Victor Batista named the Huffman Professor of Chemistry
Victor Salvador Batista, recently appointed as the John Randolph Huffman Professor of Chemistry, focuses his research on the development of rigorous and practical methods for simulations of quantum processes in complex systems, as well as applications studies of photochemical processes in proteins, semiconductor materials, and systems of environmental interest.
Batista recently made significant progress toward the establishment of rigorous quantum mechanical approaches for describing equilibrium and dynamical properties of complex quantum systems. He is currently investigating how to extend these calculations to investigate quantum mechanical processes involved in light-harvesting mechanisms in semiconductor and biological molecules. These studies aim to unravel the nature of molecular mechanisms responsible for the efficient detection and utilization of photon energy, advance understanding of the primary photochemical event in the vertebrate vision process, and examine the potential application of quantum coherences to control photo-transduction dynamics.
A native of Argentina, Batista received his B.Sc. degree from the Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. After moving to the United States, he earned his Ph.D. in chemistry from Boston University. A member of the Yale faculty since 2001, he has served as a full professor of chemistry since 2008 and director of undergraduate studies 2008-10.
Batista’s research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Energy, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, among other organizations. His work has been published in more than 280 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and cited more than 10,420 times.
Batista has been the recipient of the Innovation Award from Research Corporation, the Career Award from the National Science Foundation, and the Sloan Foundation, among other honors. In 2005, his teaching was recognized with the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award.
