Piotr Piecuch, University Distinguished Professor of chemistry and adjunct professor of physics and astronomy in MSU’s College of Natural Science, has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
“I am delighted and truly honored to be admitted to the Royal Society of Chemistry as a Fellow,” Piecuch said. “When one joins a select group of scientists who have made outstanding contributions to science, the experience is particularly gratifying and humbling. I am most grateful to the RSC for this wonderful recognition.”
Piecuch’s research, described in more than 200 publications to date, focuses on the development of ab initio quantum theory of molecular electronic structure and other many-body systems, and applications of the resulting computational approaches to spectroscopy, chemical reaction mechanisms and dynamics, catalysis, photochemistry, intermolecular interactions and atomic nuclei.
“I’m thrilled that Professor Piecuch has been named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry,” said Rob Maleczka, professor and chair of the MSU Department of Chemistry. “The designation FRSC is only given to a select group of scientists who have made outstanding contributions to chemistry.”
Piecuch received his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Wroclaw, Poland. After joining the MSU faculty as an assistant professor in 1998, he was promoted to associate professor in 2002, professor in 2004 and University Distinguished Professor in 2007. While at MSU, Piecuch has held visiting professorships in the United States, Japan and Portugal, and has received numerous national and international honors.
The Royal Society of Chemistry, founded in 1841, is the United Kingdom’s professional body for chemical scientists and the largest organization in Europe for advancing the chemical sciences.