Graduate Student Peng Chen’s Paper Accepted in Nano Letters
Peng (Jacky) Chen, a graduate student in Dr. Janice Musfeldt’s research group has one paper accepted in Nano Letters, an ACS publication reporting on fundamental research in all branches of the theory and practice of nanoscience and nanotechnology.
Chen, cooperating with Xiaoshan Xu, Dr. Musfeldt from the University of Tennessee and Christopher Koenigsmann, Alexander Santulli and Stanislaus Wong from the State University of New York, in their paper “combined infrared spectroscopy with group theory and lattice dynamics calculations to reveal the displacive nature of the ferroelectric transition in BiFeO3, a room temperature multiferroic” ( abstract from the authors).
The findings, in Chen’s words, could demonstrate “the foundational importance of size effects to elucidate ferroelectric transition mechanisms”, and also illustrate “the far-reaching potential of finite size effects for band gap modification of functional oxides that may have applications in flexible ferroelectric photovoltaic devices and oxide-based electronics”.
Out of 59 journals in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Nano Letters is No. 3 in ISI Impact Factor: 9.991, based on the 2009 Journal Citation Reports® by Thomson Reuters; and No. 2 in citations, with 46,238 total cites.
Chen is very excited about publishing in Nano Letters as a second year graduate student. He also thanked his advisor Dr. Musfeldt for this acheivement. “I cannot achieve it without the guidance of my advisor Dr. Janice Musfeldt and cooperating with the collaborators. But I know there is a long way to go in the scientific career and I am ready for the challenges.” Chen said.
Chen was born in Hubei, China. He received his B.S. in Chemistry in 2002 and M.S. in Software Engineering in 2005 from University of Science & Technology of China (USTC). After four years of working in the Keenmicro Financial System Inc., Chen joined the research group of Dr. Janice L. Musfeldt in the spring 2009 pursuing his Ph.D. degree in the University of Tennessee. His current research focuses on the study of optical properties of novel transition metal oxides.
The Camden group attended the International Conference on Raman Spectroscopy held at Boston, MA from August 8 to 13. During the conference, Dr. Camden presented a talk on Wavelength Scanned Surface Enhanced Hyper Raman Spectroscopy. Chris Bennett and Vighter Iberi both presented posters at the student poster session.
The goal of Vighter, Camden and Guiton’s project is to correlate the optical measurements of nanostructures generated by the surface plasmons using Resonant Rayleigh Scattering, with high resolution structural information obtained by using Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM). This technique will also reveal the different localized surface plasmon modes in the nanostructure as well as the relationship between the optical surface plasmons and the plasmons generated from the inelastic scattering of the electron beam. The measurement of the surface plasmon excitations in a STEM is called Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (EELS)(abstract provided by Vighter, picture on the right).
Dean of the College of Arts and Science Bruce Bursten has been named to the American Chemical Society (ACS) fellows program. The program began in 2009 to recognize and honor ACS members for their outstanding achievements in and contributions to the science, the profession, and service to the society. Bursten, who was president of ACS in 2008, conducts research in inorganic chemistry, focusing on the correlation of theoretical and experimental electronic structural data with the bonding and reactivity patterns of metal-containing molecules. The 192 new ACS Fellows will be honored at the society’s fall national meeting in Boston later this month. Additional information about the program is available at 
Michael Best, an assistant professor of organic chemistry, recently received a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation. The award includes a 5-year, $580,000 grant to support his laboratory research on the molecular mechanisms by which proteins bind to lipids presented on the surfaces of cellular membranes. Such events control many biological processes and are aberrant in numerous disease states, including cancer. Better understanding of these interactions and the defects associated with them is important to determining the underlying causes of diseases.
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