Bern Kohler is Professor and Ohio Eminent Scholar in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He and his co-workers study the excited states of nucleic acids and melanin pigments using ultrafast laser spectroscopy. Further research projects include the study of organic and inorganic nanomaterials of interest for solar energy conversion and photocatalysis. Prof. Kohler received a B.S. degree in chemistry from Stanford University (1985), a Ph.D. in physical chemistry from MIT (1990), and he completed postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich and the University of California, San Diego. Prof. Kohler is a fellow of the AAAS and the winner of the 2017 Inter-American Photochemical Society Award in Photochemistry. He is a former President of the Telluride Science Research Center. Prof. Kohler is currently an Associate Editor for the journal Photochemistry and Photobiology.