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Robert W. Góra, PhD, DSc
Faculty, Góra Group
Email: robert.gora@pwr.edu.pl
Office:A2 / 14
Phone:+48 71 320 4472
Office hours:Tue 11-13; Wed 9-11

Theoretical chemist with research interests in the origins of electro-optic properties of molecular aggregates, photochemistry and photophysics of organic molecules,excitation energy transfer phenomenon, chemical origins of life and weak intermolecular interactions.

Dr. Robert Góra obtained PhD in Physical Chemistry from Wroclaw University of Science and Technology (WUST) in 2002 under the supervision of Prof. Szczepan Roszak and DSc (habilitation) in Theoretical Chemistry in 2014. In 2002 he joined the Faculty of Chemistry at the WUST where he currently serves as an associate professor. In the past he was associated with Prof. Jerzy Leszczyński (frequent short-term visits at the Jackson State University, Jackson, MS, USA in 1999-2003) and Dr. Ioannis D. Petsalakis (short-term visit at the National Hellenic Research Foundation, Athens, Greece in 2001). In 1997 he was an exchange student at the University of Bristol supervised by Prof. David Cooper. More recently, in 2014 he was a visiting professor at the Madurai Kamarai University, Madurai, India.

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Selected PapersPapers

Photochemistry and origins of life

Excitation energy transfer

Electrooptic properties of molecular complexes and confined species

Intermolecular interactions


  1. Szabla, R.; Kruse, H.; Šponer, J.; Góra, R. W. Water–chromophore electron transfer determines the photochemistry of cytosine and cytidine. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2017, 19 (27), 17531–17537 DOI: 10.1039/C7CP02635H.
  2. Xu, J.; Tsanakopoulou, M.; Magnani, C. J.; Szabla, R.; Šponer, J. E.; Šponer, J.; Góra, R. W.; Sutherland, J. D. A prebiotically plausible synthesis of pyrimidine β-ribonucleosides and their phosphate derivatives involving photoanomerization. Nat. Chem. 2017, 9 (4), 303-309 DOI: 10.1038/nchem.2664.
  3. Zaleśny, R.; Garcia-Borràs, M.; Góra, R. W.; Medved', M.; Luis, J. M. On the physical origins of interaction-induced vibrational (hyper)polarizabilities. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2016, 18 (32), 22467–22477 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP02500E.
  4. Szabla, R.; Góra, R. W.; Šponer, J. Ultrafast excited-state dynamics of isocytosine. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2016, 18 (30), 20208–20218 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP01391K.
  5. Šponer, J. E.; Szabla, R.; Góra, R. W.; Saitta, A. M.; Pietrucci, F.; Saija, F.; Mauro, E. D.; Saladino, R.; Ferus, M.; Civiš, S.; et al. 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 (30), 20047–20066 DOI: 10.1039/C6CP00670A.
  6. Szabla, R.; Góra, R. W.; Janicki, M.; Sponer, J. Photorelaxation of Imidazole and Adenine via Electron-Driven Proton Transfer Along H2O Wires. Faraday Discuss. 2016 DOI: 10.1039/C6FD00131A.
  7. Zaleśny, R.; Góra, R. W.; Luis, J. M.; Bartkowiak, W. 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 (34), 21782–21786 DOI: 10.1039/C5CP02865E.
  8. Szabla, R.; Šponer, J.; Góra, R. W. Electron-Driven Proton Transfer Along H2O Wires Enables Photorelaxation of πσ* States in Chromophore–Water Clusters. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2015, 6 (8), 1467–1471 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.5b00261.
  9. Szabla, R.; Campos, J.; Šponer, J. E.; Šponer, J.; Góra, R. W.; Sutherland, J. D. Excited-state hydrogen atom abstraction initiates the photochemistry of β-2′-deoxycytidine. Chem. Sci. 2015, 6 (3), 2035–2043 DOI: 10.1039/C4SC03761H.
  10. Błasiak, B.; Maj, M.; Cho, M.; Góra, R. W. Distributed Multipolar Expansion Approach to Calculation of Excitation Energy Transfer Couplings. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2015, 11 (7), 3259–3266 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jctc.5b00216.
  11. Szabla, R.; Šponer, J. E.; Šponer, J.; Sobolewski, A. L.; Góra, R. W. Solvent effects on the photochemistry of 4-aminoimidazole-5-carbonitrile, a prebiotically plausible precursor of purines. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2014, 16 (33), 17617–17626 DOI: 10.1039/C4CP02074J.
