The 2018 Walter Kohn Prize for quantum-mechanical materials and molecular modeling has been awarded to Professor Gabriel Merino, a researcher from Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados (Cinvestav), Unidad Mérida, Mexico. The prize recognizes his pioneering work on predicting and understanding novel systems that violate standard chemical paradigms, and for generalizing and broadening the scope of concepts such as aromaticity, coordination and the chemical bond.