Hynes named fellow of American Chemical Society

James Hynes, a CU-Boulder distinguished professor in the chemistry and biochemistry department, has been named a fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). He is one of 96 scientists ACS honored in 2013 for their outstanding contributions in scientific research, education and public service.

Hynes is well-known in his field for contributions to the theory of chemical reaction rates and mechanisms of vibrational dynamics in solution. He also is known for his research on the heterogeneous chemical reactions important in stratospheric ozone depletion.

Hynes has won numerous awards for his research, including the Hirschfelder Prize in Theoretical Chemistry in 2004, the largest award in the field and which carried a stipend of $10,000. He also won the ACS Hildebrand Award in Theory and Experiment of Liquids in 2005. Hynes was elected to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences in 2011 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2008.

Hynes also was a J.S. Guggenheim Fellow in 1979 and an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow from 1975 to 1977. He has been at CU-Boulder since 1971 and he has made hundreds of appearances as an invited lecturer around the globe. He also is affiliated with the Department of Chemistry at the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris.

Since the program began in 2009, two other CU-Boulder faculty members have been named ACS Fellows: Professor Josef Michl and Professor Adjoint David Nesbitt, both of the chemistry and biochemistry department. Nesbitt also is a fellow at JILA, a collaborative institute of CU-Boulder and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.