Munira Khalil


Munira Khalil is an American chemist who is the Leon C. Johnson Professor of Chemistry and department chair at the University of Washington.

Early life and education

Khalil attended Colgate University, where she majored in chemistry and English and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. She moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for doctoral research, where she developed coherent two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy to study the molecular structure of coupled vibrations on a picosecond timescale. Khalil moved to the University of California, Berkeley as a postdoctoral researcher, where she was made a Miller Fellow.

Research and career

In 2007, Khalili joined the University of Washington. Her research makes use of ultrafast spectroscopies to understand the structural dynamics of molecules. Photoinduced charge transfer depends on an interplay between atomic and electronic processes on multi-dimensional energy surfaces. She develops 3D electronic-vibrational femtosecond spectroscopies to understand vibrational and electronics motions on femtosecond timescales. In particular, she is interested in how solvents impact the electron transfer processes.
Khalil was made chair of the department of chemistry in 2020.

Awards and honors