Chris Elles

Hometown: Conifer, Colorado

Chris earned a B.S. in chemistry from Colorado State University in 1999, where he studied non-aqueous reverse micelles with Nancy Levinger, and a Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin in 2004, where he studied vibrational relaxation dynamics with F. Fleming Crim. His postdoctoral research on the two-photon ionization of liquid water included work at both Argonne National Laboratory and with Stephen Bradforth at the University of Southern California. In 2009, he joined the University of Kansas where his research group uses ultrafast spectroscopy to study the excited-state dynamics of molecules in condensed phases. His research interests include the dynamics of molecules in highly excited electronic states and the development of ultrafast spectroscopy techniques to study chemical reactions. Chris served as a rotating Program Director at the National Science Foundation in 2020-2022.