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Institute of Advanced Materials
Home  >  People  >  Robert Góra

Robert Góra, Ph.D. D.Sc.

Chairman of the Scientific Discipline Council of Chemical Sciences

Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego 27

50-370 Wrocław, Poland

robert.gora@pwr.edu.pl

(+48) 71 320 4472

Office:Building A2, room 14

Curriculum vitae
Bibliography
Files to download

Scientific interests

Theoretical chemist with research interests in the field of molecular aggregates and their electro-optical properties, and photochemistry and photophysics of organic molecules. In particular, his recent studies are devoted to the elucidation of nonadiabatic non-radiative deactivation mechanisms, as well as excitation energy and electron transfer processes, in the context of prebiotic chemistry and chemical origins of life.

Publons RID ORCID orcidLoop loop
ResearchGate researchgate Dailymotion dona Google Scholar scholar

Selected scientific articles

1
B. Błasiak, W. Bartkowiak and R. W. Góra, An effective potential for Frenkel excitons, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 1923–1935. Cite
1
J. Xu, V. Chmela, N. J. Green, D. A. Russell, M. J. Janicki, R. W. Góra, R. Szabla, A. D. Bond and J. D. Sutherland, Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides, Nature, 2020, 582, 60–66. Cite
1
K. E. Szkaradek, P. Stadlbauer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and R. Szabla, UV-induced hydrogen transfer in DNA base pairs promoted by dark nπ* states, Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 201–204. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, S. J. Roberts, J. Šponer, M. W. Powner, R. W. Góra and R. Szabla, Photostability of oxazoline RNA-precursors in UV-rich prebiotic environments, Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 13407–13410. Cite
1
J. Xu, M. Tsanakopoulou, C. J. Magnani, R. Szabla, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and J. D. Sutherland, A prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine β-ribonucleosides and their phosphate derivatives involving photoanomerization, Nat. Chem., 2017, 9, 303–309. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Electron-Driven Proton Transfer Along H2O Wires Enables Photorelaxation of πσ* States in Chromophore–Water Clusters, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2015, 6, 1467–1471. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. Campos, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and J. D. Sutherland, Excited-state hydrogen atom abstraction initiates the photochemistry of β-2′-deoxycytidine, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 2035–2043. Cite
1
B. Błasiak, M. Maj, M. Cho and R. W. Góra, Distributed Multipolar Expansion Approach to Calculation of Excitation Energy Transfer Couplings, J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2015, 11, 3259–3266. Cite

Professional career

2019

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Associate Professor

  • Chairman of the Scientific Discipline Council of Chemical Sciences (2021-2024)
  • Institute of Advanced Materials (since 2022)
  • Department of Inorganic and Structural Chemistry (2021-2022)
  • Deputy Head of the Department of Physical and Quantum Chemistry (2019-2020)
2014 (2 weeks)

Madurai Kamarai University, Madurai, Indie — Visiting Professor

2003 - 2019

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Assistant Professor

  • Dean's Plenipotentiary for eLearning (2007-2020)
2002 - 2003

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Research Assistant

Titles and degrees

2014

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Faculty of Chemistry — D.Sc. (habilitation) in chemical sciences (theoretical chemistry)

2002

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Faculty of Chemistry — Ph.D. in chemical sciences (physical chemistry)

1998

Wroclaw University of Science and Technology — Faculty of Chemistry — M.Sc. in chemistry (computational chemistry)

Scientific internships

2014 (2 weeks)

Madurai Kamarai University — Madurai, India – visiting professor

1999 - 2003 (a few short-term internships with a total duration of 18 months)

Jackson State University — Computational Center for Molecular Structure and Interactions, Jackson, MS, USA – visiting researcher

2002 (1 week)

University of Oxford — Summer School in Molecular Physics and Quantum Chemistry, Oxford, UK – participant

2001 (1 month)

National Hellenic Research Foundation — Theoretical and Physical Chemistry Institute, Athens, Greece – scientific internship

2001 (2 weeks)

University of Lundt — European Summerschool in Quantum Chemistry, Tjörnarp, Sweden, – participant

1998 (2 terms)

University of Bristol — School of Chemistry — Certificate of Attendance, TEMPUS (physical chemistry)

Awards

He has been awarded many times for scientific and teaching activities by the Rector of Wrocław University of Science and Technology (in 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2017). Expert and reviewer of the ST4 (Chemistry) panel of the National Science Center since 2017 and twice chairman of the panel. Reviewer of applications for the Czech and Croatian grant agencies and of scientific articles for many scientific journals (including Astrobiology, Chemical Physics, Chemical Physics Letters, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, International Journal of Quantum Chemistry, Journal of Physical Chemistry & Biophysics, Molecular Physics, New Journal of Chemistry, Optical Materials, Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres, Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, Structural Chemistry, The Journal of Chemical Physics, The Journal of Molecular Modeling, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A, B and C).

