Group News and Recent Events

May 2009	· Rachel Dibbell successfully defended her Ph.D. thesis.  Congratulations, Dr. Dibbell! Tom Fitzgibbons graduated with a B.S. in Chemistry.  Congratulations Tom and good luck at Penn State!
April 2009	· Seth Levy won first place in the undergraduate research poster competition at the Spring New York State section of the American Physical Society conference. Congratulations, Seth! The poster focused on his research on the adsorption of molecules and nanoparticles to metal oxide surfaces. Tom Fitzgibbons presented his research on dye-sensitized solar cells incorporating the Detty group’s aggregating dyes at the 2009 WNY ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium.  Rachel Dibbell won the 2009 New York Society for Applied Spectroscopy Graduate Student Award.  Congratulations, Rachel!
March 2009	· Our paper on TiO2-catalyzed photolithographic patterning of porphyrin monolayers was published in Langmuir.  This paper highlights the work of Greg Soja, a recent Ph.D. graduate student of our group.  Click here to access the article from the ACS Publications website.
February 2009	· Our paper on distance-dependent excited-state electron transfer between semiconductor nanoparticles was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.  This paper highlights the work of Rachel Dibbell, a fifth-year graduate student in our group.  Click here to access the article from the ACS Publications website.
January 2009	· A collaborative paper on the natural organic matter-mediated phase transfer of quantum dots was published in Environmental Science and Technology. Click here to access the article from the ACS Publications website.
December 2008	· Greg Soja successfully defended his Ph.D. thesis.  Congratulations, Dr. Soja! Scott Martin completed his master’s thesis.  Congratulations! David Watson presented our group’s research on photoinduced interfacial electron transfer and photopatterning at the Materials Research Society Meeting in Boston, MA.
November 2008	· Meghan Kern and Kacie Mulhern have joined the group as first-year graduate students. Welcome Meghan and Kacie! Jeremy Nevins successfully defended his research synopsis and proposal. Congratulations!
August 2008	· Seth Levy joined our group as an undergraduate research student. Welcome Seth! David Watson presented our group’s research on photoinduced electron transfer at interfaces at the Gordon Research Conference on Electron Donor-Acceptor Interactions in Newport, RI. David Watson, Greg Soja, Rachel Dibbell, and Tony Smith presented their research on materials assembly, photopatterning, and photoinduced electron transfer at the 236^th American Chemical Society National Meeting in Philadelphia, PA.
July 2008	· Our first paper on the controlled aggregation of organic sensitizers, a collaborative project with Prof. Michael Detty in our department, was published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.  This paper highlights the work of Jonathan Mann, a former postdoctoral researcher, and Tom Fitzgibbons, an undergraduate student in our laboratory.  Click here to access the article from the ACS Publications website. Alenah Robbins (Buffalo East H.S.) and Justin Onyeji (City Honors H.S.) have joined our research group as summer interns participating in this year’s Internships in Nanomaterials Research program. Welcome Alenah and Justin! In collaboration with Profs. Aga, Banerjee, and Colón in UB’s Department of Chemistry, we have received a grant from the EPA’s Science to Achieve Results (STAR) program. The research will focus on characterizing the chemical fate and transport of engineered inorganic nanomaterials in aqueous environments.
May 2008	· David Watson presented our research on photopatterning, materials assembly, and mixed monolayers at a Young Investigator’s Symposium at the 213^th Electrochemical Society Meeting in Phoenix, AZ. Rachel Dibbell, Greg Soja, Tony Smith, Jeremy Nevins, and Scott Martin presented their research at the 26^th Annual Graduate Student Symposium sponsored by the University at Buffalo’s Graduate Chemistry Club. David Marsh, Jon Barone, and Kevin Cook have graduated with bachelor’s degrees in chemistry. Congratulations! Tony Smith successfully defended his synopsis and proposal. Congratulations! Jonathan Mann has accepted a postdoctoral position at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Good luck, Jonathan!
April 2008	· Our first paper on mixed monolayers was published in Langmuir.  This paper highlights the work of Greg Soja, a fourth-year graduate student, and Jonathan Mann, a postdoctoral researcher.  Click here to access the article from the ACS Publications website. Tom Fitzgibbons, Dave Marsh, and Jon Barone presented their research at the Western New York section of the American Chemical Society’s first annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. David Watson, Greg Soja, and Rachel Dibbell presented their research on materials assembly, photopatterning, and photoinduced electron transfer at the 235^th American Chemical Society National Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
December 2007	· Kathleen Coughlin and Diane Youker have joined the group as first-year graduate students. Welcome Kathleen and Diane!