PROFILBARU.COM

Dan T. Major
Dan T. Major
Born	March 22, 1973 (age 51); Norway
Citizenship	Israeli
Alma mater	Bar Ilan University;
Awards	Krill Prize (Wolf Foundation)
	Scientific career
Fields	Computational chemistry, Computational Biochemistry, Computational Nanotechnology
Institutions	Bar-Ilan University
Doctoral advisor	Bilha Fischer
Other academic advisors	Jiali Gao (University of Minnesota);

Dr. Dan Thomas Major (Hebrew: דן מאיור; born 22 March 1973) is a Professor of Chemistry at Bar Ilan University specializing in Computational Chemistry.

Biography

Dan Major obtained his Ph.D. from the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University (BIU) in 2003, followed by three years as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Minnesota working with Prof. Jiali Gao.^[1] In 2007 he moved to the Chemistry Department at Bar-Ilan University, where he is now a full professor.^[2]

Scientific interests and publications

Major's research focuses on computational approaches to chemistry, biochemistry, and nanotechnology.^[3] These include the development of simulation methods, a study of enzyme reactions and protein dynamics, understanding natural product synthesis, development of protein-ligand docking programs, in silico design of Li-ion batteries, and fuel cell modeling. He develops classical and quantum simulation methods, and in particular tools for studying enzyme catalysis. This includes the development of path-integral methods for the simulations of zero-point energy and tunneling effects in condensed phase environments,^[4]^[5]^[6] methods for free energy simulations,^[7] and novel docking approaches. The simulation tools are typically used in conjunction with hybrid Quantum Mechanics/Molecular Mechanics (QM/MM) methods and have been applied to a wide range of enzymes. Enzymatic systems studied in his research group include proton and hydride transfer reactions^[5]^[7] and terpene synthases.^[8]^[9]^[10]^[11] Additionally, Prof. Major has carried out numerous studies on physical and electrochemical properties of magnesium and lithium-ion batteries^[12] and fuel cells^[13] using modern quantum chemistry tools.

Among his awards is Excellence in teaching^[14] (2016-2017); Krill Prize^[15] of the Wolf Foundation (2009); Alon Fellowship^[16] (2008-2010); Fulbright Scholarship (2003-2004); Excellent young scientist from the Israeli Chemical Society^[17] (2001).

Personal life

Dan Thomas Major is married to Laura Major, a Ph.D. in English Literature from Bar-Ilan University, who serves as the Head of the English Department at Achva Academic College.^[18] They live in Yad Binyamin and have five children.

References

^ Jiali Gao, Department of Chemistry University Minnesota
^ Department of Chemistry, Bar-Ilan University
^ Prof. Dan Major group website
^ Major, Dan Thomas; Gao, Jiali (2007). "An Integrated Path Integral and Free-Energy Perturbation−Umbrella Sampling Method for Computing Kinetic Isotope Effects of Chemical Reactions in Solution and in Enzymes". Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. 3 (3): 949–960. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.226.3245. doi:10.1021/ct600371k. ISSN 1549-9618. PMID 26627415.
^ ^a ^b Major, Dan Thomas; Gao, Jiali (2006). "A Combined Quantum Mechanical and Molecular Mechanical Study of the Reaction Mechanism and α-Amino Acidity in Alanine Racemase". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 128 (50): 16345–16357. doi:10.1021/ja066334r. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 17165790.
^ Major, D. T.; Heroux, A.; Orville, A. M.; Valley, M. P.; Fitzpatrick, P. F.; Gao, J. (2009). "Differential quantum tunneling contributions in nitroalkane oxidase catalyzed and the uncatalyzed proton transfer reaction". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 106 (49): 20734–20739. Bibcode:2009PNAS..10620734M. doi:10.1073/pnas.0911416106. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 2791643. PMID 19926855.
^ ^a ^b Doron, Dvir; Kohen, Amnon; Major, Dan Thomas (2012). "Collective Reaction Coordinate for Hybrid Quantum and Molecular Mechanics Simulations: A Case Study of the Hydride Transfer in Dihydrofolate Reductase". Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation. 8 (7): 2484–2496. doi:10.1021/ct300235k. ISSN 1549-9618. PMID 26588977.
^ Weitman, Michal; Major, Dan Thomas (2010). "Challenges Posed to Bornyl Diphosphate Synthase: Diverging Reaction Mechanisms in Monoterpenes". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 132 (18): 6349–6360. doi:10.1021/ja910134x. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 20394387.
^ Major, Dan Thomas; Weitman, Michal (2012). "Electrostatically Guided Dynamics—The Root of Fidelity in a Promiscuous Terpene Synthase?". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 134 (47): 19454–19462. doi:10.1021/ja308295p. ISSN 0002-7863. PMID 23101787.
^ Driller, Ronja; Janke, Sophie; Fuchs, Monika; Warner, Evelyn; Mhashal, Anil R.; Major, Dan Thomas; Christmann, Mathias; Brück, Thomas; Loll, Bernhard (2018). "Towards a comprehensive understanding of the structural dynamics of a bacterial diterpene synthase during catalysis". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 3971. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.3971D. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-06325-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 6162201. PMID 30266969.
^ Major, Dan Thomas (2018). "Complex terpenes in one pot". Nature Catalysis. 1 (8): 567–568. doi:10.1038/s41929-018-0130-5. ISSN 2520-1158. S2CID 104835442.
^ Major D., Chakraborty A. (2018). "Predicting accurate cathode properties of layered oxide materials using the SCAN meta-GGA density functional". npj Computational Materials. 4: 60. arXiv:1805.00642. Bibcode:2018npjCM...4...60C. doi:10.1038/s41524-018-0117-4. S2CID 119100855.
^ Kosa, Monica; Levy, Naomi; Elbaz, Lior; Major, Dan Thomas (2018). "Theoretical Study of the Electrocatalytic Reduction of Oxygen by Metallocorroles". The Journal of Physical Chemistry C. 122 (31): 17686–17694. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.8b05831. ISSN 1932-7447. S2CID 105377968.
^ Bar-Ilan University Excellence in Teaching, 2017
^ Krill Prizes for Excellence in Scientific Research
^ The Council for Higher Education website
^ The Israeli Chemical Society
^ Laura Major, English Department Achva Academic College