B. Montgomery Pettitt is the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Professor of Chemistry and Professor of Physics, Computer Science, Biology and Biochemistry at The University of Houston. His research ranges from modeling the behavior of polar molecules in the liquid state to theoretical work aimed at elucidating the nature of biomolecules tethered to high tech chip surfaces. Using biological molecules tethered to chips creates technology for medical diagnosis, drug discovery and even computing. Yet, a fundamental problem is the lack of theories capable of making accurate predictions to be used in device design. His theoretical research interests led to the development of methods for calculating binding constants, phase behavior, internal conformational structure and equilibria of biopolymers near surfaces and in aqueous solution. Conformational stability studies rely on the development of advanced theoretical and simulation methods that are applied to multicomponent solutions as well as fundamental work on the nature of the hydrophobic effect and wetting of surfaces. A topic of current interest is to understand how DNA strands find their complements and form Watson-Crick duplexes in solution. The opposite process of DNA melting is equally important for understanding natural events like DNA transcription, replication, as well as processes of interest in biotechnology. Pettitt and coworkers have recently proposed detailed mechanisms for hybridization and melting. Notably, we found the processes are not the simple reverse of one and other but have different pathways. Other specific recent research interests include understanding the structure of proteins in solution and on surfaces; predicting the thermodynamics of solutions, including water, ions, polar biomolecular solutes and other condensed phase systems via theoretical methods; and development of methods to compare and search genomes and other complex systems of information.