| Peter M. Rentzepis | |
| Birth Date: | 11 December 1934 |
| Birth Place: | Kalamata, Greece |
| Nationality: | American |
| Field: | Physical chemistry |
| Doctoral Advisor: | Martin Ryle |
| Notable Students: | Villy Sundström |
Peter Michael Rentzepis (born 11 December 1934) is a Greek-born American physical chemist.
Rentzepis is a native of Kalamata born on 11 December 1934,[1] Rentzepis attended the 1st Lykion in his hometown and graduated from Denison University and Syracuse University in the United States before pursuing a doctorate at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom, graduating in 1963.[2] [3] Rentzepis, who joined Bell Labs in 1963, after two years at General Electric,[4] led the physical and inorganic chemistry research department at Bell between 1973 and 1985, and taught at University of California, Irvine from 1974 to 2014,[2] serving in a presidential chair professorship from 1985.[3] In 2014, Rentzepis was appointed TEES Distinguished Professor at Texas A&M University.[2] While at the university, he submitted an application in 1989 and published after patents (US5268862A [5] & US5325324A [6] - Three-dimensional optical memory) approval in 1994. Based on research under grant No. F30602-97-C-0014 between the United States Air Force (USAF) acting through its Office of Special Research (AFOSR) and The Regents of the University of California.
Rentzepis was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1972,[7] and a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences in 1978.[8] [9] He won the 1982 Peter Debye Award from the American Chemical Society,[10] followed in 1989 by the Irving Langmuir Award from the American Physical Society,[11] and in 2001 by the Tolman Award of the ACS Southern California Section.[3]