Other major awards and functions:

2019 – Editorial Board member of “Life” (MDPI)
2009 – conference scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science;
2008 – laureate of the team award of the Rector of the Nicolaus Copernicus University;
2006 – conference scholarship from the Foundation for Polish Science;
2006 – laureate of the team award of the Minister of Science and Higher Education;
2002 – 2003 – laureate of the national scholarship of the Foundation for Polish Science for young scientists;
1998 – TEMPUS Mobility Grant for a scholarship stay at School of Chemistry, University of Bristol, UK;

1
O. Loboda, P. Strizhak, R. W. Góra and C. Cervinka, Editorial: Fragment-based electronic structure methods for solids, Frontiers in Chemistry. Cite
1
Ż. A. Mała, M. J. Janicki, R. W. Góra, K. A. Konieczny and R. Kowalczyk, Mechanochemical Assisted Chemoselective and Stereoselective Hydrogen-Bonding Catalyzed Addition of Dithiomalonates to Enones, Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis, , DOI:10.1002/adsc.202300636. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, R. Szabla, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Photoinduced water–chromophore electron transfer causes formation of guanosine photodamage, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2022, 24, 8217–8224. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, C. L. Kufner, Z. R. Todd, S. C. Kim, D. K. O'Flaherty, J. W. Szostak, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra, D. D. Sasselov and R. Szabla, Ribose Alters the Photochemical Properties of the Nucleobase in Thionated Nucleosides, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2021, 6707–6713. Cite
1
B. Błasiak, W. Bartkowiak and R. W. Góra, An effective potential for Frenkel excitons, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 1923–1935. Cite
1
J. Jankowska and R. W. Góra, Ultrafast nonradiative deactivation of photoexcited 8-oxo-hypoxanthine: a nonadiabatic molecular dynamics study, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2021, 23, 1234–1241. Cite
1
B. Błasiak, J. D. Bednarska, M. Chołuj, R. W. Góra and W. Bartkowiak, Ab initio effective one-electron potential operators: Applications for charge-transfer energy in effective fragment potentials, J. Comput. Chem., 2021, 42, 398–411. Cite
1
Ż. A. Mała, M. J. Janicki, N. H. Niedźwiecka, R. W. Góra, K. A. Konieczny and R. Kowalczyk, Stereoselectivity Enhancement During the Generation of Three Contiguous Stereocenters in Tetrahydrothiophenes, ChemCatChem, 2021, 13, 574–580. Cite
1
J. Xu, V. Chmela, N. J. Green, D. A. Russell, M. J. Janicki, R. W. Góra, R. Szabla, A. D. Bond and J. D. Sutherland, Selective prebiotic formation of RNA pyrimidine and DNA purine nucleosides, Nature, 2020, 582, 60–66. Cite
1
K. E. Szkaradek, P. Stadlbauer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and R. Szabla, UV-induced hydrogen transfer in DNA base pairs promoted by dark nπ* states, Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 201–204. Cite
1
M. Medved', A. Iglesias-Reguant, H. Reis, R. W. Góra, J. M. Luis and R. Zaleśny, Partitioning of interaction-induced nonlinear optical properties of molecular complexes. II. Halogen-bonded systems, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2020, 22, 4225–4234. Cite
1
Ż. A. Ignatiuk, M. J. Janicki, R. W. Góra, K. Konieczny and R. Kowalczyk, Applications of Thermal Activation, Ball-milling and Aqueous Medium in Stereoselective Michael Addition of Nitromethane to Enynones Catalyzed by Chiral Squaramides, Adv. Synth. Catal., 2019, 361, 1108–1116. Cite
1
L. Ban, J. Bowman, S. Bradforth, G. Chambaud, M. Dracinsky, I. Fischer, R. Góra, M. Hochlaf, M. Janicki, A. Kirrander, A. B. McCoy, J. Petersen, J. Richardson, P. Slavicek, K. Szalewicz and A. Zehnacker-Rentien, Molecules in confinement in liquid solvents: general discussion, Faraday Discuss., 2018, 212, 383–397. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, S. J. Roberts, J. Šponer, M. W. Powner, R. W. Góra and R. Szabla, Photostability of oxazoline RNA-precursors in UV-rich prebiotic environments, Chem. Commun., 2018, 54, 13407–13410. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, R. Szabla, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Solvation effects alter the photochemistry of 2-thiocytosine, Chem. Phys., 2018, 515, 502–508. Cite
1
