About
Dr. Peter K. Dorhout serves as Professor of Chemistry and Vice President for Research at Iowa State University and an Affiliate of Ames National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy National Laboratory. Prior to joining Iowa State in 2021, he served five years as Vice President for Research following four years as dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Kansas State University. He served as the Interim Provost at Colorado State University- Pueblo (2011), preceded by 20 years at Colorado State University-Fort Collins as Vice Provost for Graduate Studies, Assistant Vice President for Research, and Professor of Chemistry. Dorhout served as a collaborator at Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1987 through 2011 and is the current past chair of the Chemistry Section for the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Dr. Dorhout has led professional organizations and foundations as a member of the Boards
of Directors for the American Chemical Society, where he was the 2018 President, the
Research Corporation for Science Advancement, the Iowa State University Research Park,
the Iowa Innovation Council, the Science Center of Iowa, the Kansas State University
Research Foundation, K-State Innovation Partners, the Coronado Area Council Scouting
BSA Executive Board (and President), and the Mid-Iowa Council Scouting BSA Executive
Board. He currently serves as the co-chair of the Safe and Inclusive Working Group of the
Council on Research Executive Committee, Association of Public and Land-grant
Universities.
Dr. Dorhout is a recognized expert in solid state and nuclear materials science and
environmental chemistry. He has had active research programs in solid-state f-element and
radiochemistry, and nanomaterials science. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed
journal articles, book chapters, and reviews while presenting over 130 international and
national invited lectures on his chemistry and related topics, including laboratory safety.
Dr. Dorhout earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, a doctorate in inorganic chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Madison
and served as a postdoctoral scientist at Ames Lab at Iowa State. His list of professional
awards includes Fellow of the American Chemical Society, Fellow of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science, Research Corporation Cottrell Scholar, Camille
Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, A. P. Sloan Foundation Fellow, National Science Foundation
CAREER Fellow, and the ACS-ExxonMobil Faculty Award in Solid State Chemistry.