Michael R. Wasielewski, PhD, is the Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry, Northwestern University, executive director of the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern, director of the Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center, a US-DOE Energy Frontier Research Center, and executive director of the Solar Fuels Institute, a global consortium of energy research centers.
As a Hertz Fellow, Professor Wasielewski received his PhD from the University of Chicago and was a postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University. He began his career at Argonne National Laboratory, where he advanced to Senior Scientist and Group Leader. In 1994, he joined the faculty of Northwestern University. From 2001-2004 he served as chair of the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern.
His research has resulted in over 520 publications and focuses on light-driven processes in molecules and materials, artificial photosynthesis, molecular electronics, and molecular spintronics. His recent honors and awards include membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Chemical Pioneer Award of the American Institute of Chemists; the Honda-Fujishima Award of the Japanese Photochemistry Association; the Royal Society of Chemistry Environment Prize; the Humboldt Research Award; the Arthur C. Cope Scholar Award of the American Chemical Society; the Porter Medal for Photochemistry; and the James Flack Norris Award in Physical Organic Chemistry of the American Chemical Society.
