Shaul Mukamel

Chancellor's Professor of Chemistry. Helped pioneer widely used theories of molecules and their assemblies responding to femtosecond laser pulses from the infrared to X-ray regimes, stimulating many ultrafast optical experimental discoveries. Provided a blueprint for light-induced coherent molecular dynamics. Published research work that has become the theory of condensed-phase spectroscopy. Helped propose a new class of two- and three-dimensional optical and Raman techniques, which have triggered new experimental studies of vibrational and electronic excitations and predictions such as the dynamics of liquids, polypeptides, and fibrils. His group strategized the design of novel laser pulse sequences and collective electronic oscillator algorithms using electronic normal modes. Helped provide a common description of semiconductor nanostructures, molecular assemblies, dendrimers, and conjugated polyenes. Established the spectroscopic signatures of coherent motions in photosynthetic systems and of long-range spatial coherence in energy and electron transfer processes. Honors include JILA Distinguished Fellow, Lippincott Award of the Optical Society of America, Alexander von Humboldt Research Award for Senior US Scientists, and Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar.