The Tran Group designs new materials by bridging microscopic quantum phenomena with macroscopic performance in clean energy, catalysis, and next-generation computing. By modeling how electrons and nuclei interact and transfer energy at the quantum level, we predict and optimize material behavior for real-world devices, from advanced hardware to solar cells. To achieve this, we build computationally efficient, high-accuracy models that combine physics-based theory with novel machine learning architectures for AI-driven discovery.

Henry Tran is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Mississippi State University. He earned a B.S. in Mathematics and Chemistry from The Ohio State University in 2016, working with Terry Miller, and an M.Phil. in Scientific Computing from the University of Cambridge in 2017 under Alexander Thom. In 2022, he completed his Ph.D. in Chemistry at MIT under the supervision of Troy Van Voorhis, where his research focused on quantum embedding and excited-state methods for molecular materials.

Prior to joining the faculty at Mississippi State in 2026, Henry was a postdoctoral researcher with Timothy Berkelbach at Columbia University. During this time, he developed machine learning potentials for correlated systems and advanced methods for nuclear quantum effects.

Outside the lab, Henry is a competitive ballroom dancer who enjoys strength training, attending Broadway musicals, and perfecting his barbecue technique.