The department is pleased to announce the promotion of S. Alex Kandel to Professor and Brian Baker to Endowed Professor.
S. Alex Kandel joined the chemistry & biochemistry faculty at Notre Dame in 2001. His research focuses on employing Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) for imaging with sub-Ångstrom resolution, resulting in direct measurements of the individual atoms and molecules that make up the surfaces of materials. This is employed for studying gas-surface interactions during chemical reactions, the formation and structure of molecularly heterogeneous surfaces, and the characterization of electronically active surface-bound molecules. Kandel received his B.S. in chemistry from Yale University and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Stanford University, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Pennsylvania State University.
Brian Baker, chair of the department, was named the Coleman Professor of Life Sciences. Baker joined the faculty at Notre Dame in 2001 and was most recently the Rev. John A. Zahm Professor of Structural Biology. Baker’s research focuses on how biological molecules specifically recognize targets, how recognition leads to cellular communication, and how the physical aspects of these processes give rise to biological function for application in the general areas of cellular immunity and bacterial antibiotic resistance. Baker received his B.S. in biochemistry from New Mexico State University and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Iowa, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at Harvard University.