Rongchao Jin, World-Renowned Nanoscience Researcher, Joins Penn State Chemistry
The Penn State Department of Chemistry welcomes Rongchao Jin to its faculty. Jin, a pioneering nanoscience researcher and world leader in the field of atomically precise nanochemistry, has transformed gold nanoclusters from a scientific curiosity to a predictive science. He has developed transformative size-focusing synthesis strategies, which permit the creation of atomically defined nanoclusters, and uncovered unprecedented insights into how the structure of metals with sizes between molecules and nanoparticles can lead to new emergent phenomena. His research advances fundamental science and technological applications in catalysis, energy conversion, optoelectronics, and sensing.
Jin has published almost 300 papers in some of the top journals in the world, including Science, Nature, Journal of the American Chemical Society, ACS Nano, Nano Letters, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Together, these papers have been cited more than 72,000 times, based on Google Scholar. Since 2014, Jin has been named among the world’s most highly cited researchers, according to Clarivate Analytics. In 2020, Jin co-chaired the inaugural Gordon Research Conference on Atomically Precise Nanochemistry, a field in which he is widely viewed as the most recognized researcher worldwide.
Jin’s addition to the faculty solidifies the status of Penn State’s Department of Chemistry as a world leader in the area of structurally defined materials. He joins current Penn State Chemistry faculty Kenneth Knappenberger, Jr., Lasse Jensen, and Benjamin Lear who are leaders in understanding energy flow, spin, and quantum properties of structurally precise nanoclusters. Jin’s expertise in synthesizing and studying metal nanoclusters with structural precision at the atomic level will allow the Penn State team to tackle fundamental and applied problems critical to driving forward quantum information sciences, photocatalysis, sensing, and many other fields. With Jin’s presence, Penn State researchers now have the ability to form cutting-edge materials with structural precision spanning the atomic-to-wafer scales.
Jin is currently a professor of chemistry at Carnegie Mellon University and will be joining the Penn State Chemistry faculty summer 2026. He began as an assistant professor at Carnegie Mellon University in 2006; there, he was promoted to associate professor in 2012 and to professor in 2015. He received his Ph.D. in Chemistry from Northwestern University in 2003 and was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago from 2003 to 2006.