Kristen Fichthorn. Kristen A. Fichthorn is an American chemical engineer and condensed matter physicist

whose research involves computational simulation, multiscale modeling, and molecular dynamics of interfaces, thin films, colloids, catalysis, nanostructures, and other material processes. She is the Merrell Fenske Professor of Chemical Engineering and Professor of Physics at Pennsylvania State University.

Early life and education
Fichthorn has a 1985 bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Pennsylvania, and completed her Ph.D. in chemical engineering in 1989 at the University of Michigan.

After a year of postdoctoral research at the University of California, Santa Barbara, supported by IBM, Fichthorn joined the Pennsylvania State University faculty as an assistant professor in 1990.

Since 1986, Fichthorn has authored or co-authored 292 articles and papers on interfaces and surfaces.

Career and research 
Fichthorn's research focus on applying atomistic simulation techniques, such as Monte Carlo methods and molecular dynamics, quantum mechanics, and condensed-matter theory to study materials interfaces.

Fichthorn's research interest include:

 Computational Materials and Nanomaterials
 Multi-scale materials simulation
 Quantum density functional theory
 Molecular dynamics
 Monte Carlo analysis
 Thin film and crystal growth
 Liquid-solid interfaces

Publications 

 Miao Song, Jianming Cui, Colin Ophus, Jaewon Lee, Tianyu Yan, Kristen A Fichthorn and Dongsheng Li, 2024, "Tensile Strain Induces Consecutive Dislocation Slipping, Plane Gliding, and Subsequent De-twinning of Penta-Twinned Nanoparticles", Nano Letters, 24, (4), pp. 1153–1159
 Tianyu Yan, Huaizhong Zhang and Kristen A Fichthorn, 2023, "Minimum Free-Energy Shapes of Ag Nanocrystals: Vacuum vs Solution", ACS Nano, 17, (19), pp. 19288-19304
 Jianming Cui, Saksham Phul and Kristen A Fichthorn, 2023, "Diffusion Growth Mechanism of Penta-Twinned Ag Nanocrystals from Decahedral Seeds", Journal of Chemical Physics, 158, (16), pp. 164707 (10 pages)
 Dongsheng Li, Qian Chen, Jaehun Chun, Kristen A Fichthorn, James De Yoreo and Haimei Zheng, 2023, "Nanoparticle Assembly and Oriented Attachment: Correlating Controlling Factors to the Resulting Structures", Chemical Reviews, 123, (6), pp. 3127-3159

Awards and recognitions
Fichthorn was named as a Fellow of the American Physical Society (APS) in 2010, after a nomination from the APS Division of Condensed Matter Physics, "for simulations that revealed new phenomena in the kinetics of reaction systems, self-assembly of nanostructures, and diffusion in mesoporous systems". She became a Fellow of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers in 2017.

She was the recipient of the 2019 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, and one of two 2020 Langmuir Lecturers of the American Chemistry Society Colloid & Surface Division.

She received NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award in 1990 which is recognized by Penn State for her outstanding research and teaching.

Further honors 
 Langmuir Lectureship, Division of Colloid and Surface Science, American Chemical Society, August 2020
 Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, August 2019
 Premier Research Award, Penn State Engineering Alumni Society, October 2017
 Fellow, American Institute of Chemical Engineers, June 2017

References

External links
Fichthorn group: Multiscale materials simulation

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
American chemical engineers
21st-century American women engineers
21st-century American engineers
Women chemical engineers
American physicists
American women physicists
University of Pennsylvania alumni
University of Michigan alumni
Pennsylvania State University faculty
Fellows of the American Physical Society
American lecturers