Gary DeFotis
Garrett-Robb-Guy Professor Emeritus
Email:
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Background
B.Sc., chemistry, mathematics minor, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1968; Ph.D., physical chemistry, The University of Chicago, 1977. A thesis publication on the magnetism of solid oxygen is extensively cited. Postdoctoral research, University of Illinois at Chicago. Independent research at Michigan State University as Visiting Assistant Professor of Chemistry. Joined the College of William & Mary in 1980; promoted to associate professor in 1984, to full professor in 1989. Visiting senior scientist at Service de Physique de l'Etat Condense, CEA-Saclay, France, 1994; The Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, 1994; the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (RIKEN), Saitama, Japan, 2000; the Physics Department, University of California, Santa Cruz, 2007. Held Garrett-Robb-Guy Chair in Chemistry, College of William & Mary, two separate terms. Garrett-Robb-Guy Professor Emeritus of Chemistry.
Taught physical chemistry, junior level and advanced, general chemistry and advanced inorganic chemistry. Supervised the undergraduate Honors thesis research and senior research of over one hundred students and co-published some seventy peer-reviewed scientific papers with students. Areas of research include magnetochemistry, magnetic phase transitions, low dimensional magnetic systems, and spin glasses. Primary research undertakings directed at an extensive series of pentacoordinate ferric compounds, an extensive family of quasi-2D magnets, a new 3d transition metal halide monohydrate series, a great variety of mixed magnets, and a series of deuterated magnetic systems. Research supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (six), the Petroleum Research Fund (seven), the Research Corporation, Jeffress Memorial Trust, and IEEE Magnetics Society.
Scholarship and teaching recognized by the College of William & Mary with the Alumni Association teaching award, 1982; the Phi Beta Kappa Award for the Advancement of Scholarship, 1987; election to Phi Beta Kappa as faculty initiate, 1989; and the Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence, 2010. The first faculty member at a public institution to be awarded a Dreyfus Mentorship/Fellowship, 1989. Recipient of the American Chemical Society Award for Research at an Undergraduate Institution, 1997 and the Outstanding Faculty Award of the Commonwealth of Virginia, 1998.
