David Chandler
The Bruce
Mahan Professor of Chemistry
208 Gilman Hall
Department of Chemistry
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720-1460
(510) 643-6821
chandler@cchem.berkeley.edu |
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Research:
My principal research has been devoted to understanding liquids.
Early in my career, I worked with Hans
Andersen and John
Weeks in developing a quantitative description of liquid
structure and thermodynamics in terms of molecular packing. This
work is known as the WCA theory. To extend this theory to complex
fluids, I developed the reference interaction site model (RISM).
It describes packing of irregular shaped molecules in the liquid
state. Its use in describing polymeric liquids, pioneered by
my student Kenneth
Schweizer, is currently the most important application
of this model.
With
my student Lawrence
Pratt, I developed the molecular theory of hydrophobicity.
The Pratt-Chandler theory describes in analytical terms the
free energy to reorganize water structure in the vicinity
of hydrophobic groups. For small hydrophobic groups in water,
the most favorable structural rearrangement places water
between
a pair of hydrophobic particles--a solvent separated hydrophobic
bond. I have recently returned to this problem, but with
emphasis on extended hydrophobic surfaces. Such surfaces
can induce
phase transitions and powerful inter-surface interactions
over mesoscopic length scales. The onset of this behavior
is in
the nanometer regime, relevant to structural biology.
I
have also developed the statistical mechanical techniques
for analyzing chemical equilibrium and chemical dynamics in
liquids. My students and I have used these techniques to
understand the
behavior of electrons in liquids, and we have also has carried
these methods into the biophysical realm where we have studied
electron transfer in proteins. During the last few years, Christoph
Dellago, Peter
Bolhuis, Phillip
Geissler and I have developed a technique of transition
path sampling, permitting the computational study of rare but
important
events without preconceived knowledge of transition states.
We have used the technique to discover the kinetic pathways
in a
number of complex systems. Processes investigated
included weak acid dissociation in water and in clusters and
the folding of solvated polymers. Topics of study in my current
research group are self assembly, glasses, aging and dynamics
of systems far from equilibrium.
Click here for Chandler group research
pages.
Recent Lecture Titles by David Chandler:
"Hydropholocity
at small and large lenght scales: two phases of water"
"Transition pathways in complex systems:
throwing ropes over rough mountain passes, in the dark"
"Dynamics and aging on the way to making glass:
bubbles in space-time"
"Some Principles of Self-Assembly, where kinetics can trump thermodynamics"
Biography (Click
here for a brief narrative.) (Click here to
download autobiography published in the David Chandler
Festschrift.)
Education
and Professional Positions Include:
S.B., MIT (1966);
Ph.D., Harvard (1969); Assist. Professor to Professor, University
of Illinois,
Champaign-Urbana (1970-1983); Visiting Professor, Columbia
University (1977-1978); Professor, University of Pennsylvania
(1983-1985);
Professor, University of California, Berkeley (1986-);
Directeur de Recherche, Laboratoire de Physique, Ecole Normale
Superieure,
Lyon (1992); Hinshelwood Lecturer, University of Oxford
(1993); Faculty Chemist, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(1996-);
Visiting Fellow of Merton
College, Oxford (2001); Schlumberger Visiting Professor, University of
Oxford (2003 and 2004); Miller Institute for Basic Research
in Science, Executive Committee (2002-2008) and Executive Director
(2006-2008).
Honors Include:
Sloan Fellow(1972-1974); Elected Fellow, American Association
for Advancement of Science (1980); Guggenheim Fellow (1981-1982);
Elected Fellow, American Physical Society (1982); Bourke
Medal and Lecturer, Royal Society of Chemistry(1985); Hildebrand
Award for Research on Liquids, American Chemical Society
(1989); Miller Research Professor (1991 and 1999-2000); Christianson
Fellow of St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford (1993);
Elected Member, National Academy of Sciences (1995);
Elected Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1995);
Theoretical Chemistry Award, American Chemical Society
(1996); Journal
of Physical Chemistry Centennial Lecturer (1996); Hirschfelder
Prize in Theoretical Chemistry, University of Wisconsin (1998);
Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award (1999);
Mulliken Award, University of Chicago (2000); Lennard-Jones
Lecturer, Royal Society of Chemistry (2001); Irving
Langmuir Prize in Chemical Physics, American Physical Society
(2005) .
Publications:
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