Mark your calendars, everyone: Distinguished Professor Christopher Jarzynski of the University of Maryland will be delivering the 2026 A.R. Gordon Lectures to the Department of Chemistry on April 15, 16, and 17th.
A physical chemist, Prof. Jarzynski is renowned for his seminal contributions to the field of nonequilibrium thermodynamics at the nanoscale. The “Jarzynski equality”, which he formulated in 1997, is a cornerstone in modern statistical mechanics as it establishes a precise connection between equilibrium properties and nonequilibrium processes.
The second law of thermodynamics is expressed as an inequality relating the free energy difference between two states to the average work performed during an irreversible process. However, in individual microscopic realizations, the second law can appear to be violated. The Jarzynski equality provides a framework for understanding these fluctuations with an exact equality that links nonequilibrium work to equilibrium free energy differences.
Jarzynski’s research group at UMD focuses on statistical mechanics and thermodynamics at the molecular level, with a particular emphasis on far-from-equilibrium phenomena. According to the group’s site, they have worked on topics that include the application of statistical mechanics to problems of biophysical interest and 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.
Chemistry has numerous subdisciplines, and Jarzynski’s work lies within the realm of Chemical Physics, which involves research at the interface of physics, mathematics, computer science, and chemistry. It can be characterized as the quest to lay bare the underlying basic principles of the structure and dynamics of molecular and bulk-matter systems, in terms of the interactions of atoms and molecules.
“Christopher Jarzynski is developing the theoretical foundations of non-equilibrium statistical mechanics, and we are excited to host him and learn about these advances and their impact on both nanoscale and macroscopic systems,” said Professor Dvira Segal, a member of the Chemical Physics Theory Group at the Department of Chemistry. Segal is the director of the CQIQC and holds a cross-appointment to the Department of Physics.
“Our students will have the opportunity to hear about the many applications of statistical mechanics to complex problems,” she said, “from biophysical settings and artificial molecular-scale machines to modern computational approaches in statistical mechanics and quantum thermodynamics.”
Details on the talks, including time, place, and abstracts, can be found at the Chemistry Events calendar:
April 15: Scaling Down the Laws of Thermodynamics
April 16: The Many Guises of the Second Law
April 17: The Devil and the Details
The Distinguished Lecture Series of the Department of Chemistry is named for Andrew Robertson Gordon, one of the Department's most distinguished graduates and faculty members. Gordon was a pioneer in quantum chemistry. In 1932, he published the first quantum statistical calculations ever made on a molecule with more than two atoms.
In 1944, A.R. Gordon became the first head of the Department of Chemistry to be chosen from its faculty since its inception some hundred years earlier.
Other recent Gordon Lecturers have included Laura Kiessling, the Novartis Professor of Chemistry at M.I.T. and Nobel Prize laureate Professor Omar Yaghi of the University of California, Berkeley.
“Our students will have the opportunity to hear about the many applications of statistical mechanics to complex problems from biophysical settings and artificial molecular-scale machines to modern computational approaches in statistical mechanics and quantum thermodynamics. -Prof. Dvira Segal