Branka Maria Ladanyi (September 7, 1947 – January 30, 2016)[1] was a Yugoslavian-born Croatian-American physical chemist, who spent her career in the department of chemistry at Colorado State University.

She returned to Yale as a research associate until joining the faculty as an assistant professor in the department of chemistry at Colorado State University in fall of 1979.

In 2007, she was named interim editor-in-chief of the Journal of Chemical Physics, the first woman to serve in this capacity; she reverted to associate editor again in 2009 until 2010.

[4] Her work elucidated how this response depends on molecular properties such as shape, polarizability anisotropy and polarity, intermolecular interactions such as hydrogen bonding, and fluid thermodynamic parameters such as density, temperature and composition.

Ladanyi's work improved our understanding of the molecular mechanisms of solvation dynamics and their dependence on the solute, the solvent, and the perturbation in solute-solvent interactions.

[7] She developed methods, including instantaneous normal mode analysis, to uncover mechanistic information about solvation in systems that exhibit approximately linear response.

[10] She applied this simple model to solvation dynamics in confined environments, predicting that chromophore-surfactant interactions can lead to dramatically different results for solutes that repelled by and attracted to the surfactant layer.

[11] She also showed that solute motion relative to the interface plays a role, opening up a relaxation channel that is absent in bulk liquids.