2019 News

6 December 2019 – James visits the Department of Chemistry at the University of Notre Dame to deliver an invited departmental seminar. Thanks to Prof. Emily Tsui for the invitation and the opportunity to talk Lewis Acid science! The visit was also a great chance to see our former labmate and current Tsui Group member Keaton Prather!

3–9 December 2019 – Wade (G3) and James have traveled once again to Beamline 7-ID-D at 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 and Gilles Doumy and the Elles Group from KU Chemistry, are aimed at elucidating the properties of transient species formed by photochemical activation of manganese tricarbonyl complexes. Thanks to our fantastic collaborators, as well as the KU College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the KU Hall Research Fund, for support of this exciting effort!

6 November 2019 – James visits the Department of Chemistry at Clemson University in South Carolina to deliver an invited seminar. Thanks to Prof. Andy Tennyson for the invitation and opportunity to visit, and all the faculty for their hospitality. James was an NSF REU student at Clemson in summer 2006, and it was great to be back on campus! Go Tigers!

17 November 2019 – Thanks to Prof. Matt Chambers (LSU) and Prof. Dino Villagran (UTEP) for the invitation to present a talk earlier this week in the "Energy & Environment" symposium at the joint Southwest/Rocky Mountain Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society! A great opportunity to visit sunny El Paso, Texas, hear some great science, and network with colleagues from around the country!

8 November 2019 – James visits the University of Cincinnati to deliver an invited departmental seminar. Thanks to Prof. Jimmy Jiang for the hospitality, great discussions, and the opportunity to visit Cincinnati!

18 October 2019 – This week, a special symposium on "Energy Conversion with Molecules & Interfaces" was organized by James and Prof. Cindy Berrie at the Midwest Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society! Thanks to our invited speakers Prof. Shelley Minteer (Univ. of Utah), Prof. Bryce Sadtler (Wash. Univ. in St. Louis), Dr. Aaron Sattler (ExxonMobil Research and Engineering Co.), Prof. Jason Applegate (Emporia State Univ.), and Julie Hopkins (Blakemore Group, KU). Thanks also to the sponsors of our symposium: Shimadzu Instrument Co., MDPI Molecules, and the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry.

20 September 2019 – After three and a half years at the University of Kansas, James delivers his tenure talk on "Stirring Up New Chemistry for Carbon-Neutral Energy Systems." Thanks to the group and everyone in our department for making our time at KU so memorable. It's Gonna Be Great!

2 September 2019 – James attends the 1st International Conference on Noncovalent Interactions and presents an invited talk on noncovalent methods for electrode functionalization. We are using such methods to immobilize new f-element complexes and study their electrochemical properties. Thanks to Dr. Kamran Mahmudov and Prof. Armando Pombeiro for the invitation to present at this exciting meeting!

28 August 2019 – James visits the Beckman Institute at Caltech to carry out X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy in the MMRC Lab. Thanks to Prof. Harry Gray and Dr. Bruce Brunschwig for their hospitality!

25 August 2019 – James delivers a talk in the symposium "Emerging Trends in Molecular Synthesis" at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego. Thanks to Jenny Yang, Jessica Hoover, Valerie Schmidt, and Sarah Ryan for the invitation and the opportunity to present our work on hybrid [P,N] ligands!

2 August 2019 – Jonah Stiel attends the annual meeting of the Beckman Scholars Program in Irvine, California. With the support of this great national program, Jonah is preparing new ligands and metal complexes for use in fuel-forming chemistry in our group.

11 July 2019 – James attends the Organometallics GRC, and presents a flash poster talk on our recent efforts to reveal the "Thermochemical Influence of Metal- Versus Ligand-Centered Protonation in Half Sandwich Complexes." Thanks to Al Barney of Strem Chemicals and the other organizers for a great meeting and the opportunity to present our work!

1 July 2019 – Congratulations to our former postdoc Dr. Davide Lionetti, who has started his independent career as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania! F&M, founded in 1787, is a prestigious liberal arts college that is among the oldest institutions of higher education in the US. We thank Davide for his foundational leadership of our group, and wish him all the best for new endeavors!!!

24 June 2019 – Our collaborative research with the Artificial Photosynthesis Group at Brookhaven National Laboratory is underway! Yun (G4) is spending the summer at the lab, in order to collect kinetic data on the mechanism of H2 production by our half-sandwich rhodium complexes. Exciting techniques available at BNL include pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow methods. Thanks to our hosts Etsuko Fujita, Dmitry Polyansky, and David Grills for the opportunity to work together!

7 June 2019 – Thanks to Mita Dasog (Dalhousie), Warren Piers (U Calgary), and Janina Wilkomm (U Calgary) for the invitation to present this week in their great symposium on "Molecules and Materials for Solar Fuel Production" at the Canadian Chemistry Conference in Québec City! James presented our work on understanding the thermochemical properties of ligand-protonated [Cp*] complexes. Looking forward to the next Canadian Chemistry Conference in Winnipeg!

