Kenneth C. Janda

Professor of Chemistry

2006-07 Recipient of the Distinguished Faculty Award for Teaching
Team Award

I was born and raised in Denver, Colorado. My parents encouraged my curiosity from an early age by never complaining when I took something apart to see how it worked or by performing smelly experiments in the basement. (These were the days when chemistry sets were still popular.) My mother was an avid reader and I learned well from her example. I was also lucky that several of my elementary and high school teachers asked me complicated questions that intrigued me. As you can imagine, this learning technique wasn’t terribly efficient, I didn’t have the type of academic record to get into a prestigious university. This was probably good luck. I went to Hope College, where even with my undisciplined approach to learning I could easily complete the assignments and do well on the exams, and which has excellent programs in science. There I met Patricia Meliere, which resulted in a romance that has lasted 38 years so far. Professor F. Sheldon Wettack took me under his wing and by the end of my junior year I had taken data for a paper that he was able to have published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. He also arranged for me to work in a research lab at the University of Southampton for one semester. During the spring of 1972 I served as the internet between Southampton and London. Twice a week Patsy and I would get on the train with 100 pounds of computer cards, submit them to the supercomputer at the University of London and bring the output back to Southampton.

I earned a Ph.D. degree at Harvard University under the guidance of Professor William Klemperer. Luckily, during my first year I was taught by two excellent TAs, John Hemminger now Dean of Physical Science here at UCI and Peter Wolynes (then 18 years old) now a Professor at UCSD. After a year of Post Doctoral work at the University of Chicago I was offered an Instructorship at the California Institute of Technology. I later worked at the University of Pittsburgh before I came to UCI in 1992. My research specialty is figuring out how atoms stick together to form molecules, clusters, liquids and solids, and then how to blow them apart again using lasers. Like most fields of research, mine has been revolutionized by the huge advances in technology. I collected my Ph.D. data using a laboratory computer with 1 K of memory, and I am writing this brief essay on a laptop with 1 G of memory. The Senate Award I am receiving results from a group effort to modernize UCI’s Physical Science graduate education to also take advantage of new technology, and to prepare students for the increasingly multidisciplinary demands on scientists.