Etienne Palos is a Ph.D. candidate in Theoretical & Computational Chemistry, working in the group of Prof. Francesco Paesani at the University of California, San Diego. His work is founded on a data-driven approach for molecular simulation, and encompasses method development, implementation, and making conceptual connections between electronic structure theory and many-body representations of molecular systems, particularly in the condensed phase. His work resides "on the border" between quantum chemistry and statistical physics, seeking to improve our understanding of the complexity of molecular interactions, from the dimer to the thermodynamic limit.

Etienne earned his M.S. from UC San Diego in 2022 and his B.S. from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in 2020. As a graduate student, he is the recipient of the UC San Diego "Stars Graduate Fellowship" in 2020, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation "Graduate Scholarship" in 2020, the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (NSF GRFP) in 2022, and the ThinkSwiss Research Scholarship in 2024. For his research in theoretical physical chemistry, he received the Bruno Zimm Prize (2023), the TD-DFT Student Award (2023) and the Quantum Multiscale Student Award in 2021.

Etienne Palos lives in San Diego with his wife and their daughter, with whom he enjoys the little and not-so-little things that life offers, including going to the beach and skateboarding. He considers himself a "fan" of theoretical chemistry living his dream, and hopes to convey to young people that, regardless of your background, it is never too early and no step is too small for you to begin transforming into the person you want to be in this world, and so it is never too early to and no step is too small to make this world a better place for future generations.