2010 Hans and Marlies Zimmer International Scholar

Christian Reber grew up in Switzerland, where he received his education in chemistry at the Universität Bern, specializing in inorganic chemistry. In 1989, he obtained his Ph.D. degree with a thesis on crystalline compounds of early first row d-block metals, work directed by Professor Hans U. Gdel. He then moved to North America to join Professor Jeffrey I. Zink's group at the University of California, Los Angeles for postdoctoral studies focused on excited electronic states of metal compounds probed by spectroscopic techniques. During this time, he also learned to apply theoretical models based on time-dependent quantum mechanics. Reber joined the faculty of the Université de Montréal in 1991 where he is currently a Professor of Chemistry, with an additional appointment since 2003 as Adjunct Professor at McGill University.

Research in the Reber group is aimed at the preparation, detailed exploration and understanding of the electronic structure of molecular solids. A unique combination of spectroscopic methods is used, consisting of steady-state and time-resolved luminescence, absorption and micro-Raman techniques, all at variable temperature and pressure. The spectroscopic results are relevant to many applications, ranging from new optical materials to chemical reactivity, making him and his team sought-after research collaborators.

Reber's honors include a CNC-IUPAC travel award (1997), invited faculty fellowships at Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg (1998), Universität Bern (1999), Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 (2004), UCLA (2007), Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse 3 (2008) and the Gerhard Herzberg Award of the Canadian Society for Spectroscopy (2007).