Emily A. Carter is Founding Director of Princeton's Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment. Last year the GDCh awarded her the August Wilhelm von Hofmann Lecture at the Wissenschaftsforum in Bremen. Nachrichten aus der Chemie asked her why a theoretical chemist is going into the fields of energy and environment. Nachrichten aus der Chemie: Most chemists see quantum chemistry as being very academic, very remote from real life. What do you think? Emily Carter : It's actually quite wonderful: today's physical approximations and mathematical algorithms permit us to treat even highly complex samples in completely new ways — ways that affo...