Joshua Jortner

Joshua Jortner is Professor Emeritus of Chemistry at Tel Aviv University's School of Chemistry, where he served as the first department chair (1964) and held the Heinemann Professorship. He earned his Ph.D. from Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1960) and completed postdoctoral research at the University of Chicago. An internationally recognized physical chemist, Jortner's research examines energy transfer, molecular dynamics, and photophysical processes in complex systems.

Research Focus: Jortner pioneered theories of intramolecular energy dissipation, molecular wavepacket dynamics, and quantum beats. His work bridges theoretical chemistry and chemical physics, exploring structure-function relationships in molecules, clusters, and biological systems. Key contributions include fundamental mechanisms of radiationless transitions, solvated electron behavior, and coherent multiphoton processes.

Publications: Jortner's extensive corpus includes foundational studies on energy acquisition/storage in molecular systems and charge transfer in biological contexts. Recent works address editorial governance in chemistry journals, while his influential historical articles analyze economic-legal systems. Themes include: (1) quantum dynamics in chemical systems, (2) photophysical process theory, (3) energy transfer mechanisms, and (4) historical analysis of economic institutions.

Honors and Awards:

• Wolf Prize in Chemistry (1988)
• Israel Prize in Chemistry (1982)
• Bourke Award (1974)
• August Wilhelm von Hofmann Medal (1995)
• EMET Prize (2008)

Academic Leadership: Former President of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities (1986-1995), member of 14 national academies including U.S. National Academy of Sciences, and honorary doctorates from Pierre and Marie Curie University (1986) and Humboldt University of Berlin (2005).