Students win 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

Students win 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships

2023 NSF GRF Recipients (from top left clockwise: Sadie Brasel, Eric Gomez, Autumn Bruncz, Zac Faitz)Students Zac Faitz (Zanni Group, University of Wisconsin-Madison), Autumn Bruncz, Sadie Brasel, and Eric Gomez (Link Group, Rice) have been awarded 2023 NSF Graduate Research Fellowships!

Each of them are valuable members of our Center, and they come from distinct backgrounds that shaped them into the scientists they are today. Read more here!

Landes student wins 2023 RURS Shapiro Showcase

Landes student wins 2023 RURS Shapiro Showcase

Annette Jones with her Shapiro Showcase AwardUndergrad student Annette Jones (Landes Group, Rice University) won the Shapiro Showcase at the 2023 Rice Undergraduate Research Symposium!

We wish her the best of luck as she heads to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in fall 2023 to pursue a Ph.D. in Chemistry.

Prof. Martin Zanni awarded at FACSS SciX

Prof. Martin Zanni awarded at FACSS SciX

Marty Zanni (UWM)

Prof. Martin Zanni was granted the 2022 Ellis R. Lippincott award for his work in ultrafast infrared spectroscopy.

The award was jointly established in 1975 by The Optical Society (OSA), The Coblentz Society, and The Society for Applied Spectroscopy to honor the unique contributions of Professor Ellis R. Lippincott by recognizing an individual that has made significant contributions to the field of vibrational spectroscopy.

Graduate Student Zach Armstrong Defends Thesis

Graduate student Zach Armstrong defends thesis

ZachArmstrong_Defense

Congratulations to Dr. Zach Armstrong for successfully defending his Ph.D. thesis entitled, “Ultrafast Two-Dimensional White-Light Spectroscopy of Excitons in Disordered Environments” October 7, 2022!

Excitons in semiconductors often experience disordered environments. Disorder can impact the energetics and relaxation dynamics on ultrafast timescales, both having implications for the operation of photovoltaics. In this dissertation, I study the impact of disorder on novel semiconductors using two-dimensional white-light (2DWL) spectroscopy and microscopy.

Dr. Armstrong will spend a season working as ski patrol before he begins a postdoctoral position at the University of Colorado.

Graduate Student Miriam Bohlmann Kunz Defends Thesis

Graduate student Miriam Bohlmann Kunz defends thesis

MiriamBohlmannKunz_Defense

Congratulations to Dr. Miriam Bohlmann Kunz for successfully defending her Ph.D. thesis entitled, “Ultrafast Pulse-Shaping Applied to Multi-Dimensional Spectroscopy and Novel Microscopy Methods” on August 26, 2022!

Semiconducting thin films are the building blocks of next generation photovoltaic devices. In many of these devices, energy transfer is necessary for creating a photocurrent from the initially excited electrons. Studying the energy transfer is a difficult task as it happens on the femtosecond to picosecond time scales and between grains that are 10 nanometers to 1 micrometer in diameter and layers that are hundreds of nanometers thick. The tools with both adequate spatial resolution and time resolution to resolve the energy transfer are limited. In this dissertation I will describe the use and development of methods to study the energy transfer within semiconducting thin films.