AAAS Fellow Dave Morris

LANL News:

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has awarded the distinction of Fellow to Dave Morris, of Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Chemistry Division.

“The AAAS fellowship is a great honor that recognizes Dave’s prominence as a chemistry researcher and a scientific leader,” said Carol Burns, Deputy Principal Associate Director of the Laboratory’s Science, Technology and Engineering directorate. “His innovative contributions and insights have helped researchers worldwide to better understand the field of chemistry in two different research areas.”

Morris was nominated for his pioneering contributions in chemistry research and leadership including electronic structure and bonding in organoactinides and environmental speciation of actinides by optical spectroscopic probes.

Throughout his career, Morris made unique and significant contributions in two very distinctly different areas of chemistry. The first is in the application of spectroscopic and electrochemical methods to explain electronic structure and bonding in organometallic f-element complexes.

The second research area to which Morris has made pioneering contributions is in the development and application of electronic and vibrational spectral probes, in combination with X-ray absorption spectroscopies, to explain the partitioning of uranium in clay minerals and other important subsurface mineral phases.

The full list of 2015 AAAS Fellows can be viewed here.

About Morris

David E. Morris, Ph.D., is the division leader of the Chemistry Division at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The Chemistry Division provides mission support in nuclear weapons, global security and energy security as well as engaging in fundamental research across a broad program portfolio. 

Prior to assuming this position, Morris was the Director for the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, a Department of Energy Office of Science Nanoscale Science Research Center national user facility jointly operated by Los Alamos National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories.

Morris has been at Los Alamos since his arrival in 1984 as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow and has held a number of line and program management roles. His research interests center on fundamental and applied aspects of actinide science and have led to more than 100 peer-reviewed publications with about 3,500 citations.