Rate My Professor Junming Ho

Associate Professor Junming Ho is an Associate Professor and Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow in the School of Chemistry within the Faculty of Science at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). He earned his BSc from the University of Western Australia, followed by a BSc with First Class Honours and the University Medal, and a PhD from the Australian National University (ANU). Prior to joining UNSW in 2017, Ho served as an A*STAR International Research Fellow at Yale University in the United States and as a research scientist at the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) in Singapore. His career is marked by numerous accolades, including the ARC Future Fellowship for 2025-2028 focused on advancing quantum chemistry from vacuum to real-world applications, the UNSW Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2023, the RACI Physical Chemistry Lectureship in 2022, the ARC Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from 2016-2020, the Erasmus Mundus Visiting Professorship at KU Leuven in 2016, the A*STAR International Fellowship in 2013, and the RACI Cornforth Medal in 2012.

Ho's research specializes in computational chemistry, physical organic chemistry, and reaction mechanisms, with particular emphasis on solvent modelling, hybrid quantum mechanics/molecular mechanics (QM/MM) methods, computer-aided drug design, and catalysis. He leads significant ARC-funded projects, such as DP260104243 on artificial enzymes, DP210102698 on nanoconfinement in electrochemical reactions, and DE160100807 on anion transporters as therapeutic agents. Key publications include 'Dual Proton/Anion Binding Through Reciprocal Allostery in Platinum(II) Lantern-Shaped Cages' (Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 2026), 'Counterpoise Correction and Charge Embedding as Antidotes for Delocalization Error in Density Functional Many-Body Expansion' (Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, 2025), 'How Accurate Are QM/MM Models?' (Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2024), and 'The MOD-QM/MM Method: Applications to Studies of Photosystem II and DNA G-Quadruplexes' (2016). At UNSW, he teaches courses such as CHEM1031/1051, CHEM2041, CHEM3011, and CHEM3051, serves as Third Year Coordinator and Postgraduate Progression Coordinator, and develops innovative educational resources incorporating computational simulations. His work advances understanding of molecular interactions in complex environments, contributing to fields like drug design and electrocatalysis.