Department of Chemistry

Professor Michael D. Schulz, Virginia Tech “Exploring the connections between chelating polymer structure and rare-earth element binding thermodynamics” Rare-earth elements (REEs: La–Lu, Y, and Sc) are integral to modern technology, but as technological development continues, world demand for these metals will increasingly outpace supply. Consequently, new and sustainable sources are needed, as well as more […]

Professor Donald Hilvert, Laboratory of Organic Chemistry, ETH Zürich, Zurich, Switzerland. “Design can pave the way to fully programmable enzyme catalysts” Biocatalysis is emerging as a key enabling technology for the development of a greener and more efficient chemical industry. Because natural enzymes are seldom suitable for direct use in chemical processes, however, protein engineering […]

Professor Timothy A. Su, University of California Riverside “Sila-Diamondoids: Atomically Precise Nanoclusters of Crystalline Silicon” This talk will describe the synthesis, derivatization, and quantum transport properties of silicon diamondoids—atomically precise clusters of crystalline silicon. First, we describe strategies for the synthesis and functionalization of the fundamental silicon diamondoid cluster, sila-adamantane. Mechanistic insights support that an […]

Professor Robert Continetti, University of California San Diego “Transition State Dynamics and Hypervelocity Ice Grain Impact Mass Spectrometry” Review studies using the photodetachment of precursor negative ions to examine the transition state dynamics of hydroxyl radical reactions. In cases where the anion has a geometry similar to the transition-state region for a bimolecular neutral reaction, […]

Professor Xue-Bin Wang, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory “Probing Structures, Energetics and Reactivities of Anionic Molecules and Clusters Using Cryogenic Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Imaging” Size-selective cryogenic photoelectron spectroscopy (cryoPES) coupled with electrospray ionization (ESI) source has been demonstrated to be a powerful experimental technique to investigate electronic structures and energetics of a wide variety of solution […]

Professor Brenda Rubenstein, Brown University “Predicting the Relative Populations of Protein Conformations without a Physics Engine Using AlphaFold 2” For decades, the conventional way to predict the different conformations of proteins and their relative populations has been to use relatively expensive physics-based algorithms such as molecular dynamics. However, in recent years, an increasing number of […]

Professor Masha Kamenetska, Boston University “Recent Developments in Single Molecule Conductance Spectroscopy” Techniques for forming and quantifying electron transport through single molecule-metal junctions have advanced in recent years.  The implications of such measurements go beyond single molecule electronics and include chemical fingerprinting of metal-molecule interface atomic structure, quantum sensing and development of surface chemistry techniques. […]

Professor Jared Lewis , Indiana University "Non-Native Enzyme Catalysis” Metalloenzymes perform some of the most remarkable transformations in nature under ambient conditions in complex cellular milieu, but their native reactivity is limited to biologically relevant reactions. Non-native enzyme catalysis brings the exquisite selectivity of enzymes to bear on chemical reactions that did not happen to […]