Past Events

May

Thesis Defense

Theoretical investigation of biological transport processes using discrete state stochastic models and simulations

Monday, May 6, 2013, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Karthik Uppulury, Doctoral Candidate
Biological processes take place far away from equilibrium and are of interest to uncover the basic principles governing these phenomena. In this endeavor, molecular transport across channels and transport of cargos by molecular motors are studied. Fu more  »

Seminar

Surface Chemistry of Gold Nanorods: Wrapping, Stitching, Exchanging and Coating

Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Catherine Murphy, Peter C. and Gretchen Miller Markunas Professor of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign
ABSTRACT: Gold nanorods have potential applications as chemical sensing, biological imaging, and photothermal therapeutics. Our laboratory has developed the syntheses of these materials, in controlled size and shape, over the last few years. Surfac more  »

April

Seminar

Symmetry Breaking and Restoration

Friday, April 26, 2013, 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Gustavo Scuseria, Robert A. Welch Professor, Department Vice Chair, Professor Physics and Astronomy, Rice University

Thesis Defense

Functionalized Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Erika Bryant, Doctoral Candidate
Functionalization of nanoparticles often control the extent of their usage. With this in mind, I have explored methods of creating highly functionalized exfoliated graphite, by way of the Billups-Birch reduction, that can be used in the advancement more  »

Seminar

Understanding Capacitance Variation with the Pore Size in Electric Double-Layer Capacitors by Classical Density Functional Theory

Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
De-en Jiang, Research & Development Staff Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
ABSTRACT: Electric double-layer capacitors (EDLC), also known as supercapacitors, are electrical devices that store energy by adsorption of ionic species at the inner surface of porous electrodes. Their high power density enables many applications in more  »

Thesis Defense

Variational approaches to the molecular electronic structure problem based on symmetry-projected Hartree–Fock configurations

Wednesday, April 17, 2013, 3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
CARLOS JIMENEZ-HOYOS, Doctoral Candidate
Approximate wavefunctions such as Hartree--Fock (HF) states need not respect the symmetries of the molecular electronic Hamiltonian. In certain cases, the lowest-energy HF solution obtained by a variational scheme does not preserve the symmetries more  »

Seminar

DNA under Attack: How UV Radiation Affects the Integrity of DNA

Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
Carlos Crespo Hernandez, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, Case Western Reserve University
ABSTRACT: The genome’s vulnerability to damage by absorption of solar ultraviolet (UV: 400 to 100 nm) radiation has sustained interest in the UV-induced chemistry of DNA for decades. UV rays from the sun can cause skin cancer – the most commonly diag more  »

Thesis Defense

Biomedical Nanocrystal Agents : Design, Synthesis, and Applications

Wednesday, April 3, 2013, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Minjung Cho, Doctoral Candidate
In these days, nanomaterials are applied in a variety of biomedical applications including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cell imaging, drug delivery, and cell separation. Most MRI contrast agents affect the longitudinal relaxation time (T1) and more  »

Thesis Defense

Investigating the Synthesis, Structure, and Catalytic Properties of Versatile Au and Pd-on-Au Nanocatalysts

Tuesday, April 2, 2013, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Lori Pretzer, Doctoral Candidate
Transition metal nanomaterials are used to catalyze many chemical reactions, including those key to environmental, medicinal, and petrochemical fields. Improving their catalytic properties and lifetime would have significant economic and environmenta more  »

Thesis Defense

Single Particle Studies on the Influence of the Environment on the Plasmonic Properties of Single and Assembled Gold Nanoparticles of Various Shapes

Tuesday, April 2, 2013, 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Pattanawit Swanglap, Doctoral Candidate
Plasmonic nanoparticles and their assembly have the potential to serve as a platform in practical applications such as photonics, sensing, and nano-medicine. To use plasmonic nanoparticles in these applications, it is important to understand their o more  »

March

Seminar

Defect Chemistry of sp2 Carbon Lattices

Wednesday, March 27, 2013, 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
YuHuang Wang, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, University of Maryland
ABSTRACT: Defects can rule the properties of a crystal. This effect is particularly intriguing in atom-thick materials such as single-walled carbon nanotubes and graphene, where new chemical and physical phenomena may arise due to strong coupling of more  »

Thesis Defense

Synthesis and design of nanocrystalline metal oxides for applications in carbon nanotube growth and antioxidants

Monday, March 25, 2013, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Seung Soo Lee, Doctoral Candidate
Synthesis of size tunable nanomaterials creates distinct chemo-physical properties. Recently, the popularity of magnetic iron oxide and cerium oxide (CeO2) nanocrystals enables researchers to use magnetic iron oxides (magnetite and ferrites) in size more  »