Professor Bradley Chmelka has been elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in the engineering sciences discipline!

 

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an independent organization, renowned for the annual awarding of the Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Economics. Election to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is an exclusive honor that recognizes significant research achievements in science and engineering. There are currently about 175 foreign members of the Academy.

 

“This is a prestigious honor and very well-deserved,” commented Rod Alferness, Dean of the College of Engineering at UCSB. “Professor Chmelka's research has contributed major insights into our understanding and observation of the molecular origins of material properties and the field of materials chemistry.”

 

Chmelka’s research in the area of nanoscience and technology explores new materials for energy applications. His research seeks to understand, at a molecular level, the fabrication and functions of new catalysts, structural materials, optoelectronic and electrochemical materials, porous ceramics, heterogeneous polymers, and biominerals. He specializes in developing and applying multi-dimensional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy measurements to characterize the atomic scale compositions, structures, and interactions in complex materials and processes.

 

Chmelka joined the faculty of the College of Engineering in 1992. He is the recipient of the Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, the Sloan Foundation Research Award, and the Packard Foundation Award. Chmelka received a PhD in chemical engineering from UC Berkeley.