Paul Barbara, Professor of Chemistry at The University of Texas, Austin, USA, and Member of the Editorial Advisory Board of ChemPhysChem, passed away on October 31, 2010, due to complications following a cardiac arrest. His death has taken away an outstanding chemist and a great educator and researcher. Barbara, who held the Richard J. V. Johnson Welch Regents Chair in Chemistry at UT Austin, was also founder and director of the famous Center for Nano and Molecular Science and Technology (CNM).

Barbara was particularly interested in understanding the molecular structure and dynamics of complex chemical systems. Together with his colleagues, he developed and applied new techniques to investigate such systems. In recent work, he probed the molecular arrangement of individual polymer molecules to explain their behavior in complex environments, such as plastic solar cells. He also performed ultrafast measurements to study proton- and electron-transfer reactions, the hydrated electron, and intermediates in the reverse transcription mechanism of HIV-1.

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