NEWS

Lionel Carreira

Academic Entrepreneur of the Year 2013

Lionel Carreira, professor emeritus of chemistry, is recognized for his successes as a spirited entrepreneur and for his longstanding commitment to education and research. He is the founder and chief executive officer of ARChem, an Athens-based company that provides a unique computational chemical modeling software program used widely in academic, government and industrial laboratories. Carreira developed ARChem’s physicochemical calculator, SPARC, over a period of 15 years. SPARC, uses advanced mathematical algorithms based on real-world chemical structures to estimate how different chemical substances will react in various conditions. For example, the software can accurately predict vapor pressure, boiling points and density at different temperatures and pressures. These capabilities cross numerous chemical family boundaries and cover a broad range of organic compounds commonly used in labs throughout the world. The software allows researchers to access critical information without ever entering the laboratory, which ultimately provides more experimental freedom for researchers working on chemistry’s cutting edge.