Jérôme F. Gonthier
Senior Quantum Research Scientist at NVIDIA
Senior Quantum Research Scientist at NVIDIA
Currently working as a Senior Quantum Research Scientist at NVIDIA, working on simulation methods for chemistry on both classical and quantum computers.
I have studied quantum algorithms and their application in chemistry during my time at Zapata Computing and at QC Ware. I'm following closely developments in quantum computing hardware and algorithms and collaborating with researchers inside and outside of NVIDIA to keep improving the state of the art for chemistry simulations.
I contributed C++ code to the open-source software Psi4 from 2014 to 2016, and to the commercial Q-Chem software from 2016 to 2019.
I obtained my Master in Chemistry from Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2009 after conducting my Master thesis project with Prof. Walter Thiel at the Max Plack Institute for Coal Research in Mulheim an der Ruhr (Germany). In 2013 I received my PhD in computational and theoretical chemistry under the direction of Prof. Clemence Corminboeuf at EPFL.
In 2014, I was awarded an Early Post-Doc mobility grant from the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) to work on Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation Theory with Prof. C. David Sherrill in GeorgiaTech (Atlanta, USA). In 2016 I received an Advanced Post-Doc mobility grant from the SNSF to work with Prof. Martin Head-Gordon at UC Berkeley (USA). After the end of my grant, Prof. Head-Gordon hired me as a post-doc researcher. Between 2019 and 2023, I worked at Zapata Computing on applications of quantum computing for chemistry, essentially for the NISQ era. In 2023, I joined QC Ware to work as a senior staff scientist, extending my work into the fault-tolerant quantum computing realm. I went on to manage the team at QC Ware working on applications of quantum computing in chemistry, mostly in customer projects. In 2025, I joined NVIDIA to work with Alan Aspuru-Guzik on chemistry simulations for both classical and quantum computers.
In 2012, I co-authored an introductory textbook for general chemistry.
Quantum Phase Estimation
Quantum Krylov algorithms
Measurement methods
Variational Quantum Eigensolver
Inter- and intramolecular non-covalent interactions, in particular dispersion interactions
Energy decomposition analysis: both variational (ALMO-EDA) and Symmetry-Adapted Perturbation Theory (SAPT)
Catalysis
Quantum computing
Embedding theories
Machine learning
Algorithmic and problem solving