Section Head, Natural Sciences & Engineering

Dr. Nicolas Renaud

Nicolas Renaud is the head of the Natural Sciences and Engineering section. He is in charge of the line management of the research software engineers affiliated with the section and also defines the overall strategy and annual plan of the section.  

Aside from  his management activities his main research focus are related to the development of near terms quantum computing applications and the integration of machine learning techniques in electronic structure calculations and chemistry applications in general.

Nicolas obtained a PhD in Nanoscience from University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France where he studied new solutions for molecular quantum computing. In 2010, he joined the Theoretical Chemistry Department of Northwestern University where he studied how energy and electric charges propagate in. He then moved in 2013 to the chemical Engineering Department of Delft University of Technology where he studied new ideas for solar energy research and molecular electronics.

Nicolas joined the Netherlands eScience Center as a Research Software Engineer in August 2017 and investigated the use of deep learning technique for structural biology. In 2019 he joined  the middle management team, to focus on projects in material sciences and energy research. Nicolas became Section Head of the Natural Science & Engineering section in 2021.