About Andrés

Andrés Montoya-Castillo is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is also part of the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Program and the Interdepartmental Biophysics Program. His research centers around developing and applying theory and simulation methods to investigate the dynamics of chemical processes in the condensed phase. Andrés has received recognitions for his work, including the Department of Energy Early Career Award (2023), an NSF CAREER Award (2025), and an ACS OpenEye/Cadence Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2026). He has been selected as a Packard Fellow (2024), a Scialog Fellow for Quantum Matter and Information (2025), a Sloan Research Fellow (2026), and a Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar (2026). Andrés serves on the Early Career Editorial Advisory Board for the Journal of Chemical Physics and on the Editorial Advisory Board of APL Computational Physics.

Andrés obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Physics (2011–2016) from Columbia University working with David Reichman and did his postdoc in the Markland group at Stanford University (2016-2020).

Andrés is deeply committed to teaching, mentoring, promoting equity, and fostering diversity. He received the Marinus Smith Award (2024), which “recognizes faculty and staff members who have had a particularly positive impact on [CU Boulder] students.” Andrés’s teaching has also been recognized by the Jack Miller Award for excellence in teaching while he was at Columbia University.

• Journal of Chemical Physics Best Theoretical Paper by an Emerging Investigator Award (2025)
• Magomedov-Shcherbinina Research Award and Lecture, University of Rochester (2026–2027)
• Camille Dreyfus Teacher–Scholar Award (2026)
• ACS OpenEye/Cadence Outstanding Junior Faculty Award (2026)
• Sloan Research Fellowship (2026)
• National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow — Japanese-American-German Kavli Frontiers of Science (2025)
• Scialog Fellow in Quantum Matter & Information (2025)
• NSF CAREER Award (2025)
• Faculty Fellow, Research and Innovation Office, University of Colorado Boulder (2025)
• David & Lucile Packard Fellowship for Science & Engineering (2024)
• Marinus Smith Award, University of Colorado Boulder (2024)
• DOE Early Career Award (2023)
• NSF Quantum Sensing Challenges for Transformational Advances in Quantum Systems (2023)
• ACS Petroleum Research Fund New Investigator Award (2023)
• Research & Innovation Office Seed Grant Award, University of Colorado Boulder (2023)
• Young Faculty Poster Award, Berkeley Statistical Mechanics (2023)
• Outstanding Poster Presentation Award, West Coast Theoretical Chemistry Symposium (2018)
• Postdoctoral Fellow Award, Penn Conference in Theoretical Chemistry (2017)
• Outstanding Poster Presentation Award, American Conference of Theoretical Chemistry (2014)
• Graduate School of Arts and Sciences Travel Award, Columbia University (2014)
• Jack Miller Award for Excellence in Teaching, Columbia University (2013)
• Rutgers Fellowship for Academic Excellence, Columbia University (2012–2013)
• Graduate Faculty Fellowship, Columbia University (2011–2012)
• Jerome Schulman Award for Research in Physical Chemistry, Queens College, CUNY (2009)
• Stanley G. Konkol Memorial Award in Chemistry, Queens College, CUNY (2009)

• Early Career Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Chemical Physics (2024 – 2026)
• Editorial Advisory Board, APL Computational Physics

• Telluride Science Research Center, Telluride (July 2027) — Co-organizer with Carlos Baiz (UT Austin) of the biennial Vibrational Dynamics workshop, serving the global vibrational dynamics and spectroscopy community.
• MRS National Meeting, San Francisco (April 2023) — Co-organizer for the symposium 2D Materials for Electrochemical Applications: Leading the Charge through Thermodynamic and Kinetic Knowledge Gaps.
• ACS National Meeting, Indianapolis (March 2023) — Co-organizer for the symposium Experimental and Theoretical Progress in Multidimensional Spectroscopy: Elucidating Charge and Energy Transfer in the Condensed Phase.

2026

• International Conference on Quantum Dynamics — Discussions on Condensed Phase Quantum Dynamics, Mumbai, India (Dec. 2026)
• University of Chicago, Department of Chemistry, IL (Nov. 2026)
• Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Excitons: Bridging the Gap Between Quantum Mechanics and Applications, Telluride, CO (Aug. 2026)
• Telluride Town Talk, Telluride Science & Innovation Center, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2026)
• Condensed Phase Dynamics, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2026)
• Gordon Research Conference — Molecular Dynamics from Weakly to Strongly Coupled Environments, Discussion Leader, MA (Jun. 2026)
• ICQC Satellite Meeting — Advances in Electronic Structure Theory & Dynamics, CA (Jun. 2026)
• Stanford University, Department of Chemistry, CA (May 2026)
• University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Chemistry, WI (May 2026)
• University of California Irvine, Department of Chemistry, CA (May 2026)
• University of California San Diego, Department of Chemistry, CA (May 2026)
• University of Southern California, Department of Chemistry, CA (Apr. 2026)
• Caltech, Department of Chemistry, CA (Apr. 2026)
• University of California Los Angeles, Department of Chemistry, CA (Apr. 2026)
• University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Chemistry, IL (Apr. 2026)
• New York University, Department of Chemistry, NY (Apr. 2026)
• ACS Spring Meeting — OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, Atlanta, GA (Mar. 2026)
• APS Global Physics Summit — Fluctuations and Short-Lived Intermediates in Chemical Physics, Denver, CO (Mar. 2026)
• Cornell University, Department of Chemistry, NY (Mar. 2026)
• University of California Berkeley, Department of Chemistry, CA (Feb. 2026)
• University of Washington, Department of Chemistry, WA (Jan. 2026)

