Physics & Astronomy Colloquium

PAHsing to Compute Vibrational Spectra in the Age of JWST

Local Contact: Dr. Tho Nguyen, ngtho@uga.edu

 Speaker Bio:

Ryan Fortenberry is Associate Professor and Graduate Program Coordinator of Chemistry at the University of Mississippi.  He was previously Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Georgia Southern University beginning in 2013, earning tenure in 2018 before departure.  Ryan earned a BS in Mathematics and a MS in Communication from Mississippi College; received a Ph.D. at Virginia Tech in Theoretical Chemistry; and was a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View, California working under the late Tim Lee.  Ryan has previously been Chair of the ACS Astrochemistry Subdivision and the Ole Miss Campus Coordinator for the Mississippi Space Grant Consortium.  Ryan has over 250 peer-reviewed scientific publications, received several NASA & NSF research grants, was selected as the Virginia Tech College of Science 2019-2020 Outstanding Recent Alumni Award, the Mississippi College Dr. Cliff Fortenberry Department of Communication Alumnus of the Year in 2021, has been published in Scientific American, and is the author of Complete Science Communication, a text on how to write and talk about science both to expert and non-expert audiences alike.  When not doing science, Ryan enjoys the outdoors, travel, and time with family.  He has dreams of climbing the highest point in each of the 50 states.  He’s currently at 47 (plus Puerto Rico and Washington, DC).