Joseph S. Francisco

Joseph S. Francisco is the President’s Distinguished Professor of Earth and Environmental Science and Professor of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. at the University of Texas at Austin, and he received his Ph.D. from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Francisco was a Research Fellow at University of Cambridge in England, and a Visiting Associate in Planetary Science at California Institute of Technology. His research has focused on bringing new tools from experimental physical and theoretical chemistry to atmospheric chemical problems to enhance our understanding of chemistry in the atmosphere at the molecular level. This work has led to important discoveries of new chemistries occurring on the interfaces of cloud surfaces as well as fundamental new chemical bonding controlling these processes. He was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt U.S. Senior Scientist Award; appointed a Senior Visiting Fellow at the Institute of Advanced Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy; Professeur Invité at the Université de Paris, France; a Visiting Professor at Uppsala Universitet, Sweden; an Honorary International Chair Professor at National Taipei University, Taiwan; and an Honorary Professor, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, China. He served as President of the National Organization for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers from 2005-2007, as well as President of the American Chemical Society in 2010. He is a Fellow of the American Chemical Society, American Physical Society, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Francisco currently serves as Executive Editor and Associate Editor of the Journal of the American Chemical Society, and as a member of the Editorial Board for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.