David Farrelly

College of Science

Chemistry and Biochemistry

David Farrelly is a theoretical and computational chemist who arrived at USU in 1991.  He works in the general area of chemical dynamics and his interests are in developing new classical and quantum mechanical techniques to explain the properties of matter under extreme conditions.

Most recently his work relates to the behavior of molecules and molecular clusters trapped in very small droplets of superfluid helium at temperatures within less that a degree of absolute zero. Potential applications of this work include the storage of qubits for use in quantum computing and the synthesis of novel species.

Together with students and postdoctorals, Farrelly has published 87 peer-reviewed articles while at USU, including 13 Physical Review Letters and a letter to Nature.  The Nature article involved the transfer of methodologies from chemical transition state theory to celestial mechanics in order to solve an open question in planetary physics; the origin and dynamical behavior of the large number of irregular moons that orbit Jupiter and Saturn.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) currently funds Farrelly’s research. He recently completed a sabbatical in Spain and serves on NSF proposal review panels. He received his BSc and PhD degrees in chemistry from the University of Manchester in the UK.