Wendell Hill

Wendell Hill was named director of the Institute for Physical Science and Technology (IPST), effective July 1, 2026. Hill joined IPST in 1982 and was promoted to professor in 1996 and directs the institute’s chemical physics graduate program.

A Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Physical Society, Hill is an affiliate professor in the Department of Physics and has been a Fellow in the Joint Quantum Institute since 2006. His research focuses on laser-matter interaction under extreme conditions—ultra-fast, ultra-intense and ultra-cold. His recent work includes ultracold atoms to study fundamental quantum features, attosecond pulses to probe quantum-correlated electron dynamics in atoms and molecules, and super-intense laser pulses to investigate ephemeral particle-antiparticle pairs that reveal the quantum nature of the vacuum.

He has published more than 150 articles and advised and mentored dozens of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students and junior faculty members. 

He received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Presidential Young Investigator Award (now known as the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers) and the designation of Science Maker by the History Makers. He previously served as director of the NSF’s Atomic, Molecular and Optical Program (2010-12) and as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Centro de Lasers Pulsados in Spain (2014-22) and the National Academies’ Board on Physics and Astronomy (2016-22).

Hill earned his bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of California, Irvine in 1974 and his Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University in 1980.