2018 News

28 December 2018 – Congratulations to Wade Henke (G2) who has been named a recipient of a travel award through the KU CLAS Research Excellence Initiative. These funds will support our collaborative research on manganese photochemistry. Congrats again, Wade!

13 December 2018 – Thanks to Emeritus Professor George Wilson for a tremendous donation of electrochemical instrumentation and laboratory equipment to our group! George has gifted us, among other items, a CH Instruments bipotentiostat and classic Pine Instruments ASR rotating ring-disk electrode (RRDE). Many thanks to Prof. Wilson for his extraordinary generosity, and for enabling new opportunities for us in experimental electrochemistry! 

7 December 2018 – Thanks to the following professors for invitations to deliver seminars this past semester: Irene Zegar and Bill Shirley (Pittsburg State U.), Chris Exstrom (U. Nebraska at Kearney), Bruce Atwater (Fort Hays State U.), Jorge Colón and Dalice Piñero-Cruz (U. Puerto Rico Río Piedras), Jonah Jurss (U. Mississippi), and Alex Parent (North Dakota State U.). Great opportunities to travel and talk chemistry!

3 December 2018 – James delivers an invited seminar at Chevron Phillips Chemical Co. in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Thanks to Dr. Carlos Cruz for the opportunity to visit and share details on our research!

1 November 2018 – Congratulations to Emily Boyd, who was featured in a recent KU highlight titled "Chemists with Chemistry." Emily was featured among a group of four undergraduate friends, who have studied in the chemistry program at KU together for the past four years. Watch the video to hear the incredible story of the students' successes!

27 October 2018 – James and Emily are recognized with Honorable Mention in the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Undergraduate Research Award Program. This disinction identifies top undergraduate researcher and preceptor teams from around the US. In the Blakemore Group, Emily has synthesized and studied the properties of new rhodium hydride compounds.

25 October 2018 – Thanks to Prof. Wenyu Huang (Iowa State U.) and Dr. Igor Slowing (Ames Laboratory) for the opportunity to present an invited talk in their symposium "Materials for Energy" at the Midwest Regional ACS Meeting. James presented on our group's efforts in noncovalent immobilization of molecular f-element compounds on electrode surfaces. Thanks again!

8 October 2018 – Congratulations to Julie Hopkins (G2) who was awarded the 2018 Outstanding Research Poster Award at the Center for Environmentally Beneficial Catalysis Fall Industrial Advisory Board Meeting! Julie's research focuses on use of tailored, hybrid ligands to modulate and harness the properties of new metal hydride complexes for energy conversion. Congrats again, Julie!

5 October 2018 – Davide presents an invited talk at the KU Red Hot Research forum on "Process and Response." Specifically, Davide explained how we take motivation from the challenge of climate change to design new research projects in our lab. Red Hot Research is an interdisciplinary seminar series in which scholars from various disciplines present their work via short, slide-based talks that introduce audiences to new ideas. Great job, Davide!

2 August 2018 – Amit (G2) and James attend the Gordon Conference on Green Chemistry in Barcelona, Spain. James served as a Discussion Leader on the theme of CO2/H2O Electrocatalysis, while Amit presented on heterobimetallic catalyst development and Charles Shaughnessy (Leonard Group) presented our collaborative work in media development for CO2 conversion. And, Amit was elected Co-chair of the future 2020 Gordon Seminar on Green Chemistry! Thanks to Prof. Bala Subramaniam (KU) and Dr. Anna Simpson (RSC) for organizing a great meeting!

19 July 2018 – Harvey Hou of Alabama State University visits the Blakemore Lab! Harvey has an active research effort in natural and artificial photosynthesis, as well as forensic science. Thanks for your visit and for sharing an informative seminar on your work, Harvey!

8–12 July 2018 – Davide and James attend the CCI Solar Capstone Meeting in Ventura, California. Davide shared a poster with his work on thermochemical analysis of diverse protonated [Cp*Rh] complexes, and James presented a talk on our group's work in development of carbon dioxide-rich media for electrocatalytic CO2 conversion. Thanks to Harry Gray, Siddharth Dasgupta, and CCI Solar for the opportunity to present in this exciting forum!

