We are very pleased to announce two new faculty will be joining the Department of Chemistry this summer 2015. We welcome Dr. V. Sara Thoi and Dr. Thomas J. Kempa.

Dr. Sara Thoi received her PhD from University of California, Berkeley, with Christopher J. Chang and is currently completing her postdoctoral studies at California Institute of Technology with Sossina M. Haile.  Sara’s research interests include coordination chemistry, materials synthesis, electron and ion transport, photochemistry, and electrocatalysis. Sara’s research will be focused on using molecular design in porous materials for the development of sustainable technologies in energy conversion and storage.

Dr. Tom Kempa received his PhD from Harvard University with Charles M. Lieber and is currently completing his postdoctoral studies with Daniel G. Nocera at Harvard. Tom’s research interests are in the general area of solid-state materials chemistry and experimental physical chemistry. Tom’s research group will work towards building and characterizing new classes of solid-state systems that can enable advances in energy conversion, self-assembly of photonic and meta materials, and biophysical probes. The group will explore perovskite and oxide-based 2D materials and superlattices, novel strategies for kinetic assembly, and inorganic nanoprobes for interrogation of cellular networks. To accomplish this science, his group will use a rich array of gas-phase and inorganic synthetic methods and a number of solid-state optical and structural characterization techniques.