Richard N. Zare is the Marguerite Blake Wilbur Professor in Natural Science at Stanford University. He was born on November 19, 1939 in Cleveland, Ohio, and is a graduate of Harvard University, where he received his B.A. degree in chemistry and physics in 1961 and his Ph.D. in chemical physics in 1964. In 1965 he became an assistant professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, but moved to the University of Colorado in 1966, remaining there until 1969 while holding joint appointments in the departments of chemistry, and physics and astrophysics. In 1969 he was appointed to a full professorship in the chemistry department at Columbia University, becoming the Higgins Professor of Natural Science in 1975. In 1977 he moved to Stanford University. He was named Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Stanford University in 2005. In 2006 he was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) Professor.

Professor Zare is renowned for his research in the area of laser chemistry, resulting in a greater understanding of chemical reactions at the molecular level. By experimental and theoretical studies he has made seminal contributions to our knowledge of molecular collision processes and contributed very significantly to solving a variety of problems in chemical analysis. His development of laser induced fluorescence as a method for studying reaction dynamics has been widely adopted in other laboratories.

Professor Zare has received numerous honors and awards. They include: the US National Medal of Science (1983), The Welch Prize in Chemistry (1999), The Wolf Prize in Chemistry (2005), The BBVA Prize in the Physical Sciences (2010) and The Priestley Medal of the American Chemical Society (2010) and The King Faisal International Prize in Science (2011).

The Ziurys Research Group is located in the Departments of Chemistry and Astronomy at the University of Arizona. Current research pursuits include radioastronomical observations of molecules in the interstellar medium and laboratory microwave and millimeter/sub-millimeter wave spectroscopy. Molecules include metal-containing species of astrophysical and organometallic interest, as well as organic compounds of prebiotic interest.

I am interested in understanding the forces that act between atoms and molecules when they collide and exchange energy, or react. We use a variety of state-of-the-art experimental techniques to measure the detailed dynamics of the collision process, and interpret the results with the help of theory. My research covers both the gas-phase, and the gas-liquid interface. In the gas-phase, I am interested in the photochemistry of small molecules, and the stereodynamics of collisional energy transfer in small free radicals. At the gas-liquid interface we study collisional energy transfer, reactive scattering, and the molecular structure of liquid surface.

Research in the Douberly group employs infrared laser spectroscopy to study neutral and ionic molecular assemblies isolated in low temperature (0.4 Kelvin) helium nanodroplets. Liquid helium droplets are formed by the condensation of gaseous helium in a cryogenic nozzle expansion. The droplets are approximately 10 nm in diameter, and molecular assemblies are formed within each droplet by the sequential “pick up” of individual atoms or molecules. The interaction between the molecular solute and the helium solvent is extremely weak due to the quantum nature of helium at 0.4 Kelvin. As a result, helium droplets provide a unique environment to probe the structural and dynamical properties of the isolated species with high resolution laser spectroscopy methods.



We are using all of this beautiful methodology to address a diverse set of fundamental problems in chemical physics. The general strategy of our research effort is to boil down critically important mesoscale and bulk phenomena to the cluster limit, and probe with high resolution and precision the fundamental molecular physics that underpin the larger scale phenomena. For example, we are investigating the mechanisms associated with several key elementary reactions in atmospheric and combustion chemistry. Helium mediated, low temperature reactions involving hydrocarbon radicals and molecular oxygen are probed with infrared laser spectroscopy. These measurements identify the structural configuration of key intermediates along the reaction path, along with the associated product branching ratios. One of the major impacts of this work is that these studies provide important benchmarks for theoretical studies, in which the ultimate goal is to establish a predictive combustion modeling capability that allows for the design and optimization of next generation engine technologies. Several reactions involving the hydroxyl radical (OH) and ozone have also been probed, which are critically important to our understanding of the atmospheric ozone balance and atmospheric chemistry in general. Once again, these measurements will provide a basis upon which predictive atmospheric chemistry models are developed.

The long-standing goal of our research group has been to understand where the energy goes in a gas-phase chemical reaction. We began our journey to understand chemical reaction dynamics in the laboratory of Professor Yuan-tseh Lee at the University of Chicago. Following a two-year postdoctoral appointment with Professor Bruce Mahan at Berkeley, we began our independent research program at Rochester in 1976. Our effort at Rochester has been focused on the development of crossed beam methods to study low-energy ion molecule reactions. Most recently, we have employed velocity map imaging methods to the study of reactions of free radicals and ions. Our research accomplishments have been recognized with an Alfred P. Sloan fellowship, appointment as a Visiting Fellow of JILA, and election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Teaching is also an important part of Jim’s commitment to science. He has taught over 7000 students in freshman chemistry, and has received a number of teaching awards from the University, including a University Mentor award, the Edward Peck Curtis and Goergen awards for excellence in undergraduate teaching, and the Students’ Association Professor of the Year Award.

Degrees
PhD, University of London, 1979
BSc, Queen Mary College, 1975
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Queen Mary College, University of London, 1979-1980; Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of London, 1980-1982

Specific Research Area
Experimental Chemical Physics. Our interests include the electronic spectroscopy of transient intermediates, energy transfer kinetics, intermolecular forces, and unimolecular decay dynamics.

Education

Ph.D., Physical Chemistry, Californi
a Institute of Technology, 1988.
(Advisor: Prof. R. A. Marcus)

B.S. (Honors) in Mathematics and C
hemistry, University of British
Columbia, Canada, 1983.

I majored in both chemistry and mathematics for my undergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia. I enjoyed the fundamental side of mathematics as well as the applied side of chemistry. Theoretical chemistry seemed like a perfect combination of these. I was particularly drawn to gas phase dynamics as it was an area where there was an interaction between theory and experiment; one could make quantitative predictions and directly compare with detailed experiments. I was intrigued by the increasingly detailed gas phase dynamics experiments that arose from the laser age.

Our group's goal is to spectroscopically characterize carbon containing radicals and ions. We are able to determine the molecular structure as well as electronic, vibrational and rotational properties of various compounds of chemical, astrophysical and fundamental importance.

Carbon species are astrophysically relevant—in the past 20 years many carbon containing molecules have been identified in comets, interstellar molecular clouds and carbon stars. Of special focus are the Diffuse Interstellar Bands, absorptions in the optical region by molecules in diffuse clouds. Comparison of laboratory and astronomical spectra is the way to identify the carriers, long carbon chains being among the good candidates. Many of these species are also found as combustion intermediates or are involved in chemical processes.

Because of their high reactivity, radicals and ions must be studied in situ. Specifically, they are generated in the gas phase using an electrical discharge of a precursor gas or laser ablating solid sample. An alternative approach is to freeze them in low-temperature inert-gas matrices. Because the concentrations of the species studied are generally low, sensitive detection techniques are utilized which employ high-resolution lasers, mass spectrometry and ion traps. All of these techniques have their own advantages and drawbacks, but combined together they allow us to detect and investigate a wide variety of compounds.

Gas phase dynamics

Much of our research in the last twenty years has focused on the quantum mechanical description of elementary chemical reactions in the gas phase. We have learned a great deal during this time about the interpretation of transition state spectroscopy experiments, the role of quantum mechanical resonances in hydrogen atom transfer reactions, the significance of the non-adiabatic effects caused by electronic and spin-orbit couplings, the effect of van der Waals forces on chemical reaction dynamics, and the statistical nature of insertion reactions that proceed via deep potential energy wells.

Condensed phase dynamics

We have recently shown how the standard path integral molecular dynamics (PIMD) method, which has been used since the mid 1980s to compute the exact static equilibrium properties of quantum mechanical systems, can be generalized to calculate approximate real-time quantum correlation functions, and so used to study the role of quantum mechanical (zero point energy and tunnelling) effects in condensed phase chemical dynamics. The resulting ring-polymer molecular dynamics (RPMD) model has already been used to study the diffusion in and the inelastic neutron scattering from liquid para-hydrogen, various dynamical processes in ice and water, and chemical reaction rates in the gas phase and in solution. We are now continuing to use PIMD and RPMD to study a wide variety of structural, thermodynamic, and dynamical properties of condensed phase systems containing hydrogen atoms.

Research in the McCarthy group lies primarily in the area of high-resolution rotational spectroscopy of highly reactive molecules that are believed to be key intermediates in astronomical, atmospheric, and combustion processes, but which often are poorly characterized in any region of the electromagnetic spectrum prior to our work. Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy applied to a supersonic molecular beam is frequently employed to detect these transient species; this technique has emerged in the past decade or more as one of the most successful methods to discover new molecules and to determine their structures. In our laboratory alone, more than 250 entirely new species have been detected. These discoveries include neutral and ionized (both positively- and negatively-charged) species, radicals, carbenes, and high energy isomers, and encompass a wide range of sizes and structures: simple triatomics to polyyne chains with nearly 20 heavy atoms, branched chains, and small rings. Studies of this kind unambiguously establish the existence of these intermediates, and provide insights into their electronic and molecular structure, and formation; precise spectroscopic constants, optimized experimental conditions, and derived abundances allow subsequent laboratory experiments or astronomical observations to then be undertaken with confidence. Precise structural determinations provide stringent benchmarks for quantum chemical calculations, which allow chemical models with greater predictive power to be developed.

