Anna Krylov

Anna Krylov is the Gabilan Distinguished Professor in Science and Engineering and a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Southern California (USC) working in the area of theoretical and computational quantum chemistry. Born in Donetsk, Ukraine (May 6, 1967), Krylov received her M.Sc. (with honors) in Chemistry from Moscow State University and later her Ph.D. (summa cum laude) from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, working under the supervision of Professor Robert Benny Gerber. Her Ph.D. research at the Fritz Haber Center focused on molecular dynamics in rare gas clusters and matrices. Upon completing her Ph.D. in 1996, she joined the group of Prof. Martin Head-Gordon at the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral research associate, where she became involved with electronic structure method development. In 1998, she joined the Department of Chemistry at USC.

Professor Krylov leads the iOpenShell lab, a research group focused on theoretical modeling of open shell and electronically excited species. She develops robust black-box methods to describe complicated multi-configurational wave functions in single-reference formalisms, such as coupled-cluster and equation-of-motion (or linear response) approaches. She developed the spin-flip approach, which extends coupled-cluster and density functional methods to diradicals, triradicals, and bond-breaking. Krylov also develops many-body theories for describing metastable electronic states (resonances) and tools for spectroscopy modeling (including non-linear optical properties). Using the tools of computational chemistry, and in collaboration with numerous experimental laboratories, Krylov also investigates the role that radicals and electronically excited species play in such diverse areas as combustion, gas- and condensed-phase chemistry, solar energy, bioimaging, and ionization-induced processes in biology. She has co-authored more than 170 publications and has delivered more than 200 invited lectures, including the 2012 Löwdin Lecture at Uppsala University Sweden and the 2013 Coulson Lecture at the University of Georgia.

Professor Krylov's research has received worldwide recognition, in particular for her invention of the spin-flip method. She received the 2007 WATOC (World Association of Theoretical and Computational Chemists) Dirac Medal for her "outstanding research on new methods in electronic structure theory for the description of bond-breaking, in particular the spin-flip method," and the Agnes Fay Morgan Research Award, given by Iota Sigma Pi National Honor Society annually for outstanding research achievements to a woman chemist or biochemist not over 40 years of age. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Chemical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. She is the recipient of a Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation for developing robust electronic structure methods for open-shell and electronically excited species and creative use of ab initio theory to understand the chemistry of biomolecules, reaction intermediates, and photoinduced processes; and the recipient of the 2012 Theoretical Chemistry Award from the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society. In addition, she has received the USC Melon Mentoring Award, the USC Phi Kappa Phi Faculty Recognition Award, and the INSIGHT Into Diversity Inspiring Women in STEM Award.

As head of the iOpenShell lab, Krylov has contributed to science education and outreach by establishing the iOpenShell electronic structure forum and by developing educational materials and films to help popularize science. The two iOpenShell films, Shine a Light and Laser, have been viewed more than 65,000 times on YouTube since September 2009.

Krylov is active in the promotion of gender equality in STEM fields and in the support of women in science, especially theoretical chemistry. She is the creator of the web directory Women in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry, Material Science, and Biochemistry which currently lists more than 400 scientists. She has delivered several talks on gender equality in STEM including a lecture in the international symposium Gender Equality in Science: Then and Now in Uppsala, Sweden.

Krylov has served on the editorial boards of several peer-review journals, including Annual Reviews of Physical Chemistry, the Journal of Chemical Physics, the Journal of Physical Chemistry, Chemical Physics Letters, the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, and Physical Chemistry–Chemical Physics. She has organized numerous symposia and is a Board member of WATOC and the International Society for Theoretical Chemical Physics. She is also a Board member of Q-Chem Inc. and a developer of Q-Chem, one of the world's leading ab initio quantum chemistry programs. In addition, she is an elected member of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science.

In addition to her permanent appointment at USC, Professor Krylov has served as a visiting professor at Caltech, University of Minnesota (Minneapolis), University of Colorado (JILA), Heidelberg University, and University of Mainz.

Professor Krylov lives in Southern California and is a big fan of outdoor sports.