UCI'S PETER RENTZEPIS RECEIVES PRESIGIOUS TOLMAN MEDAL FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTIONS TO CHEMISTRY

Irvine, Calif., April 9, 2002 -- UC Presidential Chair Peter M. Rentzepis, whose development of ultra-fast laser techniques for research revolutionized many areas of science, has been named the 2002 Richard C. Tolman Medal recipient by the Southern California Section for the American Chemical Society.

The Tolman Medal is awarded for outstanding contributions to chemistry in research and leadership while a Southern California resident. It is the most prestigious award for Southland chemists, and among its recipients are six Nobel Laureates.

"I am quite honored to receive this award, especially considering that there are so many outstanding chemists in Southern California," Rentzepis said. "I am proud and very pleased to have my research be considered worthy of the Tolman Medal."

A professor of both chemistry and electrical and computer engineering, Rentzepis holds a UC Presidential Chair, one of the highest faculty designations in the University of California system. Rentzepis came to UCI in 1985 from AT&T Bell Laboratories, where he was head of physical and inorganic chemistry research.

At Bell Laboratories and UCI, Rentzepis originated many spectroscopic laser fields that today are widely used in research. At Bell, he pioneered ultra-fast spectroscopy, a field of science that uses laser pulses of a trillionth of a second to chart the course of chemical reactions. Considered a breakthrough in chemical physics, this technique is now widely used in scientific and technological laboratories and helps make possible the development of novel devices in engineering fields.

In the 1970s, Rentzepis was the first to use this technology for biological research, where he produced groundbreaking work on the mechanisms of photosynthesis and vision. A decade later at UCI Rentzepis developed the field of time-resolved X-ray diffraction and an extended X-ray technique called EXAFS, both of which enable scientists to generate data on the ultra-fast structures evolving during a chemical or biological reaction. He also used non-linear picosecond X-ray spectroscopy to develop methods for three-dimensional optical storage. A prototype he developed, called a "memory cube," has the potential to store as much as a trillion bits of information in a volume slightly smaller than a sugar cube.

A member of the National Academy of Sciences, Rentzepis has received more than 25 major awards and prizes, written four books and more than 400 research publications, and holds 62 patents on his discoveries.

The Tolman Medal is named in honor of Richard C. Tolman, a pioneering Caltech chemist of the first half of the 20th century who made key discoveries on electrons, among other significant scientific findings.

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