Kenneth Jordan, Distinguished Professor of Computational Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, was honored as the 2010 winner of the ACS Physical Chemistry Division Award in Theoretical Chemistry. This award will be presented to Professor Jordan at the 2011 Telluride School on Theoretical Chemistry in Telluride, CO, July 10-15, 2011.
Jordan is the second recipient of the ACS Physical Chemistry Division Award in Theoretical Chemistry. He is the Co-Director of the University's Center for Simulation and Modeling, a senior editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and President and Board Chair of Telluride Science Research Center.
Professor Jordan's research has focused on understanding charge accommodation by H-bonded networks, in particular, excess protons and electrons in water, chemical reactions on solid surfaces, and the properties of gas hydrates. His current research also includes treating theoretically anharmonicity effects in the vibrational spectra of clusters, developing of accurate force fields for Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics simulations, and the treatment of long-range electron correlation effects in molecules and at interfaces.
Dr. Jordan received his BA degree from Northeastern University in 1970 and his Ph.D from MIT in 1974. From 1974 and 1978 he was on the faculty in the Department of Engineering and Applied Science, Yale University. In 1978, Dr. Jordan joined the Chemistry Department at the University of Pittsburgh, where he continued his theoretical studies in the electronic structure of molecules and clusters and also initiated an experimental program in electron-molecule scattering. In 1980, he was promoted to Associate Professor, and in 1985 to Full Professor. He spent the period 1984 to 1985 at NSF, as the Program Officer for Theoretical and Computational Chemistry and has spent sabbaticals at the University of Manchester (1981), Australian National University (1992), University of Utah (1994-1995), JILA, University of Colorado (1997), and Cambridge University (2001). Dr. Jordan spearheaded the effort to establish the Center of Molecular and Materials Simulations (CMMS) at the University of Pittsburgh and has been its director since 1999. He has been an Adjunct Professor at Carnegie Mellon University since 1988 and is also a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s Institute for Nanoscience and Engineering as well as an associate faculty member in the Department of Computational Biology.
Jordan has served as Chair of the American Conference of Theoretical Chemistry (2002). He is presently a Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry and is also on the editorial board of Theoretical Chemistry Accounts. He has also served on the editorial board of the Journal of Chemical Physics (2001-2003). Professor Jordan has been very active in the American Chemical Society (ACS), twice serving as Chair of the Theoretical Chemistry Subdivision and from 2001-2006 serving as Secretary-Treasurer of the PhysicalChemistry Division, ACS.
Jordan was the 2000 recipient of the Pittsburgh ACS Award and also received a Chancellor Distinguished Research Award at the University of Pittsburgh in 1995. He has given several named lectureships, and was a Promotion of Chemistry Visiting Professor in Taiwan (1995) and the David Craig Visiting Professor at the Australian National University (2006).
