Lisa Fredin

Lisa Fredin is an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Lehigh University, with research spanning theoretical and computational chemistry, electronic structure, disorder in materials, photoredox catalysis, and nanochemistry. Her work bridges experiment and theory, focusing on density functional theory (DFT) and quantum chemistry to model catalytic materials, charge transport, and excited-state dynamics in systems ranging from transition-metal complexes to oxide nanoparticles.

• Education: Ph.D. in Chemistry (Northwestern University, 2012), B.S. in Chemistry, Biochemistry, Applied Mathematics (UT Austin, 2007)
• Previous Appointments: Postdoctoral Researcher at Lund University (2012–2014), Research Associate at NIST (2015–2018)

Her research explores:

• Disorder in Inorganic and Organic Materials: Modeling defects, doping, and dynamic molecular vibrations to understand their impact on electronic properties and device performance.
• Photophysics of Light-Harvesting Complexes: Studying Fe(II), Ru(II), and Pd(II) complexes to optimize charge separation, excited-state lifetimes, and photocatalytic efficiency.
• Surface and Nanoscale Reactivity: Predicting reactivity of oxide nanoparticles and metal surfaces for CO disproportionation, water oxidation, and photoredox reactions.

Her recent publications highlight TD-DFT applications, Boltzmann transport in organic materials, and defect engineering in TiO2 and SrTiO3. She has received the Sloan Research Fellowship (2024) and ACS-PHYS Postdoctoral Award (2016).

Prof. Fredin mentors 6 graduate students and 15 undergraduates, teaches Physical Chemistry and Quantum Chemistry, and leads the Fredin Group, which develops computational tools for materials discovery.