Professor Giuseppe M. J. Barca holds joint appointments as Professor of Quantum Medicinal Chemistry at the Monash Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Professor of High-Performance Computing and Computational Science at the Australian National University. He is also Co-Founder and Head of Research at QDX Technologies, a deep-tech company focused on accelerating drug discovery through the integration of high-accuracy, high-performance quantum molecular simulations and artificial intelligence.​

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An internationally recognized leader at the intersection of high-performance computing (HPC), quantum chemistry, and artificial intelligence (AI), Giuseppe's research focuses on the development of high performance in silico approaches to accelerate molecular simulation and therapeutic design. 

 

From 2018 to 2023, he led Australia’s involvement in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Exascale Computing Project (ECP)—the sole Australian-led contribution to this flagship initiative. In collaboration with U.S. national laboratories (Oak Ridge, Argonne, Ames), major academic institutions (Georgia Tech), and industry partners (NVIDIA, Intel, AMD, Cray), Professor Barca’s team delivered the first quantum-accurate biomolecular simulations at exascale, establishing a new paradigm in quantum molecular modeling.

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As Chief Investigator of the PaCER (Pawsey Centre for Extreme-scale Readiness) initiative from 2021 to 2023, he led the development of EXESS (Extreme-scale Electronic Structure System), a GPU-native platform designed for extreme-scale electronic structure calculations.

 

The Barca group innovations led to a series of world-first achievements, including four successive world records (2020–2024) for the largest quantum chemical simulations ever performed at the wave function theory level. In 2024, Prof. Barca's team was awarded the Association for Computing Machinery Gordon Bell Prize, the highest international distinction in high-performance computing, for achieving the first wavefunction-based quantum molecular simulation at the bio scale and jointly breaking the double precision exaflop/s performance barrier for the first time ever for a scientific application.

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In 2025, Giuseppe was also awarded the World Association for Theoretical and Computational Chemists (WATOC) Dirac Medal, the highest accolade in theoretical and computational chemistry for scientists below the age of 40, recognizing his pioneering contributions to GPU-accelerated exascale quantum chemistry. 

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In parallel with his academic leadership, Giuseppe co-founded QDX Technologies in 2023. As Head of Research, he leads the company’s efforts to translate high-accuracy quantum chemistry and AI-driven molecular modeling into pragmatic solutions for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. QDX is headquartered in Melbourne with additional operations in Singapore and Canberra and maintains a growing portfolio of global collaborations.