Professor Camden Received NSF CAREER Award

July 15, 2012 by newframe

Jon Camden, an assistant professor of analytical chemistry at UTK, has been announced as a recipient of the CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.

CAREER award is one of “the National Science Foundation’s most prestigious awards in support of junior faculty who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars through outstanding research, excellent education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organizations.”

Camden’s award includes a 5-year $600,000 grant to support his research and educational activities. “The CAREER recognizes the potential of our research to be transformative and to integrate our research mission with education. This award will have a major impact on our efforts and it is a privilege for which I am very grateful.” Camden said.

Funding from this award will be used to develop surface nonlinear spectroscopy as an analytical method for probing the two-photon properties of molecules, surface adsorbate structure, and ultrasensitive detection.  Camden group will pursue detailed comparisons between experiment and theory. “This work is fundamental in that it explores how molecules adsorbed on nanoparticles scatter light, and it provides much needed experiments for the benchmarking of new theoretical methods of calculating nonlinear molecular properties.” Camden added, “It also has the potential to impact a wide range of practical applications such as catalysis and renewable energy production.”

In addition to the scientific endeavor, Camden group seeks to increase the number of high-school students pursuing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) majors in college. In collaboration with Debbie Sayers, a Chemistry Teacher at Hardin Valley Academy, Camden and his group will provide curricular enrichment to local public high-schools through the creation of ASPIRE teams (Aspiring Scientists Participating in Research and Education).  ASPIRE teams will deliver hands-on laboratory experiments to local high school classrooms once a month during the regular school year, for a total of six activities.

Professor Baker Named 2012 ACS Fellow

July 12, 2012 by newframe

David Baker, Professor of Chemistry Department is inducted into the 2012 class of Fellows of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world’s largest scientific society.

As stated in a letter issued by the Chair of ACS Fellows Oversight Committee, Dr. John Adams, “ACS Fellows are nominated by their peers and selected for their achievements in and contributions to the sciences and for providing volunteer service to the ACS community.”

The 2012 ACS Fellows will be honored at a special ceremony during the ACS National Meeting in Philadelphia on Monday, August 20. The official list appeared in the July 23 issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN).

The ACS Fellows program began in December 2008. This year’s Fellows represent 23 technical divisions and 52 local sections and reflect a wide range of disciplines and geographic locations. Additional information about the program is available here.

Charles Sun Published in ACS NANO

July 3, 2012 by newframe

Qi (Charles) Sun, a graduate student in Professor Musfeldt’s Group, published an article in ACS NANO, a monthly journal that provides an international forum for the communication of comprehensive articles on nanoscience and nanotechnology research. *

In the article Spectroscopic Signature of the Superparamagnetic Transition and Surface Spin Disorder in CoFe₂O₄ Nanoparticles, the researchers measured the infrared vibrational properties of CoFe₂O₄ nanoparticles and compared the results to trends in the coercivity over the same size range and to the response of the bulk material.

“To the best of our knowledge,” Sun said, “this work is the first time to report a spectroscopic signature of the superparamagnetic transition and surface spin disorder from the spectroscopy point of view.”

Sun is originally from Huadian City, Jilin Province, China. He received his B.S. degree of Polymer Chemical Engineering in June 1999 from Dalian University of Technology in Dalian, China. Then he joined Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry Chinese Academy of Science in Changhcun, where he received M.S. degree majoring in Chemistry and Physics of Polymers in June 2005. In August 2007, Sun came to UT and joined Musfeldt Group to begin research in the field of spectroscopic investigations of nanoscale materials.

Prior to this publication, Sun has more than 10 publications and 5 patents.

* Published monthly, ACS Nano is an international forum for the communication of comprehensive articles on nanoscience and nanotechnology research at the interfaces of chemistry, biology, materials science, physics, and engineering. Moreover, the journal helps facilitate communication among scientists from these research communities in developing new research opportunities, advancing the field through new discoveries, and reaching out to scientists at all levels.