The document describes a new genetic Nelder-Mead algorithm (GNMA) for minimizing molecular potential energy functions. GNMA uses a population partitioning approach and applies genetic operations to submatrices before using Nelder-Mead optimization on elite solutions. It was tested on a simplified molecular potential energy function and compared to 9 other algorithms, showing promising performance with less computational expense than other methods. The authors conclude GNMA is an efficient approach for molecular structure optimization problems.