Professor
Abraham Nitzan
University of Pennsylvania
Chemist; Educator
Area
Mathematical and Physical Sciences
Specialty
Chemistry
Elected
2006
International Honorary Member
Abraham Nitzan was born in Israel in 1944, received B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the Hebrew University, and Ph.D degree from Tel Aviv University (TAU) in 1972. Following post doctoral studies at MIT and the University of Chicago, he returned to Tel Aviv University in 1975 where he has served as a professor of Chemistry since 1982 (Emeritus since 2014), chairman of the School of Chemistry in 1984-7, dean of the Faculty of Sciences in 1995-8 and director of the Institute of Advanced Studies 2003-15. Since 2015 he is a professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, USA. His research focuses on the uses of physical insight, close experimental collaboration, and sophisticated formal and numerical methods to explore, explicate, and solve significant problems in molecular chemistry and physics. His research also focuses on theoretical aspects of chemical dynamics, more specifically, optical interactions, chemical reactions and charge/energy transfer processes in condensed phases and interfaces. During 1992-2015, Nitzan was the incumbent of the Kodesh Chair of Chemical Dynamics at Tel Aviv University. Among his main recognitions are the Humboldt Award, the Israel Chemical Society Prize (2004) and Medal (2015), the Emet Prize and the Israel Prize in Chemistry. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Israel Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2010, he has received an honorary doctorate (Dr. Honoris Causa) from the University of Konstanz. He has had visiting positions at Northwestern University, AT&T Bell Laboratories, Lab. Photophys. Moleculaire, CNRS, University of California, Santa Barbara, Georgia Tech, University of Konstanz, KFA Juelich, MPI for Astrophysik, Garching, Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), Technical University of Munich, Garching, Duke University, Durham, NC, and Free University Berlin, Berlin.
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