| Richard James Saykally[1] | |
| Birth Place: | Rhinelander, Wisconsin, USA |
| Field: | Chemistry |
| Work Institution: | University of California, Berkeley |
| Alma Mater: | University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire University of Wisconsin–Madison |
| Doctoral Advisor: | R. Claude Woods |
| Academic Advisors: | Kenneth M. Evenson |
| Doctoral Students: | Frank Keutsch Lucy Ziurys Martin Gruebele |
| Notable Students: | James R. Heath (postdoc) |
| Thesis Title: | Microwave spectroscopy of transient molecular species in glow discharges |
| Thesis Url: | https://books.google.com/books?id=IWzTAAAAMAAJ |
| Thesis Year: | 1977 |
| Known For: | Molecular characteristics and structure of water |
Richard James Saykally (born September 10, 1947) is an American chemist. He is currently the Class of 1932 Endowed Professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley. He has received numerous awards for his research on the molecular characteristics of water and aqueous solutions.
Saykally was born in Rhinelander, Wisconsin and educated at University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he received his PhD under R. Claude Woods in 1977. Saykally has been a professor at the University of California, Berkeley since 1979 after postgraduate research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology with Kenneth Melvin Evenson. Saykally and his students have pioneered many important advances in spectroscopy, including velocity modulation spectroscopy of ions, terahertz laser vibration-rotation-tunneling spectroscopy of clusters, infrared photon counting spectroscopy, cavity ringdown spectroscopy, and X-ray spectroscopy of liquid microjets. These have permitted the first detailed study of important textbook molecules, including the hydronium (H3O+), hydroxide (OH−) and ammonium (NH4+) ions, as well as small water clusters and carbon clusters.
Recent work includes the spectroscopic determination of a universal water force field via the study of water clusters, the development of femtosecond nonlinear optical molecular imaging methods applied to single nanowire lasers and biological systems, femtosecond Deep UV SHG/SFG studies of liquid electrolyte interfaces, and soft X-ray spectroscopy of liquids and liquid surfaces.
A co-author of over 400 publications that have been cited over 50,000 times (H index > 100), the recipient of over 75 honors and awards from 15 different countries, Saykally is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2004 received the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Award from the U.S. Department of Energy, the Hinshelwood Lectureship from Oxford University and the Inaugural International Solvay Chair in Chemistry from the Solvay Institutes of Belgium. He is a UC-Berkeley Distinguished Teacher, and has been active at the national level in science education. Over 150 students and postdocs have trained under his direction, many of whom hold prominent positions in academic, government, and industrial institutions.[2]
As of 2019, Saykally's active research includes:[3]