Professor Benjamin Schwartz recently delivered the 2024 Hush Lecture, titled “The Role of the Solvent in Chemical Identity, Chemical Reactivity, and Quantum Decoherence,” at the University of Sydney, Australia, on September 13, 2024.
The Hush Fellowship Fund was established by the School of Chemistry in 2005 for the purpose of holding annual lectures by noted international scientists in the area of Professor Noel Hush’s research interests, to commemorate his great scientific achievements. Hush was a pioneering theoretical chemist who significantly advanced the understanding of electron transfer in chemical reactions, with his work influencing fields like molecular electronics and solar energy, and he established Australia’s first Department of Theoretical Chemistry at the University of Sydney.
Schwartz earned his Bachelor’s degree in Physics and Chemistry from the University of Michigan in 1986, followed by a Ph.D. in Experimental Physical Chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1992, where he worked under Professor Charles Harris. He then pursued postdoctoral research in theoretical physical chemistry at the University of Texas, Austin (1993-1995) with Professor Peter Rossky and in the spectroscopy and device physics of semiconducting polymers at UC Santa Barbara (1995-6, with 2000 Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger).
After conducting research on the spectroscopy and device physics of semiconducting polymers at UC Santa Barbara (1995-1996, with 2000 Nobel Laureate Alan Heeger), Schwartz joined UCLA in 1997. He was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2002, Full Professor in 2004, and Distinguished Professor in 2022. Throughout his career, he has delivered over 200 invited lectures, published over 200 papers in peer-reviewed journals, and holds two U.S. patents, with another patent pending.
Schwartz has received Teacher-Scholar awards from both the Dreyfus Foundation and the Research Corporation, and he is a Sloan Foundation Fellow. His leadership experience includes serving eight years as Vice-Chair of the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. His excellence in teaching has been recognized with the department’s Hanson-Dow Award and UCLA’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
He served as Senior Editor for the Journal of Physical Chemistry for 14 years and, in 2019, took on the role of Senior Editor for Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters. His current research interests span quantum non-adiabatic processes in condensed phases, solvated electrons, and the fundamental processes, spectroscopy, and device physics of conjugated polymer-based optoelectronic devices.
Previous Hush Lecturers include Abraham Nitzan (Tel Aviv University) 2009, David Clary (Oxford) 2014, and Steven Boxer (Stanford) 2015.
Penny Jennings, UCLA Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, penny@chem.ucla.edu.
