Dennis Lichtenberger

 

Dennis Lichtenberger is Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, a Fellow of the Galileo Circle of the College of Science at The University of Arizona, and a recently-elected Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He obtained his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin under the direction of Professor Richard F. Fenske in 1974 and was a postdoctoral research associate with Professor Theodore L. Brown at the University of Illinois before joining the faculty at The University of Arizona in 1976, where he has received awards for his teaching and mentoring.

A central theme of Professor Lichtenberger’s research has been the development of both instrumentation and theory to probe and understand the nature of matter at the level of electronic structure. Much of his research has focused on the electron energies and properties of organometallic molecules and multiple metal−metal bonds by the technique of gas-phase photoelectron spectroscopy, and the extension of these gas-phase properties to solution electrochemistry, catalysis, and solid state photonics. The principles that have emerged from his research are fundamental to broad areas of industrial catalysis, electronic materials, biological functions, and most recently solar energy conversion to clean and sustainable fuels. Scientists worldwide have utilized the unique instrumentation capabilities developed in his laboratory.

In addition to his teaching and research, Professor Lichtenberger has served as Head of the Department of Chemistry at the University of Arizona from 1994 to 2002, as Chair of the Organometallic Subdivision of the American Chemical Society and as an Associate Editor of the American Chemical Society journal Organometallics