Joshua Baraban smiles in an outdoor setting.

Joshua Baraban (PhD '13)

Image courtesy of the Baraban Group Website.

Joshua Baraban (PhD ’13) awarded the Israel Chemical Society’s Prize for Outstanding Young Scientist Award

by Danielle Doughty | Department of Chemistry |
Categories: Alumni, Awards, MIT News

Baraban, an alumnus of Professor Robert W. Field's research group, is an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel.

Joshua Baraban (PhD ’13), an alumnus of Robert T. Haslam and Bradley Dewey Professor Emeritus Robert W. Field‘s research group, has been awarded the Israel Chemical Society (ICS)‘s Prize for Outstanding Young Scientist. Baraban, an Associate Professor of Chemistry at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheva, Israel, was selected for his work combining experiments and theory to study radical and ionic processes at high temperatures, plasma chemistry, and spectroscopically characterizing transition states.

The ICS  is a registered organization dedicated to advancing pure and applied chemistry, both nationally and internationally. It covers all fields of chemistry, including organic, bioorganic, physical, inorganic, bioinorganic, analytical, computational, industrial, medicinal, solid state, theoretical, and chemistry education.

Baraban’s research aims to create spectroscopic techniques to characterize reactive molecules in their native, exotic environments, such as at high temperatures and plasmas, revealing fundamental quantum aspects of these species’ chemical properties and dynamics. Inherent in his group’s efforts are designing novel sources for radicals and pursuing new (often laser-based) methods for their detection. He has won several research grants, including ERC Starting, NSF-BSF, Pazy, Ministry of Energy, and ISF. His list of awards includes the Alon fellowship for new faculty members (2019), the Krill Prize for Excellence in Scientific Research (2021), and the Toronto Prize for Excellence in Research (2024).