Illinois Chemistry Professor Stephan Link has been elected a 2026 American Physical Society Fellow, a prestigious distinction conferred by the Division of Chemical Physics.
APS Fellowship recognizes society members for outstanding contributions to physics through research, teaching, applications of physics, or service. Election is highly selective, and each annual cohort of new Fellows comprises no more than half a percent of the APS’s nonstudent membership. APS announced the 2026 Fellows on Oct. 9, 2026.
Link, Charles W. and Genevieve M. Walton Endowed Professor of Chemistry, and Professor of Chemistry, was selected for "outstanding accomplishments in the steady-state and time-resolved spectroscopy and microscopy of nanostructures, relating the radiative, non-radiative, chiroptical, and mechanical properties of individual and coupled plasmonic nanoparticles to their morphology and defects."
Link specializes in plasmonic nanoparticles — metallic particles with abilities to scatter and absorb light that make them useful for applications from solar cells to imaging to cancer treatment — and techniques for seeing and studying them. His research group's overall goals are understanding the physical principles governing the interactions among plasmonic nanoparticles and their molecular environment, as well as determining emerging collective optical properties in the presence of defects. His group's research interests include photophysics and photochemistry of nanomaterials, plasmonics, solar energy conversion, single-particle imaging, and ultrafast spectroscopy.
Link is also a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He joined the Illinois Chemistry faculty in 2024, and he is also an affiliated professor in the departments of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Materials Research Laboratory.