Education B.A. Douglass College, Rutgers University (1976) Ph.D. Columbia University (1981) NSF Postdoctoral Fellow, AT&T Bell Laboratories (1981-82) Honors and Awards Camille and Henry Dreyfus Young Faculty Award (1982), Teacher-Scholar Award (1986) Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow (1987) Fellow of the American Physical Society (1993), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1997), and the American Chemical Society (2010) Guggenheim Fellowship (2002-03) Visiting Miller Research Professor, Berkeley (2003) Bourke Lectureship, Faraday Division of the Royal Society of Chemistry (2005) Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2008) Francis P. Garvan-John M. Olin Medal, American Chemical Society (2014) Editor-in-Chief, The Journal of Chemical Physics (2009-present)

Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry/Laser Chemistry and Spectroscopy

F. Liu, J. M. Beames, A. S. Petit, A. B. McCoy, and M. I. Lester, “Infrared-driven unimolecular reaction of CH3CHOO Criegee intermediates to OH radical products”, Science 345, 1596-1598 (2014).

J. H. Lehman and M. I. Lester, “Dynamical outcomes of quenching: Reflections on a conical intersection”, Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 65, 537-55 (2014).

J. H. Lehman, H. Li, J. M. Beames and M. I. Lester, “Communication: Ultraviolet photodissociation dynamics of the simplest Criegee intermediate CH2OO”, J. Chem. Phys. 139, 141103 (2013).

J. M. Beames, F. Liu, L. Lu, and M. I. Lester, “Ultraviolet spectrum and photochemistry of the simplest Criegee intermediate CH2OO”, J. Am. Chem. Soc. (Communication) 134, 20045-48 (2012).

J. H. Lehman, M. I. Lester, and D. H. Yarkony, “Reactive quenching of OH A2Σ+ by O2 and CO: Experimental and nonadiabatic theoretical studies of H- and O-atom product channels”, J. Chem. Phys. 137, 094312 (2012).

J. M. Beames, F. Liu, M. I. Lester, and C. Murray, “Communication: A new spectroscopic window on hydroxyl radicals using UV+VUV resonant ionization”, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 241102 (2011).

J. M. Beames, M. I. Lester, C. Murray, M. E. Varner, and J. F. Stanton, “Analysis of the HOOO Torsional Potential”, J. Chem. Phys. 134, 044304 (2011).

C. Murray, E. L. Derro, T. D. Sechler, and M. I. Lester, “Weakly bound molecules in the atmosphere – a case study of HOOO”, Acc. Chem. Res. 42, 419-427 (2009).

E. L. Derro, T. D. Sechler, C. Murray, and M. I. Lester, “Observation of combination bands of the HOOO and DOOO radicals using infrared action spectroscopy”, J. Chem. Phys. 128, 244313 (2008).

B. A. O’Donnell, E. X. J. Li, M. I. Lester, and J. S. Francisco, “Spectroscopic identification and stability of the intermediate in the OH + HONO2 reaction”, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 105, 12678-12683 (2008).

I. M. Konen, I. B. Pollack, E. X. J. Li, M. I. Lester, M. E. Varner, and J. F. Stanton, "Infrared overtone spectroscopy and unimolecular decay dynamics of peroxynitrous acid", J. Chem. Phys. 122, 094320 (2005).