  12. Szabla, R.; Góra, R. W.; Šponer, J.; Šponer, J. E. Molecular Mechanism of Diaminomaleonitrile to Diaminofumaronitrile Photoisomerization: An Intermediate Step in the Prebiotic Formation of Purine Nucleobases. Chem. Eur. J. 2014, 20 (9), 2515–2521 DOI: 10.1002/chem.201304224.
  13. Góra, R. W.; Maj, M.; Grabowski, S. J. Resonance-assisted hydrogen bonds revisited. Resonance stabilization vs. charge delocalization. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013, 15 (7), 2514–2522 DOI: 10.1039/C2CP43562D.
  14. Czyżnikowska, Ż.; Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Bartkowiak, W.; Baranowska-Łączkowska, A.; Leszczyński, J. The Effect of Intermolecular Interactions on the Electric Dipole Polarizabilities of Nucleic Acid Base Complexes. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2013, 555 (0), 230–234 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2012.10.087.
  15. Maj, M.; Jeon, J.; Góra, R. W.; Cho, M. Induced Optical Activity of DNA-Templated Cyanine Dye Aggregates: Exciton Coupling Theory and TD-DFT Studies. J. Phys. Chem. A 2013, 117 (29), 5909–5918 DOI: 10.1021/jp309807y.
  16. Roztoczyńska, A.; Kaczmarek-Kędziera, A.; Góra, R. W.; Bartkowiak, W. 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 (0), 28–33 DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2013.03.081.
  17. Zaleśny, R.; Góra, R. W.; Kozłowska, J.; Luis, J. M.; Ågren, H.; Bartkowiak, W. Resonant and Nonresonant Hyperpolarizabilities of Spatially Confined Molecules: A Case Study of Cyanoacetylene. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2013, 9 (8), 3463–3472 DOI: 10.1021/ct400410m.
  18. Góra, R. W.; Błasiak, B. On the Origins of Large Interaction-Induced First Hyperpolarizabilities in Hydrogen-Bonded π-Electronic Complexes. J. Phys. Chem. A 2013, 117 (31), 6859–6866 DOI: 10.1021/jp405144f.
  19. Szabla, R.; Tuna, D.; Góra, R. W.; Šponer, J.; Sobolewski, A. L.; Domcke, W. Photochemistry of 2-Aminooxazole, a Hypothetical Prebiotic Precursor of RNA Nucleotides. J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2013, 4 (16), 2785–2788 DOI: 10.1021/jz401315e.
  20. Baranowska-Łączkowska, A.; Bartkowiak, W.; Góra, R. W.; Pawłowski, F.; Zaleśny, R. 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 (10), 819–826 DOI: 10.1002/jcc.23197.
  21. Szabla, R.; Šponer, J. E.; Šponer, J.; Góra, R. W. Theoretical studies of the mechanism of 2-aminooxazole formation under prebiotically plausible conditions. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2013, 15 (20), 7812–7818 DOI: 10.1039/C3CP50320H.
  22. Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Kozłowska, J.; Naciążek, P.; Roztoczyńska, A.; Strasburger, K.; Bartkowiak, W. Electric dipole (hyper)polarizabilities of spatially confined LiH molecule. J. Chem. Phys. 2012, 137 (9), 094307 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.4748144.
  23. Roszak, R.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S. The theoretical studies of interactions of the OH-(H2O)n clusters evolution toward the hydroxide anion hydration. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2012, 112 (18), 3046–3051 DOI: 10.1002/qua.24227.
  24. Zawada, A.; Góra, R. W.; Mikołajczyk, M. M.; Bartkowiak, W. On the Calculations of Interaction Energies and Induced Electric Properties within the Polarizable Continuum Model. J. Phys. Chem. A 2012, 116 (17), 4409–4416 DOI: 10.1021/jp3016613.
  25. Langner, K. M.; Janowski, T.; Góra, R. W.; Dziekoński, P.; Sokalski, W. A.; Pulay, P. The Ethidium–UA/AU Intercalation Site: Effect of Model Fragmentation and Backbone Charge State. J. Chem. Theory Comput. 2011, 7 (8), 2600–2609 DOI: 10.1021/ct200121f.
  26. Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Zawada, A.; Bartkowiak, W.; Skwara, B.; Papadopoulos, M. G.; Silva, D. L. Large Changes of Static Electric Properties Induced by Hydrogen Bonding: An ab Initio Study of Linear HCN Oligomers. J. Phys. Chem. A 2011, 115 (18), 4691–4700 DOI: 10.1021/jp110226h.
  27. Skwara, B.; Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Lipkowski, P.; Bartkowiak, W.; Reis, H.; Papadopoulos, M. G.; Luis, J. M.; Kirtman, B. Electronic Structure, Bonding, Spectra, and Linear and Nonlinear Electric Properties of Ti@C28. J. Phys. Chem. A 2011, 115 (37), 10370–10381 DOI: 10.1021/jp206331n.
