Chemistry Professor Subotnik Wins Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award

Joseph Subotnik, associate professor of chemistry in Penn Arts and Sciences, has been selected to receive a 2015 Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award. The Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Awards Program supports the research and teaching careers of talented young faculty in the chemical sciences. Criteria for selection include an independent body of scholarship attained within the first five years of their appointments as independent researchers and a demonstrated commitment to education, signaling the promise of continuing outstanding contributions to both research and teaching. The award provides an unrestricted research grant of $75,000.

Subotnik’s work involves the dynamics of electron and energy transfer, particularly in the case of solar energy. He seeks to understand how the energy is captured, stored, and used efficiently, versus wasted by producing heat, and has developed models that resolve many of the ambiguities in previous theories.  His work has major implications for practical applications including solar cell and semiconductor development, battery technology, and any other field where a fundamental understanding of energy flow on a molecular basis is required.

This is the latest in a string of awards for Subotnik over the last few years, including a Research Corporation for Scientific Advancement Cottrell Scholar award, a Packard Fellowship for Science and Engineering, and a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers—the highest honor bestowed by the United States government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. He also received an Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship, an American Chemical Society HP Outstanding Junior Faculty Award, and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award.

Subotnik has authored or coauthored more than 80 papers and is a reviewer for publications including the Journal of Chemical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and Nature.