5 July 2018 – Davide and James travel to Pasadena, California for pulsed EPR experiments carried out in collaboration with Dr. Paul Oyala at Caltech. We carried out ENDOR and ESEEM studies of some of Davide's unusual rhodium(II) complexes. Thanks to Paul for the opportunity to do these challenging and unique experiments!

27 June 2018 – Congratulations to graduate student Wade Henke (G1), who has been named a trainee with KU's NIH-funded Training Grant in Dynamic Aspects of Chemical Biology! In this program, Wade will explore the interdisciplinary research area of Chemical Biology through this program, while being supported for full-time research in our lab. Wade's project, in collaboration with the Elles Group at KU, centers on development of new therapeutic reagents for carbon monoxide release, and activation of these reagents by two-photon photochemistry. Way to go, Wade!

25 June 2018 – James attends the NIH Mentoring Workshop for New Faculty in Kansas City. In addition to learning more about the organization of the NIH, James "pitched" a new project idea to a distinguished panel of mentors drawn from diverse research backgrounds in synthetic and biological chemistry. Many thanks to PI Prof. Paul Hanson and the other organizers for a great meeting, and to all the mentors for their supportive feedback and helpful advice!

21 June 2018 –  James is named a recipient of a 2018 Department of Energy Early Career Award. This five-year grant will support our group's efforts to improve the efficiency of processing nuclear fuels and legacy waste. Our strategy is built on development of new chemical reagents that engender efficient bond making and breaking at uranium centers, informed by thermochemical and electrochemical understanding of reaction pathways. 

17–25 June 2018 – James and Wade travel to the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory to carry out time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Our experiments, in collaboration with physicists Anne Marie March, Gilles Doumy, and the Elles Group at beamline 7-ID-D, are aimed at elucidating the structure and bonding characteristics of transient species formed during photochemical activation of manganese tricarbonyl complexes. Our work was selected through a competitive proposal process, and builds on recent joint efforts between our group and the Elles Group at KU.

10 May 2018 – Congratulations to Shaun Kelsey, who has been awarded an Undergraduate Research Award for summer/fall 2018! This award will support Shaun as he contributes to our group's efforts in development of ligands and materials for electrochemical studies of molecular actinide compounds. Shaun is co-mentored in our group by graduate student Katie Cannon. Congratulations, Shaun!

27 April 2018 – Congratulations to our postdoc Dr. Davide Lionetti who has been named the recipient of a 2018 Sustainability Leadership Award at KU. Davide was recognized for his outstanding scholarship that is contributing to reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and his mentoring of students in lab techniques, presentation skills, and understanding of chemistry. Congratulations on this most deserved honor, Davide!

18 April 2018 – James presents a public outreach talk on "Artificial Photosynthesis" at Free State Brewery as part of their "Science On Tap" series. A lively crowd full of chemists and non-chemists alike was there to enjoy some sustainability science in an informal setting. Thanks to Jen Humphrey for the opportunity to present in this exciting forum!

30 March 2018 – Group member Emily Boyd has been named a Goldwater Scholar! The Goldwater Scholarship is a national award, and is the most prestigious undergraduate scholarship given in the natural sciences, engineering and mathematics. Congratulations, Emily!

28 March 2018 – James serves as a discussion panelist during the symposium "Big Botany" at the KU Spencer Museum of Art. The symposium, timed with the opening of the Big Botany art exhibition and featured by the Washington Post, was themed on the critical role plants play on earth. James spoke about our group's work in artificial photosynthesis, inspired by plants. Other panelists included artists Ackroyd and Harvey (based in the UK) and Rohini Devasher (based in Delhi, India). Thanks to Senior Curator Steve Goddard for the invitation to join this important dialogue!

13 March 2018 – Congratulations to group member Emily Boyd, who has been named a Goldwater Scholar nominee by KU!

9 March 2018 – James has been featured in an alumni profile by the Cohen Honors College at Wichita State!

25 January 2018 – James travels to California for the Gordon Research Conference on Solar Fuels. Thanks to Gary Brudvig (Yale) and James Durrant (Imperial College London) for organizing a great meeting!