ISEN enjoys the strong leadership of two Northwestern faculty co-Directors as well as a Director of Education and Special Projects and a Director of Operations and Outreach. We are pleased to introduce them to you:
Mark Ratner
Mark Ratner is a materials chemist, whose work focuses on the interplay between molecular structure and molecular properties. This includes such aspects as molecular electronics, molecular optoelectronics, molecular systems design and biomolecular behavior, as well quantum and classical methodologies for understanding and predicting molecular structure and response. The major focus of his research for the last three decades has been the understanding of charge transfer and charge transport processes based on molecular structures, ranging from nonadiabatic intramolecular behavior to aspects of molecular devices, including photovoltaics, conductive polymers, molecular transport junctions and molecular switches.
His professional history involves undergraduate work at Harvard, graduate work at Northwestern, postdoctoral work at Aarhus and Munich, and faculty positions at New York University and Northwestern. He is now Dumas University Professor at Northwestern and Co-Director of ISEN. He has very active international collaborations, particularly in Denmark, Israel and the Netherlands. He has been awarded the Feynman Prize, the Langmuir Award of the American Chemical Society, and is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the International Academy of Quantum Molecular Sciences, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and enjoys an annual canoe trip which puts all things back into perspective.
David Dunand
David Dunand is the James and Margie Krebs Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University. He does research on processing, structure and properties of light-weight metallic alloys, composites and foams. These new materials have uses from energy-efficient transportation and power generation to bio-medical implants. He has published over 180 journal articles and holds 8 patents. Prior to joining Northwestern University in 1991, he was on the faculty of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, from which he also holds a Ph.D. degree.
He is a fellow of ASM-International (formerly the American Society for Metals) and received the 2009 Distinguished Structural Materials Scientist/Engineer Award from TMS (The Materials Society). As Co-Director of ISEN, he is involved with addressing these topics by expanding research, teaching and outreach in an interdisciplinary manner.
Brad Sageman
Brad Sageman joined the ISEN team as Director of Education and Special Projects in 2011. In this capacity, he directs ISEN's education development and curricular processes. Brad also chairs the ISEN Curriculum Committee and oversees the ISEN Cluster program, the development of an ISEN certificate program, the hiring of ISEN faculty and approval of ISEN courses.
Brad is an earth scientist with research interests in carbon cycling, climate change, and sustainable energy. His research, which has its foundation in understanding the relationship between geologic time and the accumulation of sedimentary rocks, is relevant to both the exploration and production of hydrocarbons (especially shale gas, a critical transition fuel to a low-carbon future), as well as the role of the carbon cycle as a natural source and sink of CO2 to the atmosphere.
Brad earned a B.S. in Biology from Denison University and completed his graduate work in Geological Science at the University of Colorado. He was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship during his graduate years, and joined the Northwestern faculty in 1992. In 1997 he was awarded the DuPont Young Professor award for research relating to unconventional hydrocarbon resources (gas shales), and in 2006 was elected Fellow of the Geological Society of America (GSA). In October of 2011, Brad chaired a NSF Science, Engineering and Education for Sustainability (SEES) workshop on Carbon Sequestration at the annual GSA meeting. He is a Professor and currently in his 7th year as Department Chair of Earth and Planetary Sciences in the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences. He is also the lead faculty member for ISEN 230 Climate Change and Sustainability: Political and Ethical Dimensions, an ISEN course offered each spring.
