Pitzer Center Welcomes New Faculty

Faculty, students and staff celebrated the opening of the new Pitzer Center Anex on the third floor of Gilman Hall in November, 2016.

Thanks to the very generous support of the Pitzer Family Foundation, the Kenneth S. Pitzer Center for Theoretical Chemistry was created in 1999 as both a facility and a program.

Bringing together the research groups of a remarkable core of faculty of theoretical chemists and chemical engineers who were previously scattered throughout the college, the Pitzer Center has fulfilled its promise as one of the world’s preeminent centers for research in theoretical chemistry.

Gilman Hall was built in 1917 and, although a beautiful old building—a National Historic Chemistry Landmark, the site of Glenn Seaborg’s discovery of plutonium—its infrastructure cannot be modified sufficiently to support modern wet labs. Faculty, students and staff celebrated the opening of the new Pitzer Center Annex on the third floor of Gilman Hall in November, 2016.

The renovation of 2,300 square feet for expanded theoretical chemistry facilities is an ideal use of Gilman Hall. The Pitzer Center Annex on the third floor of Gilman Hall accommodates 26 new student workstations as well as a conference room.

The new workspace for the different theoretical groups, the seminar rooms and the common space are providing exactly the kind of rich, interactive research environment that was originally envisioned and that has been made possible by the Pitzer Family Foundation.

Three new theorists—Eran Rabani, Kranthi Mandadapu and David Limmer—call the Pitzer Center home. You can read about them and their work on the following pages.