Scott Bembenek

Biography

Scott did his graduate work at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, where he investigated the dynamics of complex liquid systems using computer simulations and theoretical techniques. His work on supercooled liquids and glasses remains well cited even today. Scott received his Ph.D. with honors in 1997 in theoretical chemical physics. Thereafter, he was awarded a National Research Council Fellowship and joined the Army Research Laboratory in Aberdeen, MD. There he used computational and theoretical techniques to study the dynamics of explosives. Scott pioneered a new approach to parameterizing interaction potentials necessary for accurate computer simulations. His work was well recognized, and upon the completion of his fellowship, he was immediately offered a full-time position. Instead, Scott took a research associate position at Colorado State University. While computer simulations once again played a role in his work, the majority of his time at the office was “old school, paper and pencil” theoretical physics on fluid systems. In fact, his paper “A Kinetic Theory for Dilute Dipolar Systems” required more than 300 pages of derivations! Currently, he is a Principal Scientist in the Computer-Aided Drug Discovery group at Janssen Pharmaceutical Research & Development in San Diego, CA, where he has worked since 2002. During his time there, he has made substantial contributions to numerous drug discovery projects and has worked in a variety of disease areas.

Research Interest

 Microbiology