20 May 2019 – We are happy to welcome Micah Anderson to the group as a summer REU student! Micah is a third-year undergraduate at Jackson State University in Mississippi! Welcome, Micah!

19 May 2019 – Congratulations to our extraordinary group of Spring 2019 graduates, Emily Boyd, Will Moore, Shaun Kelsey, and Katie Johnson, who were granted their degrees today at the 147th KU Commencement Ceremony! Congrats again, team!

14 May 2019 –  Congratulations to Jonah Stiel, who has received an Undergraduate Research Award for Summer 2019! This award will support Jonah as he contributes to our group's efforts in development of ligands to support catalysts for electrochemical reduction of carbon dioxide. Jonah is co-mentored in our group by graduate student Wade Henke. Congratulations, Jonah!

9 May 2019 – Congratulations to Emily Boyd, who will be honored at Commencement as recipient of a "Class of 1913 Award." Emily is graduating with her B.S. in Chemistry this year, and has carried out research in our group for three years. The "Class of 1913 Award" is one of the prestigious University Awards at KU; these are given to twelve top students in each graduating class. Way to go, Emily!

27 April 2019 – Congratulations to Jonah Stiel, who received an Outstanding Presentation Award at the 22nd Annual KU Undergraduate Research Symposium! Jonah's poster presentation described his efforts to prepare new sterically demanding ligands for use in molecular catalysts for carbon dioxide conversion. Congratulations, Jonah!

15 April 2019 – Thanks to Dr. Philip Wilk for organizing a great PI meeting this week for the US DOE Heavy Element Chemistry Program! James presented our group's work on electrode surface immobilization of f-element compounds as our work is funded through the HEC program.

9 April 2019 – Congratulations to our undergraduate researchers Emily Boyd and Shaun Kelsey, who have been named recipients of US NSF Graduate Research Fellowships! The NSF GRF is among the most prestigious fellowships in the US, and provides full support for three years of graduate study. Way to go!

8 April 2019 – This week, James attended the Cyclic Voltammetry International School, hosted by the Laboratoire d'Electrochimie Moléculaire at Université Paris Diderot. Participants, selected for this opportunity through a competitive application, are instructed in advanced topics and techniques for study of molecular compounds with cyclic voltammetry and other electrochemical methods. Many thanks to our distinguished instructors Jean-Michel Savéant, Marc Robert, Cyrille Costentin, Benoît Limoges, François Mavré, and Cédric Tard for a great week!!

5 April 2019 – Will Moore has been featured in a Student Profile by the KU Office of Undergraduate Research! Will has been carrying out research in the group for over two years, and recently published with the Front Cover of Molecules. Congratulations, Will!

2-3 April 2019 - Thanks to all the great speakers in the symposium on "Small Molecule Activation" at the ACS National Meeting in Orlando! James co-organized the symposium with Dr. Javier Concepcion of Brookhaven National Laboratory.

25 March 2019 – Shaun Kelsey has been named a Madison & Lila Self Graduate Fellow at KU! The Fellowship provides full research support during Ph.D. studies to exceptional students who "demonstrate the promise to make significant contributions to their fields of study and society as a whole." Shaun's research interests focus on energy science and sustainability. Congratulations, Shaun!

25 March 2019 – Jonah Stiel has been named a Beckman Scholar at KU! This program, funded by the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, will provide support to Jonah for two years of intensive undergraduate research in our group. Jonah is currently working to prepare new catalysts for carbon dioxide conversion with his co-mentor Wade Henke (G2). Congratulations, Jonah!

21 March 2019 – James presents an invited talk at the 2019 International Olefin and Polyolefin Conference (IOPC) in Ningbo, China. Ningbo is home to the world's busiest port, Ningbo-Zhoushan, and a major base for the Chinese petrochemical industry. Thanks to Dr. Clifford Lee of Townsend Solutions for the invitation, and the opportunity to share our group's approach to sustainability research!

1 March 2019 – KU Chemistry hosts prospective graduate students during the annual GROW Recruitment Weekend! This year, students from across the country were treated to the first official recruitment in the new ISB facility! James served as the Faculty Chair of the event. Other key players include Graduate Advisor Megan Belaire and a team of graduate student volunteers led by Chelsea Comadoll. Thanks to everyone for a great weekend!

15 February 2019 – Will Moore (UG) has been selected to present during the "Undergraduate Research Day at the State Capitol." This event, held in Topeka at the capitol building, offers lawmakers from around our state the opportunity to hear about cutting-edge research underway at our state's public universities. Will is presenting his work on "Designing a Catalyst to Make Chemicals from Renewable Energy." Congrats, Will!

3 January 2019 – A new year of research is underway in the Blakemore Laboratory, now in our new digs on the third floor of the Integrated Science Building! Welcome to new first-year graduate students Riddhi Golwankar and Joseph Karnes!