2013 Physical Chemistry Division Elections
The following PHYS members have agreed to stand for election. We are grateful for their willingness to serve the Division.
Greg Engel, University of Chicago
Candidate for Vice-Chair Elect
Greg Engel was born in Pennsylvania in 1977. He obtained his A.B. from Princeton University in 1999 and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 2004. Working under Prof. James Anderson at Harvard University, Greg designed and built ultrasensitive spectrometers to enable in situ measurements of atmospheric tracers and isotopic fractionation profiles of water vapor in the tropical tropopause transition layer. In 2005, he moved to UC Berkeley as a Miller Fellow to study photosynthetic energy transport. Working with Prof. Graham Fleming, Greg discovered coherent excitonic energy transfer in photosynthesis by observing quantum beating signals with 2D electronic spectroscopy. Greg is currently an Associate Professor at The University of Chicago in the Department of Chemistry, The James Franck Institute, and The Institute of Biophysical Dynamics. His research group focuses on new strategies to observe, measure, and control excited state reactivity. Using spectrometers of their own design, the Engel Group explores bio-inspired design principles for steering excitonic transport, open quantum dynamics, and photochemical reaction dynamics. The group's scientific approach involves parallel efforts in theory, spectroscopy, biophysics, and synthesis. Greg has served as chair of the ACS Biophysics subdivision and is currently a member of the executive committee of the APS Division of Laser Science. His research has been recognized with the Coblentz Award, Sloane Fellowship, Searle Scholar Award, Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, DARPA Young Faculty Award, AFOSR Young Investigator, DTRA Young Investigator, Dreyfus New Faculty Award, and Scientific American's SciAm 50 Award. Greg's teaching has been recognized with the Quantrell Award for Undergraduate Teaching and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher/Scholar Award.
Rob Walker, Montana State University
Candidate for Vice-Chair Elect
Robert A. Walker earned his B.A. in Chemistry from Dartmouth College (1990) and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (1995) where his dissertation research used molecular beam spectroscopy to study large amplitude motion in substituted aromatic molecules. Following his graduate studies he held a post-doctoral appointment at the University of Oregon before joining the faculty in Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of Maryland, College Park in 1998. While at Maryland, he also served as the Associate Director of that university's Chemical Physics program. In 2009 he moved to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Montana State University in Bozeman, MT. Walker's research program employs both linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopies to examine molecular structure, organization and reactivity at surfaces. One focus of his efforts is understanding how surfaces change the solvating properties of liquids from bulk solution limits. A second focus is identifying mechanisms responsible for electrochemical oxidation and materials degradation in high temperature fuel cells. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has spent time as a visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University (UK) and at the Department of Energy Storage and Conversion at the Danish Technical University. He is an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow and has received an NSF-CAREER Award. He has also received institutional awards for teaching, mentoring and research creativity.
Heather Allen, Ohio State University
Candidate for Executive Committee Member-at-Large
Heather Allen, Professor of Chemistry at Ohio State University, studies organization at interfaces with focus on ions and lipids at air-aqueous interfaces using linear and nonlinear optical spectroscopic methods. Atmospheric aerosol chemistry, biophysics of lung lining and cell membranes, and geochemistry are applications to the research (NSF-CHE, DOE-BES). Most recently, Dr. Allen and collaborators have applied their expertise to cancer detection methodologies (NIH-R21). Her experience in organizing several ACS and other symposia, NSF committee chair for a sustainability workshop, and chairing several committees for her department, college, and at the university level will be useful and applicable for the proposed work in the PHYS division.
Roland Lindh, Uppsala University
Candidate for Executive Committee Member-at-Large
Prof. Roland Lindh's academic records include a degree in chemical engineering from the Institute of Technology, Lund University, Sweden, in 1983 and a doctoral degree of technology in theoretical chemistry from Lund University, Sweden, in 1988. During his undergraduate years he spent one year, 1982-83, at the University of California, Los Angeles, USA. His Ph.D. Advisor was Prof. Björn O. Roos. Subseqent to his dissertation he worked with the group of Dr. Bowen Liu at the IBM Almaden Research center, San Jose, California for 2 and a half years, 1988-90. In 2003 he was promoted to professor at Lund University and since 2010 he has held the chair in theoretical chemistry at the University of Uppsala, Sweden. Prof. Lindh's scientific interests include method developments and computer implementations of ab initio methods. In this capacity he has, for example, been involved in the European Summer school in Quantum Chemistry (ESQC) 1992-2005, and the MOLCAS quantum chemistry package, for which he has been the chairman since 2009. He is interested in chemistry phenomena as photochemistry and bioluminescence, particularly, in the dynamics of the non-adiabatic process in the luciferin-luciferase systems – the origin of the light which bioluminescent animals emit. He has been a member of the ACS since 1993 and since this year also a member of the Swedish Royal Society of Sciences.
