Regents Professor Donald Truhlar awarded Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry

MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL (2/27/2023) – Regents Professor Donald Truhlar has been awarded the Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry. The internationally-recognized award is given by the University of Wisconsin-Madison Theoretical Chemistry Institute.

Truhlar has been a member of the University Department of Chemistry for over fifty years. His multifaceted research in theoretical and computational chemistry encompasses dynamics, kinetics, electronic structure, solvation, catalysis, and thermochemistry. Truhlar’s research has generated 1,339 papers and 89 book chapters; his work has been repeatedly recognized for being some of the most highly cited research in the world. He has mentored more than 182 graduate students and post-doctoral researchers and 87 undergraduate research students. His mentorship, service, and research earned UMN’s highest faculty honor in 2006, naming Truhlar a Regents Professor.

The Joseph O. Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry, established in 1991, commemorates the life’s work of Prof. Hischfelder as a pioneering member of the theoretical chemistry field. Prof. Hirschfelder had an esteemed career of education, research, and public service at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for over forty years. Four Nobel prize recipients are among the Hirschfelder Prize honorees. Truhlar is the first University of Minnesota professor to receive this honor.