Peter T. Cummings is the John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He also holds the position of Principal Scientist in the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as well as founding director of the Nanomaterials Theory Institute, the CNMS theory program. His research interests include statistical mechanics, molecular simulation, computational materials science, computational and theoretical nanoscience, and computational biology. He is the author of over 320 refereed journal publications and the recipient of many awards, including the 1998 Alpha Chi Sigma award of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE), the 2007 AIChE Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum Award, and the 2010 AIChE Founders Award for Outstanding Contributions to the Field of Chemical Engineering. He has been elected fellow of the American Physical Society, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers.