PNNL

Congratulations to Dr. Sotiris Xantheas on being selected as a visiting professor at Tokyo Tech's World Research Hub Initiative. The hub's leaders invite world-class scientists to share their experience and expertise. As a member of the hub, Xantheas will work with experimental groups in Japan and theory groups in Canada to elucidate the biological function of serotonin and nicotine by combining experimental infrared spectroscopic measurements with ab initio electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. He will study how certain metals interact selectively with serotonin, a chemical that helps relay signals in the brain and affects moods, appetites and sleep. He will also study how nicotine and nicotine analogues bind in the brain and cause addiction.

In addition, Xantheas will develop research areas, and interact with graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. As a mentor, he'll work with students on writing journal articles. He'll draw on his expertise as an author and on his experience on the advisory boards for The Journal of Chemical Physics, Chemical Physics Letters and The Journal of Physical Chemistry.

Xantheas' work has garnered honors in Europe, North America, and Asia. To name a few, he received the Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel Research Award from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the Marie Curie Fellowship. He is a Fellow in Japan's Society for the Promotion of Science, American Physical Society, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Visiting Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at the Technical University of Munich at Garching.

Xantheas has a joint appointment with the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the University of Washington. He is also an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Washington State University.

Acknowledgments

Xantheas leads and participates on numerous research projects, including research funded by the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science.