News
15 May 2026 – It has been officially announced that James has been awarded promotion to Professor, effective with the start of the upcoming academic year. Congratulations to all the colleagues at KU and other institutions who also earned promotion and/or tenure this year!
12 May 2026 – Continuing the Parisian adventure, James visited the ITODYS laboratory at Université Paris Cité today and delivered an invited seminar on our proton-dependent neptunium redox chemistry. It is exciting to be back in the Bâtiment Lavoisier and walking the hallways of the former home of the Laboratoire d’Electrochimie Moleculaire