Instrumental refinement and technical innovation continue to be emphasized in our group, with considerable effort now directed towards the development of methodologies using broadband and cavity techniques to rapidly detect and group spectral lines to individual chemical species using automatic screening and spectral line cross-correlation double resonance techniques.

My group uses a variety of laser-based spectroscopic techniques to explore fundamental gas-phase chemical processes, with a particular interest in atmospheric chemistry.

Our studies processes important to climate change and air quality in the troposphere and lower stratosphere – the lowest 20 km of the Earth’s atmosphere. We are one of the largest such groups in UK universities, and have extensive collaborative links with leading atmospheric sciences groups world-wide. We have a strong experimental programme, with a range of state-of-the-art facilities for field and laboratory measurements. To complement the measurements we run numerical models on a variety of scales using code developed at Manchester as well as national and international standard models. The Centre for Atmospheric Science is part of the successful School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences and currently consists of approximately 70 staff and postgraduate students.

Hanna Reisler grew up in Israel and obtained her B.S. and M.S. degrees from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. After receiving her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, she was a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. John Doering at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. She then worked for several years as a group leader at the Soreq Nuclear Research Center in Israel, and as a researcher at USC with Prof. Curt Wittig. She was appointed as Associate Professor of Chemistry in 1987 and promoted to Professor in 1991. Her research interests are in the area of chemical reaction dynamics of molecules, free radicals and ions important in the atmosphere and in the solar system, and her group uses a variety of sophisticated laser and imaging techniques in these studies. She is the author of about170 scientific publications and book chapters. She won the NSF Faculty Award for Women Scientists and Engineers in 1991, a Max Planck Research Award in 1994, and the Broida Prize of the American Physical Society in 2005. In 1996 she was elected Fellow of the American Physical Society. She has organized scientific meetings, served on numerous review panels, and has served as Chair of the Chemistry Department. In 2002 she was appointed the first holder of the Lloyd Armstrong Jr. Chair in Science and Engineering partly in recognition of her efforts to advance the careers of women in science and engineering.

Mentoring and teaching are very important to Hanna. In 2000, she was one of the founders of the comprehensive Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE) program at USC, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in May 2010 ( Learn More ). She is still serving as Chair of the WiSE Advisory Board and the coordinator of the WiSE faculty network group. Since 2008 she has served as Director for Faculty Development in USC College. She also served on the USC committee on Work and Family Life, as a member, of the Mellon Mentoring Forum, and as a mentor in USC's FUELS (Female Undergraduates Educating and Leading in Science) -- a WiSE supported organization. For her mentoring activities she received in 2007 the USC Remarkable Women Award ( Learn More ) and the Mellon Mentoring Award for faculty-to-faculty mentoring ( Learn More ). In 2010 she was chosen to receive the Provost's Mentoring Award for her mentoring activities with students and faculty ( Learn More ).

Tim Schmidt gained his BSc (Hons) from The University of Sydney in 1998 winning the University Medal in theoretical chemistry. He then studied at Churchill College, Cambridge, gaining a PhD in chemistry from the University of Cambridge in 2001 for work on the femtosecond dynamics of molecules in intense laser field under the supervision of Dr Gareth Roberts. Postoctoral work was performed in the group of Professor John Paul Maier in Basel on the electronic spectroscopy of highly unsaturated hydrocarbons of astrophysical relevance. Tim returned to Australia in 2003 to work at the CSIRO (CTIP, Lindfield) on modelling of the rubsico enzyme. He commenced as a lecturer in chemistry at The University of Sydney in April 2004. From January 2014, Tim is appointed as Professor and ARC Future Fellow at UNSW. He is the recipient of the 2010 Coblentz Award.

Physical Chemistry, Molecular Physics
Chemical Reaction Dynamics, Laser Spectroscopy

Ultrafast photoelectron spectroscopy of non-adiabatic reactions in isolated molecules and solutions
X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of liquids
Development of deep UV and vacuum UV femtosecond lasers
Crossed beam scattering of bimolecular reactions

We apply experimental and computational spectroscopy techniques for the structural and dynamics studies of atomic and molecular processes. Recently, we are developing the state-of-the-art methods to explore the stereodynamics of molecular reactions.

EDUCATION AND RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
2007.11-now Professor, Department of Chemical Physics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
2009.8 CAS Senior Visiting Scholar, Leopold-Franzens-Universität Innsbruck, Austria.
2004-2007 Associate Professor, Department of Chemical Physics, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China
2002-2004 Visiting Scholar, Department of Chemistry, University of California at Davis, USA
2000-2002 JSPS Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Chemistry, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan
1995-2000 Graduate student at University of Science and Technology of China;
(Ph.D. Major in Atomic and Molecular Physics)
1991-1995 Undergraduate student at Anhui Normal University; B.S. in Physics

My activity is in laser spectroscopy of small molecules connected to astrophysics and atmospheric physics, connected to non-linear optics and laser development, with specialty in the domain of the extreme ultraviolet. Currently a focus is on performing laser precision metrology measurements on molecules, combined with astronomical observations to probe variations of fundamental constants. Recently I have started an activity in laser-produced EUV plasma sources for lithographical applications.  For more information see the website at VU University Amsterdam,  and the website at the Advanced Research Center for Nanolithography (ARCNL).

The group is broadly focused on understanding molecular weight growth and decomposition chemistries especially at organic and aqueous surfaces. To do this, we employ a variety of laboratory and synchrotron-based techniques to study the underlying chemical mechanisms of particle and gas phase reactions of relevance to atmospheric aerosols and planetary atmospheres. Past and ongoing research projects include: Heterogeneous oxidation of organic aerosols by hydoxyl (OH) radicals, water uptake by nanoparticles, aerosol photoemission, low temperature free radical reactions, and the surface chemistry of aqueous droplets. A detailed description of the projects can be found under the research.

The Wilson Research Group is a part of the Chemical Dynamics Beamline at the Advanced Light Source at the Ernest Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Stefan Willitsch's research interests lie in the preparation and applications of translationally cold molecules and ions. In particular, his group’s activities focus on exploring the properties of cold, spatially ordered ensembles of ions in traps (“Coulomb crystals”) and their applications in chemistry, high-resolution spectroscopy and quantum technology. These include the study of chemical reactions at sub-Kelvin temperatures, the control of molecules and chemical processes by external fields and the precision spectroscopy of molecular ions.

Stefan Willitsch graduated from the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule (ETH) in Zürich (Switzerland) and received his PhD from the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of ETH in 2004. From 2004-2007, he was a Junior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford (UK). In 2007, he was appointed lecturer at University College London (UK) and since 2008 he is professor for physical chemistry at the Department of Chemistry of the University of Basel (Switzerland).

High-temperature chemically reacting systems are critical to widespread applications, including synthesis methods for advanced materials, power and propulsion generation, and chemical processing. Prof. Wooldridge's research program spans these diverse areas and focuses on experimental studies to enable major developments in materials, fuel chemistry, and combustion devices.

Conformer-Specific Spectroscopy of Alkyl Benzyl Radicals

Reactive Atom Scattering from Ionic Liquid Surfaces

The Photodissociation Dynamics of Alkyl Radicals

Fresh Insights into Two-State Reactivity from a Synergistic Approach: Experimental, Computational, and Statistical

Exploring the Intersystem Crossing Seam in Ethylene + O(3P) via Multireference Calculations and a Nonlinear Diffusion Map Technique

Infrared Driven Unimolecular Reaction
Dynamics of Criegee Intermediates

Direct Observation and Kinetics of a Hydroperoxyalkyl Radical (QOOH)

Exploring the Dynamics of Reactions of CnH (n = 1 – 8) Radicals with C2H2

Does the Reaction of HO2 with NO Produce HONO2 and HOONO?

Time-Resolved Infrared Frequency Comb Spectroscopy for the
Study of Free Radical Kinetics

Rate constants down to very low temperatures for reactions of the extremely reactive C3N radical. Consequences for molecular clouds and Titan.

Theoretical rovibrational spectroscopy beyond CCSD(T):
the floppy isoelectronic systems C3 and CNC+

Robust methods for the development of high-dimensional diabatic
potential energy surfaces

Low temperature kinetic studies of atomic nitrogen – radical reactions

Exposing Radical Pathways in the Formation of Prebiotic Molecules in Energetically Processed Ices of Astrochemical Relevance

Theoretical insights on non-adiabatic effects in the NO3 radical

Predicting the pressure-dependent kinetics of radical-radical reactions: A priori solution of the two-dimensional master equation

Threshold photoelectron spectroscopy to trace chemistry in pyrolysis, combustion and catalysis

Detection and identification of small radicals with imaging photoelectron-photoion coincidence spectroscopy

Reaction versus stabilization in the gas phase: Is chemically activated R• necessarily thermalized before recombination with O2?

Microwave spectroscopy of molecular complexes involving the simplest Criegee intermediate, CH2OO