Leo Radom

Professor Emeritus Leo Radom is a distinguished computational chemist in the School of Chemistry at the University of Sydney. Born in Shanghai, China, on December 13, 1944, he earned his BSc with First Class Honours and the University Medal in Chemistry, MSc, and PhD from the University of Sydney (1966, 1967, 1969 respectively), along with a DSc from the Australian National University in 1982. His postdoctoral research from 1969 to 1972 was conducted as a Fulbright Fellow with John A. Pople at Carnegie-Mellon University, marking his transition to computational quantum chemistry. Radom held progressive positions at the Australian National University's Research School of Chemistry from Fellow (1974) to Professor (1991-2003). He joined the University of Sydney as Professor in 2003, retiring in 2014 and becoming Emeritus Professor in 2015. He chaired the School of Chemistry Board from 2013 to 2016 and served as Chief Investigator in the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology (2005-2013). Throughout his career, he has undertaken numerous international visiting appointments and delivered prestigious named lectureships, including the Schrödinger Medal lectureship (1994), Mulliken (1995), Löwdin (2009), and others.

Radom's research in computational quantum chemistry has focused on molecular structures, thermochemistry, gas-phase ion chemistry, radical systems, substituent effects, and enzyme mechanisms, particularly coenzyme B12-mediated rearrangements. He pioneered concepts such as isodesmic reactions for thermochemical accuracy and distonic radical cations, and developed methods like G3-RAD and ROCBS-QB3 for radical thermochemistry. He has authored approximately 540 publications, achieving an h-index of 89 and over 39,000 citations as of 2019. Notable contributions include the book 'Ab Initio Molecular Orbital Theory' (1986, with Hehre, Schleyer, and Pople) and a highly cited 1996 paper on frequency scaling procedures (over 6,000 citations). His impact is evident in leadership roles, including President of the World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists (2005-2011), Asia-Pacific Association (2012-2019), and founding president of the Australian Association. Awards include Companion of the Order of Australia (2019), Australian Academy of Science Fellowship (1988), Schrödinger Medal (1994), Fukui Medal (2006), David Craig Medal (2008), RACI Distinguished Fellowship (2018), and Leighton Memorial Medal (2019). He has served on editorial boards of journals such as Journal of Computational Chemistry and Chemical Physics Letters.

Professional Email: leo.radom@sydney.edu.au