His broad area of interest is in understanding the mechanism by which molecular machines operate, and specifically, the process of mechano-chemical conversion. His research group works on all facets of research in this area: design and construction of instrumentation, development of biological systems for single-molecule manipulation, and quantitative analysis and modeling of collected data. Chemla, who joined the Department of Physics in 2007, is a member of the Center for the Physics of Living Cells and has been recognized with a Sloan Research Fellowship, an NSF CAREER Award, and a Center for Advanced Study appointment at Illinois. He has also appeared on the list of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Students.