Michael R. Wasielewski


Michael Roman Wasielewski is an American physical chemist. He is currently the Clare Hamilton Hall Professor of Chemistry, Director of the Center for Molecular Quantum Transduction, and Director of the Institute for Quantum Information Research and Engineering at Northwestern University.
Wasielewski is known for his research on light-driven charge transfer and transport in molecules and materials, photosynthesis, nanoscale materials for solar energy conversion, spin dynamics of multi-spin molecules, molecular materials for optoelectronics and quantum information science, and time-resolved optical and electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy.

Education and early life

Wasielewski was born on the South Side of Chicago, Illinois, and spent his formative years in close proximity to both the University of Chicago and Chicago's steel making industry. He studied chemistry at University of Chicago under the direction of Leon Stock. His graduate research revealed how the electron-nuclear hyperfine splittings of hydrogen, carbon-13, and fluorine atoms depend on the structure of the paramagnetic molecules. After the completion of his Ph.D., Wasielewski studied antiaromaticity under the direction of Ronald Breslow at Columbia University.

The Wasielewski Group

Wasielewski joined Northwestern University in 1994. During his time at Northwestern, Wasielewski has collaborated extensively with his colleagues Mark Ratner, Tobin Marks, Fred Lewis, Fraser Stoddart, and others to study molecular charge transfer and photophysics. Currently, the Wasielewski group is organized into two teams:

Awards and recognition