Chen

Peng Chen, the Peter J.W. Debye Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, is the recipient of the 2014 Coblentz Award, presented annually to an outstanding molecular spectroscopist under the age of 40 by the Coblentz Society, a nonprofit organization that fosters the understanding and application of vibrational spectroscopy, which uses the interaction of light with atoms to identify elements and study chemical reactions.

Chen’s group has pioneered the use of fluorescence microscopy to study nanoparticles of catalysts. Forming catalysts into nanoparticles – just a few nanometers, or billionths of a meter, in diameter – enhances chemical reactions by exposing more surface area, and is of particular interest in the development of fuel cells. Using dyes that fluoresce when a catalytic event occurs, Chen has discovered how the size and shape of particles affect their activity. His group has also applied these techniques in bioinorganic chemistry, in particular on proteins that regulate the activity of metal ions in cells, a process important in cellular defense against toxins and possibly involved in Alzheimer’s disease.

Chen received his B.S. in chemistry from Nanjing University, China, in 1997, and his Ph.D. at Stanford University, and conducted postdoctoral research in single-molecule biophysics at Harvard University. He joined the Cornell faculty in 2005. He has received a Dreyfus New Faculty award, an NSF Career award, a Sloan Fellowship, a Paul Saltman Award and a CAPA Distinguished Junior Faculty Award.

The Coblentz Award comprises an honorarium, a plaque with a prism from the periscope of a World War II Navy submarine and a travel allowance a travel allowance to attend the International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy June 16-20 in Champaign-Urbana, Il. Where he will present the award lecture.