Prashant K. Jain

Prashant K. Jain is a scientist and scholar working at the interface of chemistry and physics. He is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign where he directs a research laboratory dedicated to the understanding and control of the interaction between light and matter. Jain’s work is bridging the gap between light and chemistry to enable solutions for zero-carbon energy and green technologies. As a highlight of recent research, he is using nanoscale optical antenna for concentrating photons and deploying them for driving photosynthesis, inducing new modes of chemical reactivity, and deciphering how chemical catalysts function. Jain is also an acclaimed teacher of physical chemistry. Jain is an elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, a Beilby medalist, a Leo Hendrik Baekeland medalist, a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award in Science and Engineering, a National Science Foundation CAREER awardee, an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Kavli Fellow of the National Academy of Sciences, and a MIT TR35 inventor. His research has been cited nearly 28,000 times and he has been recognized as a highly cited researcher by Clarivate Analytics and Elsevier Scopus.