Cotton Medal Goes to Hochstrasser

Robin M. Hochstrasser, Donner Professor of Physical Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania, will receive the next F. A. Cotton Medal, sponsored by the ACS Texas A&M Section and the Texas A&M University department of chemistry. Hochstrasser will be honored for his many contributions to spectroscopy and molecular physics.

The Cotton Medal, which consists of a gold medal and a bronze replica and is accompanied by a certificate, is named for F. Albert Cotton, the W. T. Doherty-Welch Foundation Distinguished Professor of Chemistry at Texas A&M. The award, made annually since 1995, recognizes “excellence in chemical research.”

Hochstrasser's research has focused on the dynamic aspects of structural change. It has involved nonlinear infrared spectroscopy and 2D-IR spectroscopy as well as single-molecule spectroscopy. He has studied processes such as electronic and vibrational energy transfer and electron and proton tunneling by ultrafast (femtosecond) laser spectroscopy.

Hochstrasser will receive the Cotton Medal at a symposium and dinner at Texas A&M on April 12, 2006. Symposium lectures will be given by R. Bruce Weisman of Rice University, W. E. Eaton of the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases, and by Hochstrasser. For more information on the symposium, contact the Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, P.O. Box 30012, College Station, TX 77842–3012; (979) 845–9829; fax (979) 845–2338; e-mail: Pat Forman at forman@mail.chem.tamu.edu.