The Department is pleased to announce that Professor Gregory Voth will join the faculty in 2010. Professor Voth is a pioneer in the development and application of theoretical and computational methods to study the structure and dynamics of condensed phase systems, including proteins, membranes, liquids, and materials. He will have joint appointments in the Computation Institute, the James Frank Institute, and at Argonne.
Professor Greg Voth is a pioneer in the development and application of integrated theoretical and computational methods to study problems involving the structure and dynamics of complex condensed phase systems, including proteins, membranes, liquids, and materials. He has most recently pioneered a method known as “multiscale coarse graining” in which the “resolution” of the molecular-scale entities are reduced into simpler structures, but key information on their interactions is accurately retained (or “renormalized”) so the resulting computer simulation can accurately and efficiently predict the properties of large assemblies of complex molecules such as lipids and proteins. This method is “multi-scale”, meaning it describes complex condensed phase and biomolecular systems from the molecular scale to the mesoscale and ultimately to the macroscopic scale. Professor Voth’s other research interests include the study of charge transport (protons and electrons) in water and biomolecules – a fundamental process in living organisms and other systems that has been poorly understood because of its complexity. He also studies the exotic behavior of room-temperature ionic liquids and other complex materials such a nanoparticle self-assembly and polymer electrolyte membranes for fuel cells. In the earlier part of his career, Professor Voth extensively developed and applied new methods to study quantum and electron transfer dynamics in condensed phase systems-much of this work was based on the Feynman path integral description of quantum mechanics.
Professor Voth is currently a Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and the Director of the Center for Biophysical Modeling and Simulation at the University of Utah. He received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology in 1987 and was an IBM Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley from 1987-89. He was a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania from 1989-96, where he received tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. He then moved in early 1997 to the University of Utah to be Director of the Henry Eyring Center for Theoretical Chemistry. Professor Voth is the author or co-author of approximately 330 peer-reviewed scientific articles and has mentored more than 130 postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate research assistants. He is especially proud that many of his former postdocs and graduate students are presently in major academic, government, and industrial lab positions. Professor Voth was the 2008 Chair of the Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society and last year was elected to the inaugural class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society. He is also a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Professor Voth has received a number of awards and honors, including the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship, a Miller Professorship at the University of California, Berkeley, an IBM Faculty Research Award, a Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Research Fellow, a National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator Award, a David and Lucile Packard Foundation Fellowship in Science and Engineering, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Distinguished New Faculty Award, the Francis and Milton Clauser Doctoral Prize at the California Institute of Technology, the Herbert Newby McCoy Award at the California Institute of Technology, and the Procter and Gamble Award for Outstanding Research in Physical Chemistry from the American, Chemical Society.