Paul Lyon Houston (born January 27, 1947) is Professor Emeritus of

Chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...

at Cornell University and Professor Emeritus of

and Biochemistry at the

Georgia Institute of Technology The Georgia Institute of Technology, commonly referred to as Georgia Tech or, in the state of Georgia, as Tech or The Institute, is a public research university and institute of technology in Atlanta, Georgia. Established in 1885, it is part of ...

Education and career

Houston started his professorial career at Cornell University in 1975 following undergraduate study at Yale University, doctoral work at MIT, and postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. He became chair of Cornell's department of chemistry and chemical biology (1997–2001), senior associate dean of the college of arts and sciences (2002–2005), and the Peter J. W. Debye Professor of Chemistry. Most recently, he was dean of the college of sciences at Georgia Tech (from 2007-2013). Houston was a member of the Cornell Center for Materials Research, the Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, and the Graduate Field of Applied Physics. Houston has held visiting positions at the

Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics The Max-Planck-Institute of Quantum Optics (abbreviation: MPQ; german: Max-Planck-Institut für Quantenoptik) is a part of the Max Planck Society which operates 87 research facilities in Germany. The institute is located in Garching, Germany, w ...

(1982), Columbia University (1986, 1987), the Institute for Molecular Science,

Okazaki Okazaki may refer to: *Okazaki (surname) *Okazaki, Aichi, a city in Japan *Okazaki Castle, a castle in Japan *Okazaki fragments Okazaki fragments are short sequences of DNA nucleotides (approximately 150 to 200 base pairs long in eukaryotes) w ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

(1989), the University of California at Berkeley (2003), and the University of Rome La Sapienza (2001, 2006). He has been an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (1979–81), a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar (1980), and a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow (1986–87). Houston served as a senior editor of the ''Journal of Physical Chemistry'' (1991–97), as chair of the

American Physical Society The American Physical Society (APS) is a not-for-profit membership organization of professionals in physics and related disciplines, comprising nearly fifty divisions, sections, and other units. Its mission is the advancement and diffusion of k ...

Division of Laser Chemistry (1997–98), and as a member of the science and technology steering committee of Brookhaven National Laboratories (1998–2005). Houston has authored or co-authored over 160 publications in the field of physical chemistry and a textbook on chemical kinetics.

Honors and awards

Houston was elected a

Fellow of the American Physical Society The American Physical Society honors members with the designation ''Fellow'' for having made significant accomplishments to the field of physics. The following lists are divided chronologically by the year of designation. * List of American Physic ...

in 1989 for "important contributions toward understanding molecular

photodissociation Photodissociation, photolysis, photodecomposition, or photofragmentation is a chemical reaction in which molecules of a chemical compound are broken down by photons. It is defined as the interaction of one or more photons with one target molecule. ...

dynamics, energy transfer, and gas-solid interactions; in particular, for his imaginative use of photofragment imaging and his development of the field of vector correlations". In 2001, Housont shared with David W. Chandler the

Herbert P. Broida Prize The Herbert P. Broida Award is awarded every two years by the American Physical Society for outstanding work for experimental advances in the field of atomic and molecular spectroscopy or chemical physics. The prize was established in 1979 and is ...

of the American Physical Society for work on product imaging in

chemical dynamics Chemical kinetics, also known as reaction kinetics, is the branch of physical chemistry that is concerned with understanding the rates of chemical reactions. It is to be contrasted with chemical thermodynamics, which deals with the direction in wh ...

. He was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2003.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Houston, Paul Living people American physical chemists Yale University alumni Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni Cornell University faculty Georgia Tech faculty Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Fellows of the American Physical Society Chemical physicists 1947 births Scientists from Hartford, Connecticut