R. Zaleśny, M. Medved', R. W. Góra, H. Reis and J. M. Luis, Partitioning of interaction-induced nonlinear optical properties of molecular complexes. I. Hydrogen-bonded systems, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2018, 20, 19841–19849. Cite
1
M. J. Janicki, R. Szabla, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Electron-driven proton transfer enables nonradiative photodeactivation in microhydrated 2-aminoimidazole, Faraday Discuss., , DOI:10.1039/C8FD00086G. Cite
1
R. Szabla, H. Kruse, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Water–chromophore electron transfer determines the photochemistry of cytosine and cytidine, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2017, 19, 17531–17537. Cite
1
J. Xu, M. Tsanakopoulou, C. J. Magnani, R. Szabla, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and J. D. Sutherland, A prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine β-ribonucleosides and their phosphate derivatives involving photoanomerization, Nat. Chem., 2017, 9, 303–309. Cite
1
R. Zaleśny, M. Garcia-Borràs, R. W. Góra, M. Medved' and J. M. Luis, On the physical origins of interaction-induced vibrational (hyper)polarizabilities, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 22467–22477. Cite
1
J. E. Šponer, R. Szabla, R. W. Góra, A. M. Saitta, F. Pietrucci, F. Saija, E. D. Mauro, R. Saladino, M. Ferus, S. Civiš and J. Šponer, Prebiotic synthesis of nucleic acids and their building blocks at the atomic level – merging models and mechanisms from advanced computations and experiments, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 20047–20066. Cite
1
R. Szabla, R. W. Góra and J. Šponer, Ultrafast excited-state dynamics of isocytosine, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2016, 18, 20208–20218. Cite
1
R. Szabla, R. W. Góra, M. Janicki and J. Sponer, Photorelaxation of Imidazole and Adenine via Electron-Driven Proton Transfer Along H2O Wires, Faraday Discuss., , DOI:10.1039/C6FD00131A. Cite
1
R. Zaleśny, R. W. Góra, J. M. Luis and W. Bartkowiak, On the particular importance of vibrational contributions to the static electrical properties of model linear molecules under spatial confinement, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2015, 17, 21782–21786. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Electron-Driven Proton Transfer Along H2O Wires Enables Photorelaxation of πσ* States in Chromophore–Water Clusters, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2015, 6, 1467–1471. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. Campos, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer, R. W. Góra and J. D. Sutherland, Excited-state hydrogen atom abstraction initiates the photochemistry of β-2′-deoxycytidine, Chem. Sci., 2015, 6, 2035–2043. Cite
1
B. Błasiak, M. Maj, M. Cho and R. W. Góra, Distributed Multipolar Expansion Approach to Calculation of Excitation Energy Transfer Couplings, J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2015, 11, 3259–3266. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer, A. L. Sobolewski and R. W. Góra, Solvent effects on the photochemistry of 4-aminoimidazole-5-carbonitrile, a prebiotically plausible precursor of purines, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2014, 16, 17617–17626. Cite
1
R. Szabla, R. W. Góra, J. Šponer and J. E. Šponer, Molecular Mechanism of Diaminomaleonitrile to Diaminofumaronitrile Photoisomerization: An Intermediate Step in the Prebiotic Formation of Purine Nucleobases, Chem. Eur. J., 2014, 20, 2515–2521. Cite
1
R. W. Góra, M. Maj and S. J. Grabowski, Resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds revisited. Resonance stabilization vs. charge delocalization, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 2514–2522. Cite
1
Ż. Czyżnikowska, R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny, W. Bartkowiak, A. Baranowska-Łączkowska and J. Leszczyński, The Effect of Intermolecular Interactions on the Electric Dipole Polarizabilities of Nucleic Acid Base Complexes, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2013, 555, 230–234. Cite
1
M. Maj, J. Jeon, R. W. Góra and M. Cho, Induced Optical Activity of DNA-Templated Cyanine Dye Aggregates: Exciton Coupling Theory and TD-DFT Studies, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2013, 117, 5909–5918. Cite
1
A. Roztoczyńska, A. Kaczmarek-Kędziera, R. W. Góra and W. Bartkowiak, How does the Boys and Bernardi counterpoise correction scheme affects the calculated interaction-induced electric properties? Model hydrogen-bonded systems as a case study, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2013, 571, 28–33. Cite
