Nery Villegas-Escobar, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in Chemistry
Quantum Chemistry and Molecular Modeling (QCMM) Group
Departamento de Físico-Química
Facultad de Ciencias Químicas
Universidad de Concepción
Dr. Villegas-Escobar received his B.S. degree in Chemistry from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) in 2015. In early 2020, he completed his Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at the PUC under the supervision of Prof. Alejandro Toro-Labbé and Prof. Henry F. Schaefer III from the Center of Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia, USA. Afterward, he was awarded a Postdoctoral FONDECYT fellowship, for the study of bond activation reactions in the presence of external electric fields at Universidad Bernardo O’Higgins. In March 2022, he joined the Department of Physical Chemistry at the Universidad de Concepción as an assistant professor. Dr. Villegas-Escobar has received several awards such as being three times awardee of the "Honor Fellowship" at PUC during his bachelor studies and the "Best Trajectory in Chemistry Award" at the undergraduate ceremony. He obtained "The Best Student in the Graduate Program" distinction during his graduate studies. He was elected over a worldwide selection to participate at the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings supported by the Arconic Foundation and co-funded by the OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID). Dr. Villegas-Escobar's thesis and doctoral trajectory were awarded the prestigious "Excellence in Doctoral Thesis Award in Chemical, Physical, and Mathematical Sciences 2020".
Villegas Lab 