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Department of Chemistry

Physical Chemistry Research

Penn State chemistry advances the frontiers of emerging and traditional areas of physical chemistry research, ranging from collective nonequilibrium biological phenomena and plasmonic nanoparticles to protein dynamics and chemical dynamics in solution.  We develop and apply advanced spectroscopic techniques and computational methods that transcend conventional boundaries to incisively probe outstanding questions from biological, energy, environmental, and materials chemistry.  We thrive via strongly integrated interdisciplinary collaborations.

physical

 

Faculty

Igor Aronson Huck Chair Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics

Experiments and theory for nonequilibrium active materials

John Asbury Professor of Chemistry

Ultrafast spectroscopy of photovoltaic materials

Phil Bevilacqua Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Biophysics and bioinformatics of RNA

David Boehr Associate Professor of Chemistry

NMR spectroscopy of protein dynamics

Bert Chandler Professor of Chemistry and of Chemical Engineering

Environmental Catalysis; Nanoparticle & Materials Synthesis; Catalytic Reaction Mechanisms

Paul Cremer J. Lloyd Huck Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Spectroscopy of proteins, complex solutions, and interfaces

Miriam Freedman Professor of Chemistry

Spectroscopy and microscopy of interfaces and aerosols

Danielle Reifsnyder Hickey Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Materials Science and Engineering

Atomic-resolution investigation, transformation, and synthesis of nanomaterials

Lasse Jensen Professor of Chemistry

Theory and computational methods for surface spectroscopies

Chris Keating Professor of Chemistry

Phase behavior in model biological cells and bottom-up self-assembly

Ken Knappenberger Professor of Chemistry

Ultrafast spectroscopy of light-harvesting nanomaterials

Gerald Knizia Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Electronic structure theory and computational methods

Ben Lear Associate Professor of Chemistry

Spectroscopy of nanoparticle surfaces

Tae-Hee Lee Professor of Chemistry

Single-molecule spectroscopy of nucleosomes

Stewart A. Mallory Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Computational, Theoretical, Materials.

Mark Maroncelli Distinguished Professor of Chemistry

Spectroscopy and simulations of solvation and complex solvents

Will Noid Professor of Chemistry

Statistical physics of proteins and active materials, multiscale modeling

Ed O’Brien Associate Professor of Chemistry and of the Institute for CyberScience

Theory and computational methods for biophysics in vivo

Scott Showalter Professor of Chemistry and of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

NMR spectroscopy and biophysics of intrinsically disordered proteins

Alexey Silakov Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Spectroscopy of metalloenzymes and intrinsically disordered proteins

Lauren Zarzar Assistant Professor of Chemistry

Stimuli-responsive materials, laser synthesis and patterning

Ruobo Zhou Assistant Professor of Chemistry 

Super-resolution fluorescence imaging, single-molecule detection, spatiotemporal organizations of biomolecules, liquid-liquid phase separation in biology, neurobiology, RNA biology.

 

Courtesy Faculty

Vincent Crespi Distinguished Professor of Physics, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemistry

Theories for novel materials

Nikolay Dokholyan G. Thomas Passananti Professor, Penn State College of Medicine

Theory and experiments for translational medicine

Marina Feric Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Fundamental mechanisms underlying the organization of cells

Denise Okafor Assistant Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology

Experiments and simulations of protein function

Rob M. Rioux Friedrich G. Helfferich Professor of Chemical Engineering

Surface spectroscopy of catalysts

Susan Sinnott Department Head Materials Science and Engineering

Computational studies of surfaces, interfaces, defects, layered materials, and nanoscale materials

Adri Van Duin Kenneth Kuan-Yun Kuo Early Career Professor

Development of models and simulation tools for chemical reactions

 

Adjunct Faculty

Xin Zhang 

Biophysics of protein aggregation in vivo