1
R. Zaleśny, R. W. Góra, J. Kozłowska, J. M. Luis, H. Ågren and W. Bartkowiak, Resonant and Nonresonant Hyperpolarizabilities of Spatially Confined Molecules: A Case Study of Cyanoacetylene, J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2013, 9, 3463–3472. Cite
1
R. W. Góra and B. Błasiak, On the Origins of Large Interaction-Induced First Hyperpolarizabilities in Hydrogen-Bonded π-Electronic Complexes, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2013, 117, 6859–6866. Cite
1
R. Szabla, D. Tuna, R. W. Góra, J. Šponer, A. L. Sobolewski and W. Domcke, Photochemistry of 2-Aminooxazole, a Hypothetical Prebiotic Precursor of RNA Nucleotides, J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2013, 4, 2785–2788. Cite
1
A. Baranowska-Łączkowska, W. Bartkowiak, R. W. Góra, F. Pawłowski and R. Zaleśny, On the performance of long-range-corrected density functional theory and reduced-size polarized LPol-n basis sets in computations of electric dipole (hyper)polarizabilities of π-conjugated molecules, J. Comput. Chem., 2013, 34, 819–826. Cite
1
R. Szabla, J. E. Šponer, J. Šponer and R. W. Góra, Theoretical studies of the mechanism of 2-aminooxazole formation under prebiotically plausible conditions, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2013, 15, 7812–7818. Cite
1
R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny, J. Kozłowska, P. Naciążek, A. Roztoczyńska, K. Strasburger and W. Bartkowiak, Electric dipole (hyper)polarizabilities of spatially confined LiH molecule, J. Chem. Phys., 2012, 137, 094307. Cite
1
R. Roszak, R. W. Góra and S. Roszak, The theoretical studies of interactions of the OH-(H2O)n clusters evolution toward the hydroxide anion hydration, Int. J. Quantum Chem., 2012, 112, 3046–3051. Cite
1
A. Zawada, R. W. Góra, M. M. Mikołajczyk and W. Bartkowiak, On the Calculations of Interaction Energies and Induced Electric Properties within the Polarizable Continuum Model, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2012, 116, 4409–4416. Cite
1
K. M. Langner, T. Janowski, R. W. Góra, P. Dziekoński, W. A. Sokalski and P. Pulay, The Ethidium–UA/AU Intercalation Site: Effect of Model Fragmentation and Backbone Charge State, J. Chem. Theory Comput., 2011, 7, 2600–2609. Cite
1
R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny, A. Zawada, W. Bartkowiak, B. Skwara, M. G. Papadopoulos and D. L. Silva, Large Changes of Static Electric Properties Induced by Hydrogen Bonding: An ab Initio Study of Linear HCN Oligomers, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2011, 115, 4691–4700. Cite
1
B. Skwara, R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny, P. Lipkowski, W. Bartkowiak, H. Reis, M. G. Papadopoulos, J. M. Luis and B. Kirtman, Electronic Structure, Bonding, Spectra, and Linear and Nonlinear Electric Properties of Ti@C28, J. Phys. Chem. A, 2011, 115, 10370–10381. Cite
1
Ż. Czyżnikowska, R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny, P. Lipkowski, K. N. Jarzembska, P. M. Dominiak and J. Leszczynski, Structural Variability and the Nature of Intermolecular Interactions in Watson−Crick B-DNA Base Pairs, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2010, 114, 9629–9644. Cite
1
Ż. Czyżnikowska, P. Lipkowski, R. W. Góra, R. Zaleśny and A. C. Cheng, On the Nature of Intermolecular Interactions in Nucleic Acid Base−Amino Acid Side-Chain Complexes, J. Phys. Chem. B, 2009, 113, 11511–11520. Cite
1
B. Skwara, A. Kaczmarek, R. W. Góra and W. Bartkowiak, On Decomposition of Interaction-Induced Electric Properties of HF Dimer, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2008, 461, 203–206. Cite
1
Ż. Czyżnikowska, R. Zaleśny, M. Ziółkowski, R. W. Gora and P. Cysewski, The nature of interactions in uracil dimer: An ab initio study, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2007, 450, 132–137. Cite
1
B. Skwara, W. Bartkowiak, A. Zawada, R. W. Góra and J. Leszczyński, On the Cooperativity of the Interaction-Induced (Hyper)polarizabilities of the Selected Hydrogen-Bonded Trimers, Chem. Phys. Lett., 2007, 436, 116–123. Cite
1
J. Borkowska-Burnecka, R. W. Góra, P. Jamróz, B. Kołodziej-Kozłowska, B. Kułakowska-Pawlak, A. Leśniewicz, B. Prusisz, P. Rutkowski, E. Ingier-Stocka and P. Wojciechowski, in Wykorzystanie technologii informatycznych w akademickiej dydaktyce chemii, Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, 2007, pp. 24–27. Cite