2025

• Pacifichem — Recent Advances in Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy, Honolulu, HI (Dec. 2025)
• Pacifichem — Quantum Dynamics of Complex Systems, Honolulu, HI (Dec. 2025)
• University of Colorado Denver, Department of Chemistry, CO (Nov. 2025)
• Princeton University, Department of Chemistry, NJ (Nov. 2025)
• Packard Fellows Meeting, Monterey, CA (Sep. 2025)
• SPIE Optics + Photonics 2025, San Diego, CA (Aug. 2025)
• Chemistry and Dynamics in Complex Environments, Telluride, CO (Jun. 2025)
• Quantum Effects in Condensed Phase Systems, Telluride, CO (Jun. 2025)
• Vibrational Dynamics, Telluride, CO (Jun. 2025)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Oregon State University, OR (Mar. 2025)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Duke University, NC (Mar. 2025)

2024

• Chemistry Department Seminar, University of California Santa Barbara, CA (Oct. 2024)
• Second Gerischer Electrochemistry Today Symposium, Fort Collins, CO (Aug. 2024)
• Quantum Frontiers in Molecular Science, Mexico City, Mexico (Aug. 2024)
• Condensed Phase Dynamics, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2024)
• American Conference on Theoretical Chemistry (ACTC) — Rising Talent session, NC (Jun. 2024)
• Spatio-Temporal Dynamics of Excitons: Bridging the Gap Between Quantum Mechanics and Applications, Telluride, CO (Jun. 2024)
• National Meeting of the Electrochemical Society — 2D Layered Materials from Fundamental Science to Applications, San Francisco, CA (May 2024)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, University of Notre Dame, IN (Apr. 2024)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI (Apr. 2024)
• CU Phonon Club, University of Colorado Boulder, CO (Apr. 2024)
• Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences (ITS), CUNY Graduate Center, NY (Mar. 2024)
• APS National Meeting Symposium — Hydrogen Bonding Interactions and Dynamics: A Partnership Between Experiment and Theory, Minneapolis, MN (Mar. 2024)
• ACS National Meeting Symposium — Markov State Modeling of Conformational Dynamics in the Wake of Machine Learning, New Orleans, LA (Mar. 2024)
• Berkeley Statistical Mechanics, Berkeley, CA (Jan. 2024)
• Raja & Griffin Groups, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, CA (Jan. 2024)

2023

• 16th Condensed Phase and Interfacial Molecular Science (CPIMS) Research Meeting, Washington DC (Nov. 2023)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Washington University in St. Louis, MO (Nov. 2023)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO — Chemistry Graduate Students Organization invited speaker (Oct. 2023)
• University of Colorado Boulder, Biophysics Program Supergroup, CO (Aug. 2023)
• ACS National Meeting Symposium — Chemistry and Properties of Two-Dimensional Materials, San Francisco, CA (Aug. 2023)
• ACS National Meeting Symposium — Emerging Techniques to Quantify Biomolecular Conformational Ensembles, San Francisco, CA (Aug. 2023)
• Quantum Effects in Condensed Phase Systems, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2023)
• Vibrational Dynamics, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2023)
• Exciton Transport in 2D Materials, San Sebastián, Spain (Jun. 2023)
• ACS National Meeting Symposium — Charge Transfer & Energy Conversion at Interfaces and Defects, Indianapolis, IN (Mar. 2023)

2022

• Chemistry Department Seminar, Boston University, MA (Nov. 2022)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Southern Methodist University, TX (Oct. 2022)
• Condensed Phase Dynamics, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2022)
• International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy (ISMS), Urbana-Champaign, IL (Jun. 2022)
• The McGill Molecular Science Mini-Meeting (M&MS), Montreal, Canada (Jun. 2022)
• Initiative for the Theoretical Sciences (ITS), CUNY Graduate Center, NY (May 2022)
• Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Queens College, CUNY, NY (Mar. 2022)
• Soft Matter & Biological Physics, Department of Applied Physics, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands (Mar. 2022)
• Center for Synthesizing Quantum Coherence, NSF Center for Chemical Innovation (Jan. 2022)

2021

• Exciton Dynamics in Functional Materials: New Theoretical Frontiers, CECAM, Lausanne, Switzerland (Dec. 2021)
• Quantum Effects in Condensed Phase Systems, Telluride, CO (Jun. 2021)
• Nonequilibrium Dynamical Solvent Effects on Excited States: From Spectroscopy to Photoreactivity, CECAM, Nancy, France (Jun. 2021)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Tel Aviv University, Israel (May 2021)
• Theory Journal Club, Department of Chemistry, Cornell University (Apr. 2021)
• ChemBioChem Club, Department of Chemistry, University of Colorado Boulder (Apr. 2021)

2020

• Chemistry Department Seminar, University of Colorado Boulder (Feb. 2020)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Duke University (Jan. 2020)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Colorado State University (Jan. 2020)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Yale University (Jan. 2020)

2019

• Chemistry Department Seminar, Texas A&M University (Dec. 2019)
• Chemistry Department Seminar, Harvard University (Nov. 2019)
• Tuckerman & Hocky groups, New York University (Aug. 2019)
• Quantum Effects in Condensed Phase Systems, Telluride, CO (Jul. 2019)

2017

• Penn Conference in Theoretical Chemistry, University of Pennsylvania — Postdoctoral Fellow Award (Aug. 2017)
• Statistical Mechanics Seminar, UC Berkeley (Apr. 2017)

2016

• Theory and Applications of Computational Chemistry Conference, Seattle (contributed) (Sept. 2016)