  28. Czyżnikowska, Ż.; Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Lipkowski, P.; Jarzembska, K. N.; Dominiak, P. M.; Leszczynski, J. Structural Variability and the Nature of Intermolecular Interactions in Watson−Crick B-DNA Base Pairs. J. Phys. Chem. B 2010, 114 (29), 9629–9644 DOI: 10.1021/jp101258q.
  29. Czyżnikowska, Ż.; Lipkowski, P.; Góra, R. W.; Zaleśny, R.; Cheng, A. C. On the Nature of Intermolecular Interactions in Nucleic Acid Base−Amino Acid Side-Chain Complexes. J. Phys. Chem. B 2009, 113 (33), 11511–11520 DOI: 10.1021/jp904146m.
  30. Skwara, B.; Kaczmarek, A.; Góra, R. W.; Bartkowiak, W. On Decomposition of Interaction-Induced Electric Properties of HF Dimer. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2008, 461 (4-6), 203–206 DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2008.07.019.
  31. Czyżnikowska, Ż.; Zaleśny, R.; Ziółkowski, M.; Gora, R. W.; Cysewski, P. The nature of interactions in uracil dimer: An ab initio study. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2007, 450 (1–3), 132–137 DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2007.10.106.
  32. Skwara, B.; Bartkowiak, W.; Zawada, A.; Góra, R. W.; Leszczyński, J. On the Cooperativity of the Interaction-Induced (Hyper)polarizabilities of the Selected Hydrogen-Bonded Trimers. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2007, 436 (1-3), 116–123 DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2007.01.032.
  33. Borkowska-Burnecka, J.; Góra, R. W.; Jamróz, P.; Kołodziej-Kozłowska, B.; Kułakowska-Pawlak, B.; Leśniewicz, A.; Prusisz, B.; Rutkowski, P.; Ingier-Stocka, E.; Wojciechowski, P. Metodyka nauczania zagadnień chemicznych w oparciu o system zarządzania kursami moodle. In Wykorzystanie technologii informatycznych w akademickiej dydaktyce chemii; Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Kraków, 2007; pp 24–27.
  34. Szymczak, J. J.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Majumdar, D.; Wang, J.; Grabowski, S. J.; Leszczyński, J. Proton bound open shell systems - theoretical studies on O2H+(O2)n (n = 1-6) complexes. Mol. Phys. 2006, 104 (13), 2327–2336 DOI: 10.1080/00268970600654876.
  35. Skwara, B.; Bartkowiak, W.; Góra, R. W.; Niewodniczański, W.; Roszak, S. On the weak intermolecular interactions and their influence on the optical properties of unsaturated hydrocarbons. Part 1: Two-body interactions. Mol. Phys. 2006, 104 (13-14), 2263–2271 DOI: 10.1080/00268970600654710.
  36. Góra, R. W. On the influence of intermolecular interactions on the electric properties of molecular aggregates. In Recent Progress in Computational Sciences and Engineering; Simos, T., Maroulis, G., Eds.; 2006; Vol. 7A-B, pp 1210–1213.
  37. Wielgus, P.; Góra, R. W.; Szefczyk, B.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. On the influence of microsolvation by argon atoms on the electron affinity properties of water dimer. J. Chem. Phys. 2006, 124 (9), 094304 DOI: 10.1063/1.2173994.
  38. Góra, R. W.; Grabowski, S. J.; Leszczyński, J. Dimers of Formic Acid, Acetic Acid, Formamide and Pyrrole-2-carboxylic Acid: an Ab Initio Study. J. Phys. Chem. A 2005, 109 (29), 6397–6405 DOI: 10.1021/jp044072e.
  39. Skwara, B.; Góra, R.; Bartkowiak, W. On the Influence of Non-Additive Interactions on the Optical Properties of the Selected Subsystems of Crystalline Urea. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2005, 406 (1-3), 29–37 DOI: 10.1016/j.cplett.2005.02.086.
  40. Skwara, B.; Bartkowiak, W.; Góra, R.; Niewodniczański, W. Theoretical Investigations of the Intermolecular Interactions between Unsaturated Hydrocarbons: π-cojugated and π-cumulated Oligomers. Annals Pol. Chem. Soc. 2005, 4, 662–666.
  41. Góra, R. W.; Sokalski, W. A.; Leszczyński, J.; Pett, V. B. The Nature of Interactions in the Ionic Crystal of 3-Pentenenitrile, 2-Nitro-5-oxo, Ion(-1), Sodium. J. Phys. Chem. B 2005, 109 (5), 2027–2033 DOI: doi: 10.1021/jp046912v.
  42. Giju, K. T.; Roszak, S.; Góra, R. W.; Leszczyński, J. The micro-solvation of Na+: theoretical study of bonding characteristics in weakly bonded ArnNa+ (n=1-8) clusters. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2004, 391 (1-3), 112–119 DOI: 16/j.cplett.2004.04.085.
  43. Petsalakis, I. D.; Theodorakopoulos, G.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S. Theoretical ab initio study on the electronic states of GaO and Ga2O. J. Mol. Struct. THEOCHEM 2004, 672 (1-3), 105–111 DOI: 16/j.theochem.2003.11.031.
