Rate My Professor William Gelbart

Gelbart was trained as a theoretical physical chemist in molecular spectroscopy and photophysics, with research evolving through statistical physics of simple fluids near critical points to complex fluids, including liquid crystal phase transitions, micellar solutions, thin films, colloidal suspensions, and high polymers. During his 1999-2000 sabbatical at the Curie Institute in Paris, he began studying simple viruses, directing a research program in physical virology that treats viruses as physical objects and employs virus-like particles as delivery vehicles for genes and drugs. Key publications include "Thermodynamic control of gold nanocrystal size: experiment and theory" (Journal of Physical Chemistry, 1995), "DNA packaging and ejection forces in bacteriophage" (PNAS, 2001), "Origin of icosahedral symmetry in viruses" (PNAS, 2004), and "Physical chemistry of DNA viruses" (Annual Review of Physical Chemistry, 2009). He is an elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has received Sloan, Dreyfus, and Guggenheim Fellowships, the Lennard-Jones Medal of the British Royal Society of Chemistry, the American Chemical Society "Liquids" Prize, the UCLA Glenn T. Seaborg Medal, and the University Distinguished Teaching Award, along with numerous endowed lectureships. In 2016, a Festschrift issue of the Journal of Physical Chemistry B and a symposium at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics honored his contributions.