The Temple Materials Institute is the focal point for materials research at Temple University.
TMI associated faculty pursue research in the design, synthesis, characterization and modeling of advanced materials that will impact the vitally important themes of energy, sustainability, and national security. TMI develops and operates shared computational and experimental facilities for materials design and characterization.
TMI sponsored research is organized under the umbrella of strategic thrust areas plus selected interdisciplinary seed projects. The TMI nurtures collaborative materials research with regional, national, and international institutions, including universities, national laboratories, and industry. Members of the TMI are actively engaged in engagement activities that involve undergraduates as well as K-12 students and teachers in the greater Philadelphia region and beyond.
Meet Our Director
Michael L. Klein
Dean, College of Science and Technology Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science
Citations 114665 | h-index 127 | 17 Awards and Honors
Michael Lawrence Klein (born March 13, 1940, in London, England) is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science and Director of the Institute for Computational Molecular Science in the College of Science and Technology at Temple University in Philadelphia, US. He was previously the Hepburn Professor of Physical Science in the Center for Molecular Modeling at the University of Pennsylvania. Currently, he serves as the Dean of the College of Science and Technology and has since 2013.
Klein, a British native, was naturalized in the United States in 1993. Klein obtained a B.Sc. from the University of Bristol in 1961, followed by a Ph.D. in 1964. His research career includes the fields of chemistry and physics. Klein was a CIBA-Geigy Research Fellow of Physics at the University of Genoa in Italy from 1964-1965. Then went on to complete his chemistry research as an ICI Research Fellow at the University of Bristol from 1965-1967. His education and career then moved to the United States in 1967 where he served as a Research Associate of Physics at Rutgers University in New Jersey.
Klein was a researcher at the National Research Council of Canada from 1968-1987 and joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania in 1987. Klein’s research in computational chemistry, particularly statistical mechanics, intermolecular interactions, and modeling of condensed phases and biophysical systems, is among the most highly cited in the field. He received the Aneesur Rahman prize in 1999, which is the highest honor given by the American Physical Society for work in computational physics, and was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences in 2009.
Klein has advanced the field of computer simulation and modelling of molecular systems over a broad front. His early works focused on developing pragmatic intermolecular force fields to be used in computer simulation Monte Carlo and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of molecular systems, such as water and aqueous solutions. His pioneering simulation studies of surfactants, lipid membranes, and membrane-bound ion channels are noteworthy.