About Goldbeck Consulting
Connecting communities: science to engineering, academia to industry
About Goldbeck Consulting
Over the course of a 25-year career in academia and the software industry, Gerhard Goldbeck saw how materials modelling and informatics grew and developed on the one hand, and fell short of its full potential on the other. Founded in 2011, Goldbeck Consulting aims to identify and bridge the gaps holding the materials modelling ecosystem back.
While the term ‘materials modelling’ suggests a well defined field, the reality is that it is an agglomeration of traditionally quite separate science and engineering sub-disciplines, in terms of models, methods and applications. The result is often very confusing for new-comers and stands in the way of the full discovery, development, and use of new materials in response to society’s many challenges.
Goldbeck Consulting helps you navigate this ecosystem successfully, by: connecting communities; supporting the validation and technology transfer of academic developments to industry; translating industrial needs into impactful materials modelling projects; and researching the pathways and barriers to economic and societal impact.
Goldbeck Consulting has a proven track record of delivering results working with more than 20 clients from the academic, software and materials sectors and more than 10 European Horizon projects.
Our Team
Gerhard Goldbeck holds a Diplom in Physics from RWTH Aachen University (1986) and a PhD in Polymer Physics from Bristol University (1992). His career encompasses research in solid state physics and polymer materials at Forschungszentrum Jülich, H.H. Wills Physics Laboratory, Bristol and Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy, Cambridge by means of a range of modelling and characterisation techniques, as well as software development, product management and marketing at Molecular Simulations/Accelrys/Biovia. During that time he set up and ran the Nanotechnology Consortium which fostered close collaboration and technology transfer between academia, software and materials industries.
In addition to his role as Managing Director of Goldbeck Consulting, he acts as the Executive Secretary of the European Materials Modelling Council and is a member of the Operational Management Board of the European Materials Characterisation Council.
Alexandra Simperler received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from University of Vienna in 1999 and has held research associate positions using electronic and atomistic models at the Royal Institution of Great Britain and University of Cambridge. She spent five years in application software training at Accelrys/Biovia in Cambridge, UK. She then joined the NSCCS at Imperial College London and enabled UK-based academics to become proficient in using electronic and atomistic modelling. Throughout her career, she has co‐authored over 40 scientific papers, case studies, and reports. In 2017, she formed Simperler‐Consulting to provide various services around Materials Modelling.
She is involved in a range of Goldbeck Consulting Services and in dissemination, exploitation, training, benefits analysis, and product management aspects of EU H2020 projects.
Vikki Cantrill received her PhD in Chemistry from the University of Birmingham in 2000 before joining the University of St Andrews as a post-doctoral researcher working on self-replication in minimal synthetic organic systems. She then spent 10 years working for the Royal Society of Chemistry in a variety of roles, including as Science Correspondent at Chemistry World, Editor for the organic portfolio of journals and, latterly, Manager for the National HE Stem Programme. More recently, Vikki worked as Research Coordinator in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. In addition to her work at Goldbeck Consulting, she works as a freelance writer and editor covering all areas of science and education.
Vikki joined Goldbeck Consulting in June 2023 as Dissemination and Innovation Manager to provide a range of services and project management for several European projects.
Otello M. Roscioni graduated in Chemistry at the University of Rome La Sapienza with a thesis on X-ray absorption spectroscopy and earned a PhD at the University of Southampton working on heterogeneous catalysts. He has worked as a postoctoral researcher at the University of Bologna, where he studied advanced functional materials in the European projects Minotor, One-P, and EXTMOS. His research expertise is in electronic, atomistic and mesoscopic materials modelling and includes the use of electronic-structure methods, force field parametrisation, molecular dynamics, and data analysis. He is one the leading developers of the MOLC model, a coarse-grained force field for multiscale simulations, implemented in the open-source programs LAMMPS and Moltemplate.
He joined Goldbeck Consulting in January 2022 as Scientific Consultant, a role that includes project management for various European projects.
Daniele Toti holds a Bachelor’s (2005) and Master’s Degree (2008) in Computer Engineering and a Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering (2012) from Roma Tre University. His key research interests revolve around information extraction, natural language processing, and semantic knowledge modelling, with a particular interest in bioinformatics and software development. His career spans academia and industry, including appointments as Senior Natural Language Analyzer at Innovation Engineering S.r.l. and Contract Professor at Niccolò Cusano University. Since 2020, he has been a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Brescia, Italy. He has participated in several EU-funded projects including ARISTOTELE and LASIE, eJRM, Wheesbee, MODERN and SIRET.
With Goldbeck Consulting, he is involved with data science and ontology aspects of projects.
Pierluigi Del Nostro graduated (2001) and earned a PhD (2008) in Computer Engineering from the Roma Tre University. His research activity is mainly focused on Semantic Web technologies, Knowledge Management, Databases and translations between heterogeneous data models, which led to publications on international conferences and journals. Additionally, he has more than 15 years of professional experiences in IT, starting with software design and development, and later progressing to include the role of Project/Product Manager and Business Developer. He participated in several European and national projects in the fields of ontology modelling and software architecture.
With Goldbeck Consulting, he is involved in data science ontology and software architecture aspects of projects.
Anne F de Baas holds a Diploma in Physics from Technical University of Eindhoven (1978) and University of Utrecht (1982) and a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from University of Delft (1986). Her career encompasses research in geophysics, meteorology, computational fluid dynamics done at Risoe National Laboratory, Roskilde, DK and ESN, Nantes, France. In 1992 she joined the European Commission in the research and ICT departments where she first set up benchmarking activities Europort I and II for the use of parallel computers for simulations in a wide scope of industrial applications. Secondly, she set up a European wide network for technology transfer called FUSE, promoting the first use of electronics by industry. Later she joined the Production and Materials units where she set up the European Materials Modelling Council and wrote the RoMM (7 editions), the start of the multi-perspective approach of the EMMO ontology. After retiring from the EC she started her own research company AnneFdeBaasMaterialsResearch in 2022 and joined several EU projects via GCL. Furthermore she became Strategy Advisor of the EMMC .
Careers
Goldbeck Consulting is always looking for new talent!
We offer numerous opportunities to join the team, in particular roles supporting our work on various European projects.
Individuals with skills across the spectrum of materials modelling and informatics sub-fields, in product and project management as well as data sciences and ontologies are highly welcome.
Whether you are looking for occasional, part time or full time work, please get in touch.