Dr. Jeffrey I. Zink

Jeffrey I. Zink is an inorganic chemist who has carried out pioneering studies in the areas of spectroscopy of metal-containing compounds and of inorganic optical materials. Zink has identified the origin and mechanisms of triboluminescence (emission of light caused by mechanical stress). His fundamental work on excited state distortions led to the measurement and explanation of the origins of unusual interference effects in the spectra of metal complexes caused by coupled states. Most recently, he made the first optical materials and biosensors using encapsulated proteins in sol-gel silicate glass. Zink is a professor of chemistry at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the author of more than 175 publications. He has received an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Research Award (1979), a Guggenheim Fellowship (1987), the Hanson-Dow distinguished Teaching Award (1994), and a U.S. Department of Energy Materials Science Award (1996). Born January 8, 1945, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Zink received his B.S. (1966) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Ph.D. (1970) from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign