Chemist honored for ‘major impacts’ in physical chemistry

Chemist Krupa Ramasesha has received a competitive award for her major contributions to the field of physical chemistry, in only her seventh year at Sandia.

Ramasesha, who works in gas phase chemical physics at the Combustion Research Facility at Sandia/California and began as a postdoc in 2015, is one of three outstanding early career scientists selected from around the world to receive the American Chemical Society Physical Chemistry Division Lectureship Award from the Journal of Physical Chemistry.

In his recommendation letter to the selection committee, Sandia chemist David Chandler wrote that Ramasesha’s “research career to date is exceptional.”

“She has made major impacts across the spectrum of the Journal of Physical Chemistry’s research areas, including atmospheric chemistry and proton transfer dynamics in molecules, hydrogen-bonding dynamics in liquids and solid-state attosecond dynamics and transfer,” Chandler wrote. “Overall, the broad scientific impact of her career foreshadows the great promise of her future and makes her highly deserving of this award recognizing young leaders in physical chemistry.”

Chandler cited the fact that Ramasesha has built, and is still expanding, a new suite of ultrafast physical chemistry tools for studies in gas, liquid and solid state during her time at Sandia. He referenced her investigation of gas-phase chemical dynamics on picosecond (a trillionth of a second) to femtosecond (one millionth of one billionth of a second) time scales using ultrafast infrared spectroscopy, ultrafast core-level spectroscopy and ultrafast electron diffraction.

According to the journal, the awardees are physical chemists, chemical engineers and researchers of any nationality involved in physical chemistry research from academia, industry or national laboratories, representing the best minds in the field. The Lectureship Award honors the contributions of investigators who have made major impacts on the field of physical chemistry in the research areas associated with each section of the journal.

“This award credits the work I have done with my colleagues — past and present — and I feel incredibly grateful and thrilled that our research has been recognized in this way,” Ramasesha said. “The award affords greater visibility for the work we do, and it provides additional impetus to continue to do impactful science in the coming years.”

Ramasesha will receive a $1,500 honorarium and will deliver her award lecture at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society in Chicago from August 21-25.

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