Dr. Barak Hirshberg

School of Chemistry
ביה"ס לכימיה סגל אקדמי בכיר

Research

Computational and Theoretical Chemistry
In our research group, we develop cutting-edge computational tools to understand complex phenomena in chemistry and physics. Our work combines statistical physics, quantum mechanics, and machine learning, and focuses on four main directions:

  • Simulation of Slow Chemical Processes – Developing advanced algorithms for efficient sampling of slow chemical dynamics, such as conformational ensembles of biomolecules and prediction of polymorphism in molecular crystals.
  • Quantum Dynamics of Bosons and Fermions – Designing path-integral-based methods for simulating strongly correlated quantum systems and efficient algorithms for capturing their dynamical properties.
  • Statistical Physics of Artificial Intelligence – Investigating the learning process of neural networks using tools from statistical mechanics.

We welcome curious students who enjoy thinking, coding, and interdisciplinary science.

Education

  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, the Hebrew University, 2018

  • M.Sc. in Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, direct PhD track, the Hebrew University, 2014

  • B.Sc. in Chemistry and the Amirim Natural Sciences Program, magna cum laude, 2009

Academic Appointments

  • Senior Lecturer, School of Chemistry, Tel Aviv University, 2021-Today

  • Postdoctoral Fellow, ETH Zurich, 2018-2020

Awards and Prizes

  • Rothschild Fellow, Yad Hanadiv foundation, 2018-2019

  • Adams Fellow of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities, 2015-2018

  • Israel Chemical Society Prize for an Excellent Graduate Student, 2017

  • Excellent teaching assistant based on students’ evaluations, Faculty of Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2016

  • USA-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) Prof. Rahamimoff travel grants for young scientists, 2016

  • The Lise Meitner-Minerva Center Junior Award for an outstanding work in computational quantum Chemistry, 2014

  • Giora Y. Yashinski memorial award for excellent M.Sc. and Ph.D. students, 2012

  • Dean’s list, Faculty of Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007-2008

  • Prof. P. Elving memorial award for excellence in Analytical Chemistry, 2008

  • Dean’s award, Faculty of Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2007

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