Professor of Chemistry
Personal Information:
- My wife, our toddler, and I live in a first-year residence hall. Somehow, a few years in, it does not feel strange anymore.
- I often work on higher-dimensional spaces.
- I sometimes get to teach a class about the science of cooking. That said, I much prefer eating than cooking.
- I'm a scientist, but in a different context I might have become a historian. This tension is not abating with time.
Prof. Patrick Charbonneau (he/him) is originally from Montréal, and has been faculty at Duke since 2008, after spending a few years in Boston, New York, and Amsterdam. His research, which focuses on the theory of soft and disordered materials, e.g., plastics, gels, glasses, tissues, regularly takes him to Paris, Rome, Lausanne, and beyond. He also mostly teaches classes on that theme, and sometimes gets to lecture about the science of cooking (food being the tastiest of soft materials!). Exceptionally, Spring 2022, he’ll co-teach a first-year seminar (Hist/Chem89S) about the history of chemistry.
In his spare times, Prof. Charbonneau enjoys running, learning about history (local and otherwise), watching movies and documentaries, and attending concerts in Baldwin.
Patrick and his wive Geneviève have lived in Blackwell since 2017. Their son Félix joined them in 2018, and their daughter Odile in 2021.