Ashley Ringer McDonald

Prof. Ashley Ringer McDonald directs the MolSSI’s diverse educational efforts, providing strategic leadership for all aspects–notably developing educational resources, short courses, and workshops. She is the primary liaison to the chemistry education community and to faculty working to incorporate software and programming training the chemistry curriculum. She also oversees the engagement of the MolSSI with other molecular science education efforts and groups.

Prof. Ashley Ringer McDonald’s research focuses on using multiscale modeling to study molecular interactions in complex chemical contexts and developing software to improve computational workflows in this research area. She works significantly in the area of developing curriculum and resources to integrate programming across the chemistry disciplines, as well as identifies and implements best practices for teaching programming in discipline-specific contexts. She recently served as the editor for an ACS Symposium Series book entitled Teaching Programming Across the Chemistry Curriculum. Prof. Ringer McDonald has been a member of the MERCURY Consortium since 2016 and serves on the MERCURY Executive Committee. She leads Psi4Education, the education and outreach program for the quantum chemistry software package Psi4, and she is the chair-elect of the Computers in Chemistry (COMP) Division of the American Chemical Society.