Brent Westbrook

bwestbro.com

Welcome!

My name is Brent Westbrook, and I am currently a Staff Scientist at the Open Force Field Initiative working on the parameterization of force fields. Previously, I did my PhD in chemistry at the University of Mississippi with Ryan Fortenberry, where I worked on automating anharmonic vibrational spectra calculations and reparameterizing semi-empirical methods. I am exclusively a computational chemist, so I spend more of my time with computers than with chemistry. As a result, I occasionally have interesting things to share about computers here or on my YouTube channel.

I was also a general chemistry Supplemental Instruction leader for four semesters and wrote many worksheets during that time, so I also have them accessible here.

Recent Publications

(21) A. G. Watrous, B. R. Westbrook, and R. C. Fortenberry. "The Performance of Hybrid and F12*/F12c Explicitly Correlated Coupled Cluster Methods for Use in Anharmonic Vibrational Frequency Computations." Int. J. Quantum Chem., 2023. DOI: 10.1002/qua.27225.

(20) B. R. Westbrook and R. C. Fortenberry. "pbqff: Push-Button Quartic Force Fields." J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2023. DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.3c00129. Cover Art:

(19) A. R. Flint, A. G. Watrous, B. R. Westbrook, D. J. Patel, and R. C. Fortenberry. "Gas-Phase Formation and Spectroscopic Characterization of the Disubstituted Cyclopropenylidenes c-C₃(C₂H)₂, c-C₃(CN)₂, and c-C₃(C₂H)(CN)." Astron. Astrophys., 2023. DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361/202245643.