Prof. Christopher Jarzynski

ACADEMIC HOST
Prof. Gil Markovich
School of Chemistry

Joshua Jortner Distinguished Lectures in Chemistry
Academic Year 2026/2027

Education

• A. B., Physics (with high honors), Princeton University, Princeton, NJ–1987
• Ph. D., Physics, University of California, Berkeley–1994
• Institute for Nuclear Theory, University of Washington, Postdoc–1994-1996
• Los Alamos National Laboratory, Postdoc–1996-1999

Professional Experience

• Technical Staff Member, Los Alamos National Laboratory 1999-2006
• Associate Professor (with tenure), University of Maryland, 2006-2010
• Professor, University of Maryland 2010-2014
• Director, Institute for Physical Science and Technology, UMD 2014-2019
• Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland 2014-present

Major Recognitions and Awards

• Fulbright Fellowship, Warsaw, Poland 1987-1988
• Raymond and Beverly Sackler Prize in the Physical Sciences Tel Aviv, Israel 2005
• Outstanding Referee for American Physical Society Journals 2009
• Fellow, American Physical Society 2009
• Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2016
• Lars Onsager Prize, American Physical Society 2019
• Simons Fellowship in Theoretical Physics 2020
• Guggenheim Fellowship in Physics 2020
• Member, National Academy of Sciences 2020
• Significant Professional Services and Activities
• American Chemical Society, American Physical Society
• Editorial Board, Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment, 2008-present
• Editorial Board, Journal of Statistical Physics, 2008-2010
• Associate Editor, Journal of Statistical Physics, 2011-present
• Editorial Board, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (USA), 2020-present

Mentoring

• Eight postdocs, sixteen graduate students and four undergraduate students mentored at the University of Maryland (since 2006)

Research Interests
My research group and I focus on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics at the molecular level, with a particular emphasis on far-from-equilibrium phenomena. We have worked on topics that include the application of statistical mechanics to problems of biophysical interest; the analysis of artificial molecular machines; the development of efficient numerical schemes for estimating thermodynamic properties of complex systems; the relationship between thermodynamics and information processing. We also have interests in dynamical systems, quantum thermodynamics, and quantum and classical shortcuts to adiabaticity.