  44. Góra, R. W.; Bartkowiak, W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. Intermolecular Interactions in Solution: Elucidating the Influence of the Solvent. J. Chem. Phys. 2004, 120 (6), 2802–2813 DOI: 10.1063/1.1636155.
  45. Szymczak, J. J.; Roszak, S.; Góra, R. W.; Leszczyński, J. Molecular properties of protonated homogeneous and mixed carbon oxide and carbon dioxide clusters. J. Chem. Phys. 2003, 119 (13), 6560 DOI: 10.1063/1.1603712.
  46. Góra, R. W. Teoretyczne badania natury oddziaływań w dużych układach molekularnych, Ph.D. Thesis, Politechnika Wrocławska, 2002.
  47. Sheng, Y.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Kaczorowska, M.; Leszczyński, J. The Molecular Structures, Energetics, and Nature of Interactions in Arn-N2H+ (n = 1−12) Complexes. J. Phys. Chem. A 2002, 106 (46), 11162–11167 DOI: 10.1021/jp0207984.
  48. Zilberberg, I.; Góra, R. W.; Zhidomirov, G. M.; Leszczyński, J. Bonding in the oxo ferrous iron species: A complete active-space self-consistent-field theory verification of the molecular-oxygen-like pattern. J. Chem. Phys. 2002, 117 (15), 7153–7161 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1506913.
  49. Góra, R. W.; Bartkowiak, W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. A New Theoretical Insight into the Nature of Intermolecular Interactions in the Molecular Crystal of Urea. J. Chem. Phys. 2002, 117 (3), 1031–1039 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1482069.
  50. Kowal, M.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. I-H2O and its neutral precursors: Similarities and differences. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 115 (20), 9260–9265 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1412005.
  51. Roszak, S.; Kowal, M.; Góra, R. W.; Leszczyński, J. The influence of the detachment of electrons on the properties and the nature of interactions in X-H2O (X=Cl,Br) complexes. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 115 (8), 3469–3473 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1388046.
  52. Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. The molecular structures and nature of interactions in CH3+Arn(n = 1–8) complexes. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 115 (2), 771–777 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1379334.
  53. Sokalski, W. A.; Góra, R. W.; Bartkowiak, W.; Kobyliński, P.; Sworakowski, J.; Chyla, A.; Leszczyński, J. New theoretical insight into the thermal cis–trans isomerization of azo compounds: Protonation lowers the activation barrier. J. Chem. Phys. 2001, 114 (13), 5504–5508 DOI: doi:10.1063/1.1353586.
  54. Hill, G.; Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. The structures and properties of cis- and trans-MeCl2(NH3)2, Me=Pd and Pt complexes, in ground and excited states. Int. J. Quantum Chem. 2001, 83 (3-4), 213–219 DOI: 10.1002/qua.1212.
  55. Roszak, S.; Góra, R. W.; Leszczyński, J. Photoinduced gas-phase solvated ions: experimental and theoretical endeavours. In Dynamics and transformations of the molecular materials.; Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Wrocławskiej, 2001; pp 153–156.
  56. Jemmis, E. D.; Subramanian, G.; Nowek, A.; Góra, R. W.; Sullivan, R. H.; Leszczyński, J. C–H...π interactions involving acetylene: an ab initio MO study. J. Mol. Struct. 2000, 556 (1–3), 315–320 DOI: 10.1016/S0022-2860(00)00650-5.
  57. Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. Properties and nature of interactions in Cl-(H2O)n n=1,6 clusters: a theoretical study. Chem. Phys. Lett. 2000, 325 (1–3), 7–14 DOI: 10.1016/S0009-2614(00)00624-2.
  58. Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. The electron affinity properties of NO-(N2O)n (n=1,2) complexes. Asian J. Spectr. 2000, 4 (1), 1–9.
  59. Roszak, S.; Góra, R.; Leszczyński, J. A theoretical study of the structures and energetics of O-Arn (n=1-6) clusters. Chem. Phys. Lett. 1999, 313 (1-2), 198–204 DOI: doi: 10.1016/S0009-2614(99)01053-2.
  60. Góra, R. W.; Roszak, S.; Leszczyński, J. Structure and Nature of the Interaction of the CH3N2+ Ion Shellvated by H2 Molecules: CH3N2+(H2)n=1-9. J. Phys. Chem. A 1999, 103 (45), 9138–9143 DOI: 10.1021/jp992212s.

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