Linda Peteanu, Carnegie Mellon University
Candidate for Executive Committee Member-at-Large
Linda Peteanu obtained her bachelors degree in chemistry and biochemistry at Barnard College, Columbia University. She did her doctorate in physical chemistry with Prof. Donald Levy at the University of Chicago where she focused on the electronic spectroscopy of gas-phase biological chromophores and their solvent clusters formed in molecular beams. During her postdoctoral work at UC Berkeley, with Prof. Richard Mathies, Linda studied condensed phase photo-physical processes using resonance Raman and photo-isomerization processes in the protein rhodopsin. In 1993, she joined the faculty of the Chemistry Department at Carnegie Mellon University where she currently holds the rank of full professor. Her expertise is both in fluorescence-based methods including microscopy and electric-field effects (Stark spectroscopy) of condensed-phase systems. Her group utilizes fluorescence to study the morphology of organic semi-conductor thin films and the electronic properties of and energy transfer within chromophore aggregates. Linda has received a NSF CAREER award, an NSF Special Creativity Extension, and a fellowship from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. She is currently the chair of the Users Executive Committee for the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies (CINT) which is jointly associated with Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Recently, Linda was also asked to serve on the International Advisory Board of the Optical Probes conference.
Roseanne Sension, University of Michigan
Candidate for Executive Committee Member-at-Large
Roseanne Sension received her BA in Chemistry and Mathematics (magna cum laude) from Bethel University in St. Paul MN. She did her graduate work at the University of California, Berkeley with Herb Strauss, and received her PhD in Chemistry in 1986. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon (with Bruce Hudson) and the University of Pennsylvania (with Robin Hochstrasser) before joining the faculty of the Chemistry Department at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in 1992. She is currently a Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at the University of Michigan. She is also a member of the LSA college executive committee at Michigan (2011-2014). She was a Lady Davis Visiting Professor, Hebrew University, Jerusalem (2001). She served as co-chair, for Laser Science 2011 (LS2011). She has been recognized for teaching through the LSA Excellence in Education award at Michigan (2005). Her research involves ultrafast spectroscopy and optical control of molecular reactions with particular emphasis on compounds of interest as optically driven molecular motors and molecular switches. She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and a long-time member of both the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society. She lives with her family near Ann Arbor.
Teresa Head-Gordon, University of California, Berkeley
Candidate for Councilor
Teresa Head-Gordon received her BS in Chemistry from Case Western Reserve University in 1983 and her Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from Carnegie Mellon University in 1989. She was a postdoctoral member of technical staff at AT&T Bell Laboratories from 1990-1992 before starting as a staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (1992-2000). She currently is a Professor in the departments of Chemistry, Bioengineering, and Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently holds a Chancellor Professorship (2012-2017). She has been a recipient of an IBM SUR award in 2001 and spent a year at Cambridge University as a Schlumberger Fellow (2005-2006). She serves as Editorial Advisory Board Member for the Journal of Computational Chemistry (2003-), and has served as Editorial Advisory Board Member of the Journal of Physical Chemistry (2009-2011); Theoretical Chemistry Accounts (2010-2013); SIAM book series on Computational Science and Engineering (2004-2008), as well as an editor for Biophysical Journal (2003-2006). Over the last decade she served on various NSF, NIH, DOE, and NAS panels primarily focused on computing in science and engineering, and has also been involved in local and national service, education, and training, which extends to promoting and developing the blueprint for computational biology and chemistry and biophysical research for the future. She has served on the ACS national awards committee as member and chair, and has been a long standing ACS member of the PHYS division and Biophysical and Theory subdivisions. She currently lives in Berkeley with her husband Martin and is the proud mother of daughters Genevieve and Nadine.
