Eric J. Heller

Institute of Technology, October 19, 2001

Eric J. Heller received his bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of Minnesota (1968) and a Ph.D. from Harvard (1973). He currently is a Professor of Chemistry and Physics at Harvard. He is considered one of the five most outstanding theoretical chemical physicists in the world. One of his many scientific contributions is his formulation of molecular spectroscopy in the time domain. He has also taken crucial steps toward clarifying the relationship between classical mechanics and quantum mechanics. He has developed a conceptual framework for understanding chaos at the atomic level, and has mapped out the rates and pathways of energy flow in chemical reactions.