Prof. Prashant Jain earned an undergraduate degree in polymer engineering. Because of his strong interest in physics and chemistry, he switched disciplines when he started graduate school at Georgia Tech. With M. A. El-Sayed at Georgia Tech, Prof. Jain investigated the flow of energy and charge carriers in photoexcited metal nanoparticles using ultrafast spectroscopy and theoretical electrodynamics. Following his PhD, Prof. Jain moved to Harvard as the first postdoctoral researcher in the lab of Adam E. Cohen and helped launch a research program on magneto-optical and chiro-optical phenomena. An offer of a prestigious Miller Research Fellowship took Prof. Jain to UC Berkeley, where he studied quantum dots in the lab of Paul Alivisatos.

Prof. Jain directs a laboratory on nanoscale light-matter interactions at UIUC, where he is the G. L. Clark Professor of Physical Chemistry. He is also a University Scholar, Professor of the Materials Research Lab, and an affiliate faculty member of Physics and Illinois Quantum Information Science and Engineering (IQUIST). His lab is best known for using concentrated photons for artificial photosynthesis, inducing emergent chemical reactivity, and for probing the molecular-level functioning of catalysts. His lab has also discovered new  phases that exist only on the nanoscale and expanded plasmon resonances to non-metallic nanostructures.

Prof. Jain teaches graduate & undergraduate physical chemistry for which he has received recognition, including the LAS Dean's Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Campus Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teachibg, School of Chemical Sciences Faculty Teaching Award, and a mention on UIUC's Teachers Ranked as Excellent list for every course he has taught. He is the lead developer of nanoDDSCAT & nanoDDSCAT+, an open-source computational toolkit for nano-optics and photonics, which has been used to launch nearly a million simulations by users across the world. Prof. Jain is a member of the Editorial Advisory Boards of JACS and Journal of Chemical Physics. He currently serves as Associate Head of Undergraduate Instruction, member of the faculty hiring and promotion committee, and the Diversity Advocate for the department. He has previously served as Associate Head of Major Projects in the Department of Chemistry and Chair of the Chemical Physics PhD program. Prof. Jain has published over 120 peer-reviewed journal articles and given over 120 invited/award/keynote/plenary lectures. His research has been cited 33,600 times and featured in the science media.