Chemistry Research Day - Friday, October 28th was a great success!

A celebration of Research in Chemistry performed by graduate, undergraduate and high-school students, as well as postdoctoral fellows and staff scientists affiliated with Stony Brook University and Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Congratulations to this year's winners:

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Posters/Contributors:

Chemistry Research Day - Posters/Contributors

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Location:

Student Activities Center,  Stony Brook University

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Schedule:

• Poster Session I  [even numbered posters] in BALLROOM A  - 11:00 am - 12:30 pm
• Poster Session II [odd numbered posters] in BALLROOM A - 1:30 pm - 3:00 pm
• Reception in WHY LOBBY - 3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
• Keynote Lecture in AUDITORIUM - 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm

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Keynote Speaker: 

Dr. Benjamin G. Levine,   IACS Endowed Professor of Chemistry Joint with the Institute for Advanced Computational Science B.S. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2001 Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007

 

• Bio...

  Dr. Benjamin G. Levine  is a theoretical chemist whose research focuses on developing and applying computational methods to model the dynamics of electronically excited molecules and materials.  He earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2001.  He stayed at University of Illinois to earn his PhD working with Prof. Todd J. Martinez in 2007.  After performing postdoctoral work with Prof. Michael L. Klein at University of Pennsylvania and Temple University, Ben joined Michigan State University as an assistant professor in 2011.  He moved to Stony Brook University as the Institute for Advanced Computational Science Endowed Professor of Chemistry in August 2020.  Ben has over 70 scientific publications, and his work has been recognized by the 2017 Journal of Physical Chemistry A/PHYS Lectureship and the 2017 OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry.

• Abstract...

  Connecting Ultrafast Spectra to Ultrafast Dynamics

  Ultrafast laser pulses allow scientists to watch the wave packet motion of a molecule or material
  following photoexcitation with incredible time resolution. However, no ultrafast experiment can
  take a perfect snapshot of the molecular wave packet. Instead, spectroscopic experiments
  record a lossy projection of the molecular wave packet. For this reason, computer simulation has
  become an essential partner of ultrafast experiment. Computer simulations can provide a
  detailed, if approximate, picture of the motions following photoexcitation, explicitly including all
  nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom. Working in collaboration with ultrafast
  spectroscopists, our group has developed novel strategies for simulating and interpreting ultrafast
  spectra, with an eye toward definitively assigning spectral features to specific molecular motions.
  In this talk, I will present two stories of such work. First, in collaboration with the Allison group at
  Stony Brook University, we have developed a novel computational strategy for the direct
  simulation of ultrafast transient absorption spectra. We will demonstrate how this method may be
  used to assign spectral features to individual molecular motions in two molecules that undergo
  excited state proton transfer. The second story will present our work with the group of Warren
  Beck at Michigan State University interpreting the two-dimensional electronic spectrum of
  colloidal CdSe quantum dots undergoing hot carrier cooling, a process that limits the efficiencies
  of solar cells. The Beck group’s experiments indicate the existence of coherences between core
  electronic excitations and ligand vibrational states during relaxation. By identifying and analyzing
  conical intersections between potential energy surfaces of quantum dots, we are able to assign
  the spectral features to specific motions and identify the nature of the observed vibronic
  coherences.