David Limmer at UC Berkeley. (Photo: courtesy David Limmer)

The College of Chemistry is pleased to announce that David Limmer, Assistant Chemistry Professor and Chevron Chair in Chemistry, has been awarded a 2021 Fellowship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation(link is external). He joins the ranks of 126 early-career scholars in several scientific disciplines from Canada and the United States who have been selected for this year.

Matthew Francis, Chair of the Department of Chemistry said of David’s work, “We are very pleased that David has received this significant early career acknowledgement. His current projects address a variety of nanoscale phenomena in systems relevant to basic energy sciences: dissipative chemical dynamics, far-from-equilibrium materials and processes, and nanoscale fluctuations in energy-related materials. His research beautifully combines chemistry, physics and mathematics/computation, leveraging advances in each area to make progress in the theoretical understanding of diverse physical phenomena."

Prof. Limmer's current research program(link is external) develops tools, perspectives and theories that place nonequilibrium chemical physics at the same level of understanding as those of equilibrium ideas, in order to tackle outstanding questions in the physical sciences.  His group pioneers theoretical frameworks and invents molecular simulation techniques, applying each to concrete physical systems, often in concert with experimental collaborators. His research is focused on broad themes of unraveling reactive dynamics in complex environments, elucidating transport processes in nanoscale systems, and understanding emergent behavior in driven and biological matter. The research is tied together by the basic theoretical principles that dictate the dynamical behavior of complex systems, like open quantum systems and stochastic thermodynamics.

About the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation seeks to stimulate fundamental research by early-career scientists and scholars of outstanding promise with the Alfred P. Sloan Fellowship program. These two-year fellowships are awarded annually to 126 researchers in recognition of distinguished performance and a unique potential to make substantial contributions to their field.

Alfred P. Sloan was elected Chairman of the Board of General Motors in 1937. When he resigned his chairmanship in 1956, he was named Honorary Chairman of the Board, a title he retained until his death in 1966. During the later years of his life, Sloan devoted the largest share of his time and energy to philanthropic activities, both as a private donor to many causes and organizations and through the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which he established in 1934.