Linda Peteanu Named Head of Department of Chemistry

Professor Linda A. Peteanu has been named head of Carnegie Mellon University's Department of Chemistry. She has served as acting head since January 2016 and succeeds Hyung Kim, who stepped down from the position in the fall of 2015 after serving 14 years as department head.

A member of the Carnegie Mellon faculty since 1993, Peteanu is well known for her expertise in applying fluorescence-based methods, including microscopy and electric-field effects, to condensed-phase systems. One focus of her research involves measuring the morphology and electronic properties of molecules used to make light emitting diodes (OLEDs) and photovoltaic cells. Peteanu also applies fluorescence-based methods to the study of nucleic acids as a member of Carnegie Mellon’s Center for Nucleic Acids Science and Technology.

Peteanu, who earned her doctorate in physical chemistry at the University of Chicago and conducted post-doctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley, has received numerous awards, including an NSF CAREER Award, an NSF Special Creativity Extension and a fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science. She was recently the chair of the Users Executive Committee for the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, which is jointly associated with Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories. Peteanu was elected as a member-at-large of the Executive Committee of the American Chemical Society Physical Division and, from January-December 2015, she served as a program officer for the NSF’s Division of Chemistry. Peteanu also serves on the International Advisory Board of several international conferences including Optical Probes and the International Conference on Photochemistry.

Originally published: https://www.cmu.edu/mcs/news-events/2017/0830-Peteanu-Dept-Head.html