Patrick Charbonneau

Professor of Chemistry

Professor Charbonneau studies soft matter. His work combines theory and simulation to understand the glass problem, protein crystallization, microphase formation, and colloidal assembly in external fields.

Appointments and Affiliations

• Professor of Chemistry
• Director of Graduate Studies of the University Program in Materials Science and Engineering
• Professor of Physics

Contact Information

• Office Location: 5329 French Science, 124 Science Drive, Durham, NC 27708
• Office Phone: +1 919 613 6261
• Email Address: patrick.charbonneau@duke.edu
• Websites:
  • Charbonneau Research Group

Education

• Ph.D. Harvard University, 2006
• B.S. McGill University (Canada), 2001

Awards, Honors, and Distinctions

• Journal of Chemical Physics Top Reviewer. Journal of Chemical Physics. 2018
• Journal of Chemical Physics Top Reviewer. Journal of Chemical Physics. 2016
• Top 20 Reviewers for 2012. Journal of Chemical Physics. 2013
• Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow. Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. 2013
• Mention of Teaching Excellence. Duke University. 2012
• Open Eye Award. American Chemical Society. 2011
• Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. National Science Foundation. 2011
• Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. Oak Ridge National Laboratory. 2009

Courses Taught

• POE 105: Spring Breakthrough
• HOUSECS 59: House Course
• HISTORY 89S: First-Year Seminar
• CHEM 89S: First-Year Seminar
• CHEM 544: Statistical Mechanics
• CHEM 543: Statistical Thermodynamics
• CHEM 496: Graduation with Distinction in Chemistry
• CHEM 494: Research Independent Study
• CHEM 493: Research Independent Study
• CHEM 394: Research Independent Study
• CHEM 393: Research Independent Study
• CHEM 295: Introduction to Research Independent Study
• CHEM 130L: The Chemistry and Physics of Cooking
• CHEM 110DL: Honors Chemistry: Core Concepts in Context

In the News

• Learning New Subjects During Spring Breakthrough 2023 (Mar 19, 2023 | Duke Today)
• Patrick Charbonneau: Seeking Science's Secrets in the Mysteries of Glass (Jun 29, 2022 | Duke Science & Technology)
• Check This Out: Molecular Chemistry Through Cooking (Mar 25, 2021)
• ‘Seeing the Invisible’ exhibit opens in the Chappell Family Gallery (Mar 7, 2020 | The Chronicle)
• Why Do You Study That? Glass (Mar 4, 2020 | Duke Today)
• Teaching a Machine to Spot a Crystal (Jun 26, 2018 | Duke Research Blog)
• Looking at Cooking as a Science Experiment (Apr 13, 2018 | Duke Research Blog)
• Cheating Time to Watch Liquids do the Slow Dance (Nov 2, 2017 | Duke Research Blog)
• Breaking Glass in Infinite Dimensions (May 30, 2017)
• Duke Professor Teams Up to Crack the Glass Problem (Apr 13, 2016)
• Visualizing how matter changes from one state to another, on an atomic level (Mar 3, 2015)
• Through the Theoretical Glass (Nov 12, 2014 | Duke Today)
• Through the Theoretical Glass (Nov 5, 2014 | American Scientist Pizza Lunch Podcast)
• When Things Get Glassy, Molecules Go Fractal (Apr 24, 2014)
• Spherical Cows Help Turn Proteins to Crystals (Nov 15, 2013 | Duke Research Blog)
• Scientists get best view yet of the structure of glass (Jul 15, 2013 | Smithsonian)
• Chemistry in the Kitchen, Cooking in the Classroom (Apr 10, 2013)
• Sloan Foundation Names Charbonneau, Lu as 2013 Research Fellows (Feb 15, 2013)

Representative Publications

• Altan, I; Charbonneau, P; James, S; Quinn, M; McManus, J; Khan, A, Data and scripts from: Using Schematic Models to Understand the Microscopic Basis for Inverted Solubility in gammaD-crystallin (2019) [10.7924/r4fq9v942] [abs].
• Berthier, L; Biroli, G; Charbonneau, P; Corwin, EI; Franz, S; Zamponi, F, Gardner physics in amorphous solids and beyond., The Journal of chemical physics, vol 151 no. 1 (2019) [10.1063/1.5097175] [abs].