Chemistry, Computers, and Humans

Visit https://www.thermofisher.com/chemistry-podcast/ to access the extended video version of this episode and the guest content sheet, which contains links to recent publications and additional content recommendations for our guest. You can also access the extended video version of this episode via our YouTube channel to hear, and see, more of the conversation!

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This started with a TV in the background showing Brazil playing Croatia in the World Cup quarter-finals, and ended with Brazil’s surprising defeat, to the dismay of our guest, Brazil-born Gabe Gomes. In the middle, the most approachable conversation you’ll ever hear about computational chemistry.

Gabe tries to solve real world problems using computers and it’s almost a paradox that such an extroverted, fun guy, in love with music and speaking so much about people, ends up investing his life in machine learning algorithms. Yet it takes courage, creativity, and daring to go in new directions and seek the next big problem at the interface of scientific disciplines.

Chemistry is a complex multivariate problem and resolving this complexity is the key to the fundamental understanding we need to advance the discipline. Gabe is a wonderful chaperone in our journey to discover how automation and optimization can be used not to replace chemists, but to free them to apply their skills where in matters most. Gabe is the living demonstration that computers and humans can be part of the same discourse.

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About Your Host

Paolo Braiuca grew up in the North-East of Italy and holds a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences from nearby esteemed University of Trieste, Italy.  He developed expertise in biocatalysis during his years of post-doctoral research in Italy and the UK, where he co-founded a startup company. With this new venture, Paolo’s career shifted from R&D to business development, taking on roles in commercial, product management, and marketing. He has worked in the specialty chemicals, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical markets in Germany and the UK, where he presently resides.

He is currently the Director of Global Market Development in the Laboratory Chemicals Division  at Thermo Fisher Scientific™ which put him in the host chair of the Bringing Chemistry to Life podcast. A busy father of four, in what little free time he has, you’ll find him inventing electronic devices with the help of his loyal 3D-printer and soldering iron. And if you ask him, he’ll call himself a “maker” at heart.