Peter Chen

Peter Chen has been Full Professor of Physical-Organic Chemistry since September 1994.
From September 2007 to September 2009 he has been Vice President Research and Corporate Relations of ETH Zurich.

Prof. Chen was born in 1960 in Salt Lake City, USA. After attending schools in Akron, Ohio, he studied at the University of Chicago where he earned his degree in 1982. He was awarded a doctoral degree in 1987 by Yale University, New Haven CT. Following this he transferred to Harvard University in Cambridge MA, where from 1988 to 1991 he was Assistant Professor and from 1991 to 1994 Associate Professor. In 1994, he was elected Full Professor at ETH Zurich. Since September 1, 2007 he is Vice President for Research and Corporate Relations. He has been distinguished as "National Science Foundation Presidential Young Investigator", "Camille and Henry Dreyfus Distinguished New Faculty Fellow", "David and Lucile Packard Fellow", "Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher Scholar", "Alfred P. Sloan Fellow" and "American Chemical Society Cope Scholar". Further, he was a member of the Defense Science Study Group, which was sponsored by the Institute for Defense Analyses in Alexandria, Virginia.

In his research he combines detailed physical measurements with the planning and synthesis of molecules, making it possible to design and test intuitive models of the energetics and reactivity of reactive intermediates in organic and organometallic chemistry. Under normal conditions of reaction these intermediate products have a very short life span, their behavior provides the key to the understanding and the control of the chemical process.