Paul Jagodzinski, Northern Arizona University
Candidate for Councilor
Paul Jagodzinski earned his Bachelor's degree at the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn, the Ph.D. at Texas A&M University and was a postdoc at the University of Oregon. He is currently Professor of Chemistry and Dean of the College of Engineering, Forestry & Natural Sciences at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona. He has been a member of the ACS since 1977 and is currently a Councilor for the Physical Division, a member of the Budget & Finance Committee, and serves on numerous task forces including one on National Meeting Finances. He is trained in optical spectroscopy and currently works to understand adsorbate-metal surface interactions in instances where unexpected reactions are catalyzed by the metal surface in the presence of oxygen. He has published more than 50 papers, given numerous talks in the U.S. and internationally, and directed the research work of both Chemistry and Physics graduates students.
Donna Minton, ACS Publications
Candidate for Councilor
Donna J. Minton earned her B.S. (highest honors), M.S., and Ph.D. in Chemistry from Montana State University - Bozeman. Her research involved molecular-beam investigations of the dynamics of atomic-oxygen reactions with liquid hydrocarbon surfaces and gaseous H2, methane, and ethane. During her graduate work, she received a NASA GSRP Fellowship, and upon completion of her degree, she was awarded the 2004 the university-wide Graduate Achievement Award for Outstanding Performance in a Doctoral Program. Following her graduate studies, she became the Deputy Director of the NASA Montana Space Grant Consortium, during which time she also served as Chair of the Montana Section of the ACS. In her position with the Montana Space Grant Consortium, she organized several research projects involving materials testing on the International Space Station. She took her current position as Managing Editor with ACS Publications in 2007. Her primary responsibilities have been with The Journal of Physical Chemistry, but she has also participated in a number of initiatives within the ACS Publications Division, including the launch of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. She has recently assumed additional responsibilities as Managing Editor for the Journal of Chemical Theory & Computation.
Angela Wilson, University of North Texas
Candidate for Councilor
Angela K. Wilson is Regents Professor of Chemistry and Director of the Center for Advanced Scientific Computing and Modeling (CASCaM) at the University of North Texas. She completed her Ph.D. at the University of Minnesota and her postdoctoral fellowship at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. She is presently an ACS Councilor, and has been in this role for ten years. In this capacity, she has served on the ACS Committee on Science and currently serves as Vice Chair of the ACS Committee on Nominations and Elections. She is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and National Associate of the National Academies. She is a member of the Executive Committee for the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry, and is Vice Chair of the U.S. National Committee for the International Union for Pure and Applied Chemistry. She has been on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and is presently on the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry and Computational and Theoretical Chemistry. Her research, which largely focuses upon the development of theoretical methodologies, also includes interests in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, carbon capture (via proteins and via metal organic frameworks) and utilization, molecule-protein interactions, transition metal and heavy element chemistry.
Laura Gagliardi, University of Minnesota
Candidate for Alternate Councilor
Laura Gagliardi received her PhD degree at the University of Bologna, Italy in 1997. She was a postdoctoral associate in Cambridge, UK in 1998-1999 and in Lund, Sweden, 2000-2001. She began her independent career at the University of Palermo Italy in 2002, and in 2005 she moved to the University of Geneva, Switzerland as an associate professor. In 2009 she moved to the University of Minnesota as a full professor. Since 2012 she has been the director of the Minnesota Chemical Theory Center and the Nanoporous Materials Genome Center. She is currently chair of the Theoretical Chemistry Subdivision of the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society (2013-2014). She is the author of more than 160 refereed papers. Her field of research is computational quantum chemistry with a special focus on multireference systems, which are the most challenging chemical systems from an electronic structure point of view. She has been very active in clarifying various complex phenomena with electronic structure theory. She combines quantum chemical methods with classical simulations techniques to simulate complex phenomena. In 2004 she won the annual award of the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Science with citation: "for her innovative contributions to prediction and understanding of new inorganic molecules using quantum chemical methods."
Greg Hartland, Unverisity of Notre Dame
Candidate for Alternate Councilor
Prof. Hartland received his B.Sc. from The University of Melbourne in 1985, and a Ph. D. from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1991. He was a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Pennsylvania from 1991 - 1994, before becoming an Assistant Professor at the University Notre Dame, where he is currently a Full Professor, University of Notre Dame. Prof. Hartland is a Senior Editor for The Journal of Physical Chemistry, and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2009), and an ACS Fellow (2011). He is also on the Editorial Advisory Board of Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.
