-reference configuration interaction, coupled cluster, and density functional theory, to explore electronic structure, bonding, excited states, and reactivity of transition metal complexes. His research addresses energy challenges through studies on catalytic water splitting, methane C-H activation, and novel materials like solvated electron precursors for magnetic and quantum computing applications. Key publications include "Spontaneous formation of urea from carbon dioxide and ammonia in aqueous droplets" (Science, 388, 1426, 2025, with M.A. Mohajer et al.), "Selective conversion of methane to methanol facilitated by molecular metal-methoxy complexes via a self-correcting chemical cycle" (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 26, 23136, 2024), "Electrides with Tunable Electron Delocalization for Applications in Quantum Computing and Catalysis" (ACS Materials Letters, 7, 3604, 2025), and earlier works such as "The role of O(1D) in the oxidation mechanism of ethylene by iodosobenzene" (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 19, 18152, 2017). With over 2,746 citations, his contributions have earned the NSF CAREER Award (2020-2025), OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry from the American Chemical Society (2021), Dean’s Research Award from the College of Sciences and Mathematics (2022), and Young Investigator Scholar Award (2025). Miliordos guest-edited a special issue for Molecules (2022-2023) and collaborates with experimental groups on actinides, lanthanides, and organic synthesis.