About

Welcome!

My name is Varun Gopal and I am PhD student in the Department of Material Science and Chemical Engineering at the University of Minnesota - Twin Cities. I am a member of the SAMPEL Research Group led by Prof. Sapna Sarupria.

In my research, I focus on using molecular dynamics simulations and data-driven techniques to study molecular systems. I have primarily worked on 1) the development and application of machine-learning techniques to accelerate the sampling of rare events, 2) the development of novel ML/MM simulation techniques which combine machine-learned potentials with traditional molecular mechanics potentials to study small molecule reactions, and 3) the study of peptide aggregation.

Prior to joining the University of Minnesota, I completed my undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at Georgia Tech and subsequently worked as a process engineer in the paper industry.

In my free time, I enjoy watching/playing sports, hiking, pondering about mathematics, and listening to Carnatic music. I am also working on a few coding projects which blend all of these interests with data science and machine learning, so stay tuned for updates on my Github page!