Edwin Heilweil, National Institutes of Standards and Technology
Candidate for Alternate Councilor
Edwin Heilweil received B.A. degrees in Chemistry and Mathematics and a M.A. degree in Physical Chemistry from Brandeis University in 1978 and his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. From 1984-85 Dr. Heilweil was a NRC Postdoctoral Fellow at NIST (formerly NBS) and is a staff Research Chemist there. During 1986-1991 he developed ultrafast broadband infrared laser methods to measure vibrational energy transfer and photochemical processes of molecules as gases and in liquids and performed the first time-resolved vibrational relaxation measurements for adsorbates on dielectric and metal surfaces. He also performed the first direct measurements of electron injection rates in dye-sensitized solar cells (1998-2000). Current research interests include ultrafast far-infrared technologies (Terahertz/THz) to monitor ultrafast chemical reactions, carrier dynamics in novel conducting polymers and nanolayered structures for solar cells, dynamics of biomolecules in condensed phases and to detect chemical threats for Homeland Security applications. Dr. Heilweil has been a member of the American Chemical Society since 1978 and served on the Executive Board as an Alternate Councilor for the PHYS Division in 2006-2008. He is a Fellow of the Optical Society of America (2008) and member of the Coblentz Society and Sigma Xi (1985). Heilweil received the Instrument Society of America Beckman Award (1990), Department of Commerce Stratton Award and Silver medal (2008) and Sigma Xi Young Scientist award (1990). He has authored over 145 technical papers, delivered 219 invited talks, holds two U.S. Patents, chaired the "Vibrational Spectroscopy" Gordon Conferences in 2000 and 2002, co-chaired the international Time-Resolved Vibrational Spectroscopy conference in May, 2005 and is now the Chair of the International Organizing Committee for this conference.
Kirk Peterson, Washington State University
Candidate for Alternate Councilor
Kirk Peterson received his B.S. in Chemistry from Seattle University in 1983 and his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1990 under the direction of R. Claude Woods where he carried out both ab initio and experimental spectroscopic studies of small molecular ions. He subsequently carried out postdoctoral research with Prof. Hans-Joachim Werner at the University of Bielefeld in Germany and then with Dr. Thom H. Dunning, Jr. at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland, WA. He joined the Chemistry department at Washington State University (WSU) in 1994 where he now holds an appointment as a Meyer Distinguished Professor. He has been elected a Fellow of the APS and the AAAS. His research focuses on ab initio quantum chemistry calculations to accurately determine the thermodynamic and spectroscopic properties of molecules and molecular clusters using composite methods. In addition, over the last 10 years his group has led the development of the correlation consistent family of Gaussian basis sets to the transition metals and heavy elements, as well basis sets for explicitly correlated methods. He currently serves as the Associate Chair for graduate studies in the Department of Chemistry at WSU and is a past chair and current alternate councilor of the local Washington-Idaho Border Section of the ACS.
Steven Wheeler, Texas A&M University
Candidate for Alternate Councilor
Steven Wheeler is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M University, where his research focuses on applications of computational quantum chemistry to problems in organic chemistry and materials science. He obtained his B.A. in Chemistry and Physics from New College of Florida in 2002, where he worked on the implementation of density functional theory and applications of DFT to the chlorine-benzene adduct. He then joined the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia (UGA) as a graduate student, working under the tutelage of Henry F. Schaefer III. While at UGA, he worked on a wide range of problems, focusing on high-accuracy thermochemistry of combustion intermediates and the convergence of closed- and open-shell perturbation theories. After obtaining his PhD in Physical Chemistry in 2006, he took a postdoctoral appointment with Ken Houk at UCLA. While at UCLA, he was a NIH Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow and received the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute (MBI) postdoctoral award. His research at UCLA focused on applications of quantum chemistry to problems in organic chemistry, with a particular focus on pi-stacking and other non-covalent interactions. He began his independent career at Texas A&M in August, 2010. Since then, he has published on a broad range of topics in physical, computational, and organic chemistry. He received an NSF CAREER award in 2013, as well as the OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award from the COMP division of ACS. He has served the community through the organization of the 2012 Southwest Theoretical Chemistry Conference (SWTCC2012) and as a co-organizer of a CECAM workshop on organic electronic materials. He has been an ACS member since 2002, and is a regular attendee at both national and regional ACS meetings.
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