Dr. Gary Wiederrecht is the interim director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials (CNM) and the Nanoscience and Technology (NST) division. He served as deputy director since July 2020 and as interim deputy director since October 2019. Dr. Wiederrecht first joined CNM and NST in 2006 as the founding group leader of the nanophotonics group. Before coming to CNM and NST, he worked in Argonne’s chemistry division, where he conducted research in artificial photosynthesis and nanophotonics. He initially joined Argonne in 1992 as a postdoctoral fellow and became a scientific staff member in 1995, rising to senior scientist in 2013.

A fellow of the American Physical Society since 2016 and a graduate of the Strategic Laboratory Leadership Program, developed by the UChicago Booth School of Business, Dr. Wiederrecht has authored or co-authored more than 160 peer-reviewed research articles and has six patents. He has received an R&D100 Award, the U.S. Department of Energy Young Scientist Award, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, and the Argonne National Laboratory Distinguished Service Award. He holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of California at Berkeley (1987) and a doctorate in physical chemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1992). 

His research interests center on ultrafast excitation processes in nanoparticles, solar energy conversion and light harvesting, novel optical properties of strongly coupled hybrid nanostructures, and quantum optics.