Heller Accepts Tenured Post

A University of Washington physicist has accepted a tenured position in Harvard's physics and Astronomy Departments, according to the departments.

Eric J. Heller, a specialist in time dependent descriptions of quantum, systems, will arrive at Harvard this summer and begin teaching next spring, said Kate Kirby, assistant director of the Harvard College Observatory.

Phillips Professor of Astronomy Alexander Dalgarno said that Heller, who is a professor of chemistry and physics at Washington, Is "a great acquisition for the University."

Heller's other specialties include wave-packet dynamics in molecular scattering and association and the explanation of classically chaotic systems, Kirby said.

"He is a pioneer in the application of semi-classical methods and has been exploring the fundamental relationships between semi classical and quantum mechanics," she said.

Heller has taught at the University of Washington since 1984, and is known as an "excellent teacher and great communicator," Dalgarno said. Heller also worked at University of California, Los Angles, and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The Physicist has won numerous awards, including a National Science Foundation Special Creativity Grant.

Heller earned his Ph.D. from Harvard and did his undergraduate work at the University of Minnesota. He has a wife and three children.