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Stephen Kukolich, (born February 3, 1940) is an experimental physical chemist in the Chemistry and Biochemistry Department at the University of Arizona. His primary research is high-resolution rotational spectroscopy to determine molecular structures and electronic properties of molecules and complexes. A two-cavity molecular beam maser was developed at M.I.T. and a very large cavity Balle-Flygare spectrometer was constructed at the University of Arizona.

Education and Career

He entered M.I.T in 1958 and graduated in Physics in 1962. He continued studies at M.I.T., graduating with a Sc.D. in Physics in 1966. The thesis project was on accurate measurements of ammonia hyperfine structure with a high-resolution two-cavity maser spectrometer. After 2 years as an instructor in Physics, the following year was spent collaborating with Willis H. Flygare on molecular Zeeman effect measurements. He returned to M.I.T., in the Chemistry Department, as assistant professor in 1969. He moved to the University of Arizona, Chemistry Department in 1974 and became a full professor in 1979.

Research

Early research yielded measurements of ammonia inversion frequencies and hyperfine structure with high accuracy and precision using the two-cavity maser spectrometer developed at M.I.T.  The high resolution allowed measurements of deuterium quadrupole coupling for many small molecules. Most of the published microwave structures for transition metal complexes were determined from measurements by his microwave group at the University of Arizona. The structures for many hydrogen-bonded and other weakly-bound complexes were determined from the microwave spectra. Some hydrogen-bonded complexes are not simply static structures but may undergo internal motions involving the hydrogen bonds. This was demonstrated by measuring the concerted proton tunneling frequency for the formic acid - propiolic acid complex in a pulsed-beam spectrometer.