Josef Zwanziger

Josef W. Zwanziger grew up in Ellensburg, Washington, and studied at the University of Chicago (BA Chemistry ‘83), Cornell University (PhD Chemistry ‘88, with Ed Grant) and University of California at Berkeley (PDF with Alex Pines). He joined the faculty at Indiana University in 1990, rising to the rank of professor, before moving to Dalhousie University in 2003. At Dalhousie, he holds the Canada Research Chair in NMR Studies of Materials. His interests have always included a strong mix of theory and experimentation in chemical physics. His graduate work focused on the dynamic Jahn-Teller effect and its relation to geometric phases in quantum mechanics. As a post-doctoral fellow Zwanziger developed solid-state NMR methods, and continued to study geometric descriptions of quantum evolution. At Indiana, his interests turned more strongly to materials, and his lab focused on glass structure, using a variety of spectroscopic and scattering methods.

Since moving to Dalhousie, Zwanziger has investigated also the optical performance of glass and its relation to structure and composition, while simultaneously developing a strong effort in first- principles studies of solids. He has been a senior editor at the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and is currently joint editor of the Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids.