Prashant Jain

Prof. Prashant Jain earned his PhD from Georgia Tech where he investigated the flow of energy and charge carriers on the nanoscale using ultrafast spectroscopy and theoretical electrodynamics. Following his PhD, Prof. Jain moved to Harvard where he helped Adam Cohen launch a research program on magneto-optics and chiro-optics. A Miller Research Fellowship took Prof. Jain to UC Berkeley, where he studied quantum dots in the laboratory of Paul Alivisatos.

Prof. Jain and his group experimentally and theoretically investigate nanoscale light-matter interactions. They confine light using nanostructures and use these concentrated photons for inducing novel chemical reactivity, powering the synthesis of fuels and chemicals, and dechipering how catalysts function at the atomic level. His laboratory has discovered plasmon resonances in quantum dots and new crystal phases that exist only on the nanoscale.

Prof. Jain currently serves as a Senior Editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry and as a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of JACS and Journal of Chemical Physics. He teaches graduate & undergraduate physical chemistry for which he has received recognition, including the LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, the School of Chemical Sciences Faculty Teaching Award, and a mention on UIUC's Teachers Ranked as Excellent list for every course he has taught. He currently serves as Associate Head of Undergraduate Instruction in the Department of Chemistry. He has previously served as Associate Head of Major Projects in the Department of Chemistry, Chair of the Chemical Physics PhD program, member of the faculty hiring, tenure, and promotion committee, and the Diversity Advocate for the department. Prof. Jain has published over 125 peer-reviewed journal articles and given over 140 invited/award/keynote/plenary lectures. His research has been cited over 36,000 times and featured extensively in the science media. He is the lead developer of nanoDDSCAT & nanoDDSCAT+, an open-source computational toolkit for nano-optics and photonics, which has been used to launch nearly a million simulations by users across the world.