Dean announces new Chemistry Department Head

Professor Timothy S. Zwier will assume the role of Department Head for the Department of Chemistry, effective October 1, 2004. He is replacing Richard A. Walton, who has been acting department head since May 2004 following the tragic death of Ian Rothwell.

Professor Zwier received his B.S. in Chemistry from Calvin College in 1977 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Colorado-Boulder in 1981. After a two-year appointment as post-doctoral research associate at the James Franck Institute of the University of Chicago, he joined the faculty at Calvin College in 1983. He moved to Purdue as an assistant professor of chemistry in 1988, rising through the ranks to Full Professor in 1997. He served as Associate Head of the Department of Chemistry from 2001-2003.

Professor Zwier is a well known expert in laser spectroscopy and molecular reaction dynamics. His research group uses laser-based methods to selectively excite and detect single conformations of flexible biomolecules. Such laser-driven isomerization provides insight into how energy flows within large molecules and how this energy is used by the molecules to change their shape. His group is also carrying out laboratory studies of photochemical reactions of importance in the atmospheres of the outer planets and moons of our solar system. Finally, his group is exploring the complex reaction pathways by which alkane fuels are transformed into aromatic molecules that eventually lead to soot formation in combustion engines.

His scholarly achievements have been recognized through his appointment as a Purdue University Faculty Scholar for the period 1999-2004. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and was an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow from 1989-1991. After serving as Editor of the journal International Reviews in Physical Chemistry for the period 1998-2003, he was recently appointed as a Senior Editor of the prestigious Journal of Physical Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society. He is a member the editorial board of Molecular Physics and serves on the Executive Committee of the Division of Chemical Physics of the American Physical Society.