Tamar Seideman (Hebrew: תמר זיידמן) is the Dow Chemical Company Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics at Northwestern University. She specialises in coherence spectroscopies and coherent control in isolated molecules and dissipative media as well as in ultrafast nanoplasmonics, current-driven phenomena in nanoelectronics and mathematical models.
Seideman was made an associate research officer at the National Research Council of Canada in 1996. She was cross-appointed as a professor of chemistry at Queen's University. Here she developed the concepts of nonadiabatic alignment and molecular focusing in laser fields and the theory of time-resolved photoelectron angular distributions.[6] She collaborated with experimentalist coworkers on the problem of the molecular phase in two-pathway excitation experiments and on current-triggered surface nanochemistry.
Seideman was made a professor of chemistry at Northwestern University in 2003.[7] Here she develops and applies quantum mechanical theories to understand phenomena including quantum transport and current-induced dynamics in molecular electronic devices; ultrafast nanoplasmonics and information guidance in the nanoscale; attosecond science and the interaction of matter with intense laser fields; and coherent control and coherence spectroscopies in isolated molecules and in
dissipative media. [8] In other research, Seideman has explored coherent control of molecular dynamics and its extension to control of transport in the nanoscale. She proposed that current in nanoscale constructs can be used to drive molecular machines.[9] Additionally, she has demonstrated it is possible to use a scanning tunnelling microscope to control surface reactions. In related work, Seideman showed that one can guide light using nanoparticle arrays to create custom nanoplasmonics.[10]
Her recent work has developed theoretical and computational models to control the nanoscale properties of material systems.[11] This has included an investigation of charge transport through molecular and nanoscale electronic materials in an effort to improve the efficiency of solar cells.[11] To understand charge transport mechanisms, she has studied optically induced tunnelling through junctions.[12] Her best known research is in the area of laser alignment. Originally introduced for isolated small molecules, this was recently extended to nonrigid molecules. dissipative media and condensed matter systems. In disordered assembly, the laser field can impart long-range orientational order to molecular layers.[13] In dense molecular assemblies, alignment can become a collective phenomenon with long range translational and orientational order.[13] In polyatomic molecules alignment can be used to control torsional motions with a variety of new applications, including control of charge transport, energy transfer, axial chirality and reactivity.[13] Seideman takes annually a visiting professor position at the Weizmann Institute of Science.
^Seideman, Tamar; Krause, Jeffrey L.; Shapiro, Moshe (1991-01-01). "Quantum theory of laser catalysis in one and three dimensions". Faraday Discussions of the Chemical Society. 91: 271–288. doi:10.1039/DC9919100271. ISSN0301-7249.
^Gordon, Robert J.; Zhu, Langchi; Seideman, Tamar (1999-12-01). "Coherent Control of Chemical Reactions". Accounts of Chemical Research. 32 (12): 1007–1016. doi:10.1021/ar970119l. ISSN0001-4842.
