RESEARCH
We build and use advanced spectroscopy tools to interrogate
chemical mechanisms and environments in complex media
Chemists constantly seek better catalysts that improve performance of desired chemical reactions and suppress the formation of adventitious products. On the other hand, Nature performs difficult reactions using tailored electric fields as catalysts, and so must we! We are interested in studying microscopic electric fields to fundamentally understand their organization and to elucidate their role in driving non-redox chemical reactivity and catalysis.
We use organic and inorganic syntheses (involving advanced characterization methods), state-of-the-art spectroscopies (including time-resolved and multidimensional optical techniques), and computer simulations to systematically study electric field at the microscopic level. We collaborate with a number of research groups across the fields and all over the world to obtain the most accurate insight into microscopic interactions underlying all of chemistry.