Like a beam of light against the black background of the night sky, chemistry Professor Jeffrey Cina’s research has caught the eye of the scientific community. Through his work with ultrafast electronic energy transfer, Cina is making significant scientific headway in understanding photosynthesis, the mysterious process that gives plants life.
In recognition of the value of his work to the intellectual community, the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded Cina with a 2003 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship Award on April 10.
Cina’s research focuses on how atoms move during chemical processes. Specifically, he uses ultrafast spectroscopy to examine how molecules interact with light. Cina and his research assistants send short pulses of light, moving at many trillionths of a second, through matter and record how molecules rotate.
Cina is one of only two people in the Northwest to be awarded the Guggenheim this year, and only 184 people out of 3,200 applicants from the United States and Canada were given this prestigious award.
The Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was established in 1925 by Simon Guggenheim, a former U.S. senator, in honor of his son John, who died in 1922. The award is given to individuals from all academic disciplines, including visual and literary arts, as well as physical sciences, with the idea of allowing scholars a chance to further their studies. Recipients may use the award to promote their work in any way they choose.
The Guggenheim list of fellows includes notable individuals such as Joyce Carol Oates, Ansel Adams, Langston Hughes and Henry Kissinger. Past University recipients include creative writing professors Ehud Havazelet and Dorianne Laux, and biology professor Monte Westerfield.
Lorraine Davis, vice president of the Office of Academic Affairs, said winning the Guggenheim is an important accomplishment for an individual and for the campus community because it confirms the strength of the University as an academic institution.
“An award like this is a great achievement because it validates a faculty member’s work and shows they have demonstrated exceptional scholarship and creativity,” Davis said.
Cina’s research has great significance for the study of photosynthesis. Ultrafast spectroscopy allows scientists to look at how light is changed into chemical energy within the reaction centers of cell membranes.
Cina will receive $35,000 and plans to use the money to travel to universities in California and Mexico City, where he will collaborate with other researchers. Cina said he’s looking forward to working with a diverse group of scientists.

“One of the scientists I’ll be working with is Armenian, another is British, and of course I’ll work with Mexican scientists in Mexico,” Cina said. “The scientific community is really modeling a global collaboration.”
Cina is an accomplished chemist, but one of his true loves is teaching. Mary Rohrdanz, a graduate chemistry student and Cina’s research assistant, said he is an effective teacher because he understands how the minds of his students work. Rohrdanz has worked closely with Cina for the past five years.
“What makes Jeff a good teacher is that he wants to make sure his students understand concepts before he moves on,” Rohrdanz said. “He is not only a good scientist, but a good human being.”
Before coming to the University in 1996, Cina taught at the University of Chicago for eight years. Though he will take time off in the coming months to take his ideas south, he says he plans to continue teaching.
“What teaching does, other than the pleasure and satisfaction of working with young people, is that it grounds you in your own research,” said Cina. “When I teach something like basic chemistry, it allows me to see the depth of the subject.”