Boutheïna Kerkeni

Biography

Dr. Boutheïna Kerkeni gained her DEA (Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies: MSc) in Atomic and Molecular Physics from Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris VI, France in 1998, and a PhD from the same University and Observatoire de Paris-Meudon in 2001.

After the award of her PhD she spent 2002-2007 as a postdoctoral researcher at Oxford University, UK in the group of Prof. David Clary, FRS. She held a junior lecturership 2005-2006 (Worcester College) at the same University. She moved as a senior research assistant to University College London from 2007-2009 in the groups of Prof. Xiao Guo and Dr. Caroline Mellot-Draznieks. She has earned a Habilitation thesis entitled (Réactivité Chimique et Applications à la Chimie Interstellaire et à la Biochimie) from Université de Cergy Pontoise and Observatoire de Paris in 2009.

She relocated to Université de Gafsa, Tunisia in 2010 as an Associate Professor in Physics. Then, she moved to Université de la Manouba in 2013, and was promoted to a Full Professor in 2015. She is the head of an active research group in Theoretical Chemistry since 2011 at Faculté des Sciences de Tunis, Université Tunis El Manar.

Her research is computational-theoretical based with particular focus on quantum chemical (ab initio/DFT), molecular dynamics (MD), and chemical Kinetics modelling of collisions and chemical reactions both in gas phase and at hybrid interfaces. Her extensive contributions are in the field of astrophysics and astrochemistry.

The goal of her research is to derive fundamental and molecule specific data/parameters, like IR spectra (to compare to observations), reaction rates and diffusion barriers. These can then be included in astrochemical models that simulate specific species evolution, track their complexity over realistic typical timescales and constrain the properties of the underlying sources.