Henryk A. Witek is a chemist of Polish origin, and is a Professor of Chemistry in the National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan. He obtained his scientific degrees from the

Jagiellonian University The Jagiellonian University (Polish: ''Uniwersytet Jagielloński'', UJ) is a public research university in Kraków, Poland. Founded in 1364 by King Casimir III the Great, it is the oldest university in Poland and the 13th oldest university in ...

(MS) and the University of Tokyo (PhD). His research interests encompass

quantum In physics, a quantum (plural quanta) is the minimum amount of any physical entity (physical property) involved in an interaction. The fundamental notion that a physical property can be "quantized" is referred to as "the hypothesis of quantizati ...

and

physical Physical may refer to: *Physical examination In a physical examination, medical examination, or clinical examination, a medical practitioner examines a patient for any possible medical signs or symptoms of a medical condition. It generally co ...

chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

, applied linear algebra, as well as perturbation theory.

Achievements

Using computational methods, he carried out simulations of infrared spectra of Criegee intermediates (CH2OO). This achievement (published in '' Science'') has important implications on the understanding of fundamental processes in environmental chemistry.

Representative publications

* Henryk A. Witek, Takahito Nakijima, Kimihiko Hirao, "Relativistic and correlated all-electron calculations on the ground and excited states of AgH and AuH", J. Chem. Phys. 113, 8015 (2000). * Henryk A. Witek, Stephan Irle, Keiji Morokuma, "Analytical second-order geometrical derivatives of energy for the self-consistent-charge density-functional tight-binding method", J. Chem. Phys. 121, 5163 (2004). * Su YT, Huang YH, Witek HA, Lee YP, "Infrared absorption spectrum of the simplest Criegee intermediate CH2OO", Science 340, 174 (2013).

Awards

In 2005, he obtained Young Faculty Award and Scholarship from the Foundation for the Advancement of Outstanding Scholarship. In 2006, he became one of four awardees of the American Chemical Society Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, in 2010, he received the Distinguished Young Chemist Award from the Chinese Chemical Society, and in 2014, he was awarded the APATCC Pople Medal "for his innovative contributions to theoretical and mathematical aspects of quantum chemistry, particularly his contributions to multireference perturbation theory and the density-functional tight-binding method.".

Teaching

As an academic teacher, he offers semestral courses in general and quantum chemistry. Some of them are available online via the OpenCourseWare platform. In fall 2017, he taught "Perturbation theory for linear operator", using the book titled the same as the course by mathematician

Tosio Kato was a Japanese mathematician who worked with partial differential equations, mathematical physics and functional analysis. Kato studied physics and received his undergraduate degree in 1941 at the Imperial University of Tokyo. After disruption o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Witek, Henryk Living people Taiwanese chemists Academic staff of the National Chiao Tung University University of Tokyo alumni Computational chemists Year of birth missing (living people)