Nicholas E. Jackson has won the 2024 Computational Molecular Science and Engineering Forum's Young Investigator Award. 

Jackson, assistant professor of chemistry and Lincoln Excellence for Assistant Professors Scholar, was cited for "the development and application of scalable quantum mechanical approaches to soft materials at the coarse-grained resolution."

Nicholas delivered a presentation describing his research during the CoMSEF Plenary Session at the 2024 American Institute of Chemical Engineers meeting in San Diego. The award recognizes outstanding research in computational molecular science and engineering, encompassing both methods and applications. Nominees may hold positions in academia, industry, or a government lab, and must be within seven years of completion of their highest degree.

Jackson earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 2016, working with Prof. Mark Ratner and Prof. Lin Chen. He was then a Named Fellow and Assistant Scientist in the Materials Science Division at Argonne National Laboratory, working with Prof. Juan de Pablo. He joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2020 as a faculty member in Chemistry and in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering.