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Recipe for a Productive Group
Take one pound morbid preoccupation and mix vigorously with one cup overactive
imagination. In a separate bowl, add one part hypersensitivity to three parts
increased hormone activity. Fold together and let stew for hours on end.
-Emily Colas, Just Checking; Scenes from the Life of an Obsessive Compulsive,
1998.
The Boss
Ian is Sandy's number one on the nano-neuro project. Ian obtained his B.Sc. in 1985 from Essex University and his Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry in 1989 from Essex University in the UK. After many years in industry at ASTRA (London and Sweden) and at Key Organics he took a sabbatical and received an M.Sc. from Cranfield University in Environmental Diagnostics in 2000. After which came to the States to work in our group on the nano-neuro project. His principle role is to design and synthesize novel biologically active ligands that can be attached to nanocrystals and used as biological fluorescent probes in neurology.
Meg received her B.S. in Chemistry from the University
of Georgia in 1994 and her M.S. in Chemistry from Vanderbilt
University in 2000. She is part of the nanocrystal photovoltaic project.
The photovoltaic cell that she is working on consists of nanocrystals as the
light heavester, a conducting polymer as the hole transport, and C60 as the
electron transport. She is investigating different types of materials other
than C60 as the electron transport material, such as Nanoparticle TiO2 and Carbon
nanofibers (From the Lukehart lab at Vanderbilt University). She is also investigating
which conducting polymer will make the best hole transport material.
Tadd
received his undergraduate degree from James Madison
University in 1997 and will, in theory, finish his PhD from Vanderbilt
University in the fall of 2002. He is responsible for spending most of the
groups money on impressive looking home built equipment. When not busy telling
everyone how wrong they are, or trying to take over the group from the boss
(cause he knows better, he is Q), Tadd is in charge of the groups femtosecond
laser system and fluorescence upconversion instrument, which is in constant
modification since everything can be improved. Two standard poodles and a wife
fight for control over the rest of his life. The dogs, however, are winning.
Rachel received her B.A. from Occidental
College in 1992. Her main interest is in studying protein solvation dynamics
of green fluorescent proteins (GFP) on the ultrafast time scale using the fluorescence
upconversion apparatus and molecular dynamics simulations. She is also interested
in investigating energy transfer between nanocrystals and biological macromolecules.
James
received his B.S. from Florida
Southern College in 1999. James' interests lay in using Z-Contrast Scanning
Transmission Microscopy (Z-STEM) and Electron Energy-Loss Spectroscopy (EELS)
to elucidate the atomic structure and composition of CdSe nanocrystals and CdSe/ZnS
core/shells and their surfaces. This work is in calibration with Stephen Pennycook
at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Rutherford Back-Scattering has also been used to analyze bulk composition of
the core/shell samples and to identify impurities found in the semi-conducting
polymer used in our photovoltaic devices.
Laura
received her B.A. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Pomona
College in 1997. Laura is working on the synthesis and characterization
of a new type of highly ordered CdSe/TiO2 solar cell. Currently her focus is
on the determination of
the size-dependent oscillator strengths of CdSe nanocrystals. She also works
in conjunction with the CMASS
group at Vanderbilt on the determination of the size-dependent valence band
maxima and conduction-band minima of CdSe nanocrystals through free-electron
laser internal photoemission and second harmonic generation measurements.
First year's behind the rock
Mike received a B.S. in chemistry from Fairmont State College, Fairmont WV in 2001. He plans to study charge transfer dynamics of CdSe nanocrystals using ultra-fast laser spectroscopy. This work is in conjunction with the solar cell project currently being investigated by the group.
Undergraduate Researchers
Jon
is currently working with Dr. Tomlisson on the nano-neuro project. His
project involves working on the synthesis of a fluorinated dopamine transport
ligand. This ligand may be attached to ZnS capped CdSe nanocrystals with the
hope that the number of ligands per core shell can be determined by Rutherford
Back scattering.
Ph.D.
University of California at
Berkeley, 1997;
B.S. University of California
at Davis, 1992.
Dr. Kadavanich worked with our group in collaboration with Dr. Pennycook at
Oak Ridge National Labs using
Z-contrast STEM to elucidate the finer structural features of nanocrystals.
He also worked on the photovoltaic project. He is now in industry at Mattson
Technology, Inc.
B.S
Chemistry, Colorado State University,
1995.
Ph.D. Vanderbilt University,
2000.
Dave studied the initial charge evolution (exciton formation) from CdSe nanocrystals and their subsequent migration to the surface. Dave has now graduated and taken a postdoctoral position with Dr. David Blank at the University of Minnesota.
B.S. Chemistry, Physics, Vanderbilt
University 1999.
Jason is now a graduate student at MIT in the Media Labs. While Jason was in our group he performed scanning tunneling microscopy on graphite and metal surfaces, and used his computer genius to do the necessary interfacing for the femtosecond experiments. He and Meg explored the mechanism of self-assembly of oligothiophene monolayers. Jason and Tadd have published RBS data on the surface stoichiometry of CdSe nanocrystals.
