Eric R. Bittner is a

theoretical chemist Theoretical chemistry is the branch of chemistry which develops theoretical generalizations that are part of the theoretical arsenal of modern chemistry: for example, the concepts of chemical bonding, chemical reaction, valence, the surface o ...

, physicist, and distinguished professor of chemical physics at the

University of Houston The University of Houston (; ) is a Public university, public research university in Houston, Texas, United States. It was established in 1927 as Houston Junior College, a coeducational institution and one of multiple junior colleges formed in ...

Biography

Bittner obtained his B.S. in chemistry and in physics from

Valparaiso University Valparaiso University (Valpo) is a private university in Valparaiso, Indiana, United States. It is an independent Lutheran university with five colleges. It enrolls nearly 2,300 students and has a campus. The university is known for its Luthe ...

in 1988. From 1988 to 1994 he worked with John C. Light at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

and obtained his Ph.D. thesis in 1994 on ''Quantum Theories of Energy Exchange at the Gas-Surface Interface''. Subsequently, he worked at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

until 1996 as postdoctoral fellow of the

National Science Foundation The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is an Independent agencies of the United States government#Examples of independent agencies, independent agency of the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government that su ...

, with Peter J. Rossky as his mentor. He was visiting scholar at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

from 1995 to 1997, with Hans C. Andersen as his mentor.Eric R. Bittner, Curriculum Vitae
, University of Houston, downloaded 22. November 2011 In 1997 he joined the University of Houston as an assistant professor of theoretical chemistry, where he became an associate professor of theoretical chemistry in 2003. In the summer of 2001, he worked as visiting faculty at the Center for Non-Linear Studies at

Los Alamos National Lab Los Alamos National Laboratory (often shortened as Los Alamos and LANL) is one of the sixteen research and development laboratories of the United States Department of Energy (DOE), located a short distance northwest of Santa Fe, New Mexico, in ...

and in 2023 he served as the Ulam Distinguished Scholar in the CNLS. He is currently a professor in the UH Physics Department. In 2009 Bittner became the John and Rebecca Moores Distinguished Professor of chemical physics at the

. In 2013, he became the Hugh Roy and Lillian Cranz Cullen Professor of Physics. He has worked at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

, the

École Normale Supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

, Paris, and at

and has collaborated, among others, with Robert E. Wyatt. Eric Bittner is also an Eagle Scout.

Work

His main research interests lie with the dynamics of molecules in their excited electronic states. Bittner and his co-workers have investigated

organic semiconductors Organic semiconductors are solids whose building blocks are pi-bonded molecules or polymers made up by carbon and hydrogen atoms and – at times – heteroatoms such as nitrogen, sulfur and oxygen. They exist in the form of molecular crystals or ...

, in particular, semi

conductive polymer Conductive polymers or, more precisely, intrinsically conducting polymers (ICPs) are organic polymers that conduct electricity. Such compounds may have metallic conductivity or can be semiconductors. The main advantage of conductive polymers ...

s, the modulation and tuning of their electronic dynamics due to intramolecular vibrational motions of the polymers, and investigations into

phonon A phonon is a collective excitation in a periodic, elastic arrangement of atoms or molecules in condensed matter, specifically in solids and some liquids. In the context of optically trapped objects, the quantized vibration mode can be defined a ...

modes. They have worked on

energy transfer Energy Transfer LP is an American company engaged in the pipeline transportation, storage, and terminaling for natural gas, crude oil, NGLs, refined products and liquid natural gas. It is organized under Delaware state laws and headquartered i ...

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

molecules using methods of

molecular dynamics Molecular dynamics (MD) is a computer simulation method for analyzing the Motion (physics), physical movements of atoms and molecules. The atoms and molecules are allowed to interact for a fixed period of time, giving a view of the dynamics ( ...

time-dependent density functional theory Time-dependent density-functional theory (TDDFT) is a quantum mechanical theory used in physics and chemistry to investigate the properties and dynamics of many-body systems in the presence of time-dependent potentials, such as electric or magne ...

(TD-DFT) and analytical

lattice models Lattice may refer to: Arts and design * Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material * Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios * Lattice (pastry), an ...

. They have developed a

quantum hydrodynamics In condensed matter physics, quantum hydrodynamics (QHD) is most generally the study of hydrodynamic-like systems which demonstrate quantum mechanical behavior. They arise in semiclassical mechanics in the study of metal and semiconductor device ...

approach for computing the energies involved in quantum vibrations in small

atomic clusters Nanoclusters are atomically precise, crystalline materials most often existing on the 0-2 nanometer scale. They are often considered kinetically stable intermediates that form during the synthesis of comparatively larger materials such as semic ...

by combining the De Broglie–Bohm formulation of quantum mechanics and

Bayesian Thomas Bayes ( ; c. 1701 – 1761) was an English statistician, philosopher, and Presbyterian minister. Bayesian ( or ) may be either any of a range of concepts and approaches that relate to statistical methods based on Bayes' theorem Bayes ...

sampling, using this approach also to study quantum aspects of the thermodynamics of small

rare gas The noble gases (historically the inert gases, sometimes referred to as aerogens) are the members of group 18 of the periodic table: helium (He), neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), xenon (Xe), radon (Rn) and, in some cases, oganesson (Og). U ...

clusters in thermal regions close to the clusters'

melting point The melting point (or, rarely, liquefaction point) of a substance is the temperature at which it changes state of matter, state from solid to liquid. At the melting point the solid and liquid phase (matter), phase exist in Thermodynamic equilib ...

. Furthermore, they used

supersymmetry Supersymmetry is a Theory, theoretical framework in physics that suggests the existence of a symmetry between Particle physics, particles with integer Spin (physics), spin (''bosons'') and particles with half-integer spin (''fermions''). It propo ...

(SUSY) quantum mechanics for computing excitation energies of quantum systems using Monte Carlo calculations. His APS Fellowship citation reads: ''“For developing theoretical and computational descriptions of quantum dynamics in molecular systems, especially for their use in understanding the migration of energy and charge in molecular electronic excited states.”''

Awards

Bittner has received several grants and awards for his work: *2023 Ulam Distinguished Scholar, Center for Nonlinear Studies, Los Alamo National Lab. *2022 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. *2019 Distinguished Alumni Award from Valparaiso University *2018 Leverhulme Trust Visiting professor, Durham University *2016 Fellow of the American Physical Society, Division of Chemical Physics *2016 Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry *2012 Fulbright Canada Scholar *2009 John and Rebecca Moores Professorship. *2008 University of Houston Research Excellence Award *2007 to 2008

Guggenheim Fellow Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, endowed by the late Simon and Olga Hirsh Guggenheim. These awards are bestowed upon individuals who have demonstrated d ...

*2003 Wiley/International Journal of Quantum Chemistry Young Investigator Award *1999 NSF CAREER Award *1995 to 1997 NSF Postdoctoral Fellow *1994 Elizabeth R. Norton Prize for Excellence in Research in Chemistry (University of Chicago) *1988 Lumina Award (Valparaiso University) The John and Rebecca Moores professorship was awarded to him as recognition for "outstanding work in both research and teaching". In his nomination, special emphasis was placed on his seminal work on trajectory-base methods for performing quantum mechanical calculations.

Publications

;Books: * Eric R. Bittner: ''Quantum Dynamics: Application in Biological and Materials Systems'',

CRC Press The CRC Press, LLC is an American publishing group that specializes in producing technical books. Many of their books relate to engineering, science and mathematics. Their scope also includes books on business, forensics and information technol ...

, 2009, ;Articles: , Eric R. Bittner has published over 100 scientific papers.Eric Bittner, publications and preprints list
, downloaded 23. November 2011 His publications on trajectory-based methods include: * Eric R. Bittner, Donald J. Kouri, Sean Derrickson, and Jeremy B. Maddox: ''Variational Quantum Hydrodynamics'', in: Xavier Oriols and Jordi Mompart (eds.), Applied Bohmian Dynamics (invited review chapter), 2010

* Eric R. Bittner: ''Quantum initial value representations using approximate Bohmian trajectories'', Journal of Chemical Physics, vol. 119, no. 3, 2003,
arXiv: quant-ph/0304012
* Eric R. Bittner, Donald J. Kouri: ''Quantum dynamics and Supersymmetric quantum mechanics, super-symmetric quantum mechanics'', in P. K. Chattaraj (ed.): Quantum Trajectories, CRC Press, 2010

* Jeremy B. Maddox, Eric R. Bittner ''Estimating Bohm’s quantum force using Bayesian statistics '', Journal of Chemical Physics 119, pp. 6465, 2003,

* Robert E. Wyatt, Eric R. Bittner: ''Quantum wave packet dynamics with trajectories: Implementation with adaptive Lagrangian grids of the amplitude of the wave function'', Journal of Chamical Physics, vol. 113, no. 20, 22 November 2000

* Andrey Preverzev and Eric R. Bittner: ''Hamiltonian Approach for Wavepacket Dynamics: Beyond Gaussian Wavepackets'', Physics Letters A, vol. 373, pp. 2215–2218, 2009

References

External links

Eric R. Bittner, Department of Chemistry

Faculty member pageCurriculum Vitae
an
Eric Bittner, publications and preprints list
University of Houston
Curriculum Vitae
, University of Houston
ResearchCrossroads

Mendeley publications list

ScientificCommons publications list

Guggenheim Fellowship announcement
Eurekalert
Quantum clusters: finite temperature variational quantum hydrodynamics
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bittner, Eric R. 1965 births Living people American theoretical chemists 20th-century American chemists 20th-century American physicists Valparaiso University alumni University of Chicago alumni University of Texas at Austin people Stanford University staff University of Houston faculty 21st-century American physicists 21st-century American chemists Fellows of the American Physical Society