Professor David Waldeck

Professor David Waldeck
Department of Chemistry
University of Pittsburgh

Adventures with Chiral-Induced Spin Selectivity (CISS)

Since Louis Pasteur, chemists have been fascinated by chirality, however its connection with electron spin was not realized until the 21st century and its implications for chemistry and biochemistry is only beginning to be revealed. I will introduce the chiral- induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect by discussing some of the key experiments in its development and discovery. Following this introduction, I will describe some of our recent studies that probe the spin-dependence of electronic interactions with chiral molecules and spin selectivity in electron transfer reactions.

David Waldeck

Professor David H. Waldeck was born in Cincinnati Ohio. He obtained a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Chicago in 1983 and was an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1983 to 1985. In 1985 he began his independent career as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, where he now serves as a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the Academic Director of the Petersen Institute of NanoScience and Engineering. David’s research program uses methods of spectroscopy, electrochemistry, and microscopy to investigate primary processes in the condensed phase and in nanoscale assemblies. He and his research group are known for their research into solvent friction and solvent effects on reaction rates, their studies of long-range electron transfer at chemically modified electrodes and in supramolecular constructs, and the discovery of the chiral- induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect.

Publications: >280 peer reviewed papers; h-index 80 (Google Scholar), 3 monographs, including the textbook Principles of Physical Chemistry

Host: Professor Renee Frontiera