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.
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 President (2017-19), the Research Corporation for Science Advancement (Board Chair 2024-26), 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 has served on the Executive Committee of Council on Research, Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, and has been an active CoR participant. He also led the proposals for the designation of Innovation and Economic Prosperity (Talent, Place) for Kansas State University and the University’s K-State 105 Economic Prosperity project. He has served as the chair of the Chemistry Section for the American Association for the Advancement of Science and currently serves as a Member at Large on the Executive Committee.
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.