Dr. David J. Morrissey, professor of chemistry, is a prominent leader in the area of nuclear chemistry research that centers on the production and use of the most exotic, short-lived nuclei and, in turn, this knowledge is applied to produce beams of exotic radioactive ions. Dr. Morrissey was part of a team of scientists at the MSU National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) that first developed the instruments to provide beams of exotic nuclei for research and then, based on that, helped to successfully land the project to design and build the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) at MSU. David holds joint appointments in the Department of Chemistry, FRIB and NSCL. He served as associate director for nuclear science at the NSCL from 1995-1999 and 2009-2012, and as associate director for operations since 2015.

Dr. David received a B.S. with distinction in chemistry from the Pennsylvania State University, his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory.

Throughout his career, Dr. David Morrissey has served as chair of a number of international conferences on nuclear science, and as chair of the American Chemical Society, Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology. His honors include the 2011 Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry given by the ACS Division of Nuclear Chemistry and Technology.