Maroncelli Named Fellow of AAAS

Mark Maroncelli, professor of chemistry at Penn State, has been honored with the title of Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Awarded to 486 individuals this year, the honor is bestowed upon members of the AAAS whose efforts to advance science or its applications are deemed to be scientifically or socially distinguished. Maroncelli was recognized for his distinguished work in the field of liquid-phase dynamics, especially for his contributions to elucidating the time-dependence of solvation in conventional and unconventional solvents.

Maroncelli's research focuses on achieving a molecular-level understanding of static and dynamic aspects of solvation and how those aspects influence chemical reactions and other time-dependent processes taking place in a solution. Understanding of solution-phase dynamics has increased dramatically in the last decade as a result of advances in ultrafast laser technology and the use of more sophisticated computer simulations. Moncelli takes advantage of both of these techniques in order to study a variety of problems in solution-phase dynamics.

A member of the Penn State faculty since 1987, Maroncelli was named associate professor in 1993 and professor in 1997. Before he arrived at Penn State, he was a research associate at the University of Chicago from 1985 to 1987 and a research associate at Oregon State University from 1984 to 1985. He earned his doctoral degree in chemistry at the University of California at Berkeley in 1983 and his bachelor's degree in chemistry, with highest honors, at Williams College in 1979. He is a member of the American Chemical Society and the American Physical Society.

The American Association for the Advancement of Science is the world's largest general scientific society, serving 10 million individuals, and is the publisher of the world-renowned journal, Science.