Christopher Bardeen

Prof. Bardeen received his B.S. in chemistry from Yale University in 1989 and a Ph. D. in chemistry from UC Berkeley in 1995. After a post-doc at UC San Diego, he became an assistant professor at U. Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and moved to the Chemistry Department at UC Riverside in 2005. He is a physical chemist who uses laser spectroscopy and microscopy to study light-induced processes in solid-state organic materials. His two main areas of focus are triplet exciton dynamics, including fission and fusion, in organic semiconductors, and the use photochemical reactions in molecular crystals to generate large scale deformations and motions, turning light directly into mechanical work. His awards include the Camille and Henry Dreyfus New Faculty Award, the 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, the Research Corporation Research Innovation Award, the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, and a Sloan Research Fellowship.