Joseph S. Francisco Named President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science

Joseph S. Francisco will join Penn as the President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Chemistry, on July 1, 2018. Currently serving as the Elmer H. and Ruby M. Cordes Chair in Chemistry and Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Francisco is an internationally recognized scholar of atmospheric chemistry and chemical kinetics. His work extends across chemical, earth, and environmental sciences.

Francisco has served as Atmospheric and Ocean Science Editor for Pure and Applied Geophysics, and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Journal of Molecular Structure Theochem, Spectrochemica Acta Part A, and Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. He is the co-author of the fundamental textbook in chemical kinetics and dynamics, Chemical Kinetics and Dynamics, as well as more than 600 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of atmospheric chemistry, chemical kinetics, quantum chemistry, laser photochemistry, and spectroscopy.

Francisco is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was elected President of the American Chemical Society for 2010. Francisco was appointed a member of the President’s Committee on the National Medal of Science by former President Barack Obama and is a former member of the Naval Research Advisory Committee for the Department of the Navy. He is a past President of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Among his other distinguished honors are a Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship and five honorary degrees.

The President’s Distinguished Professorship was established anonymously in 2017 to support a faculty member in the School of Arts and Sciences whose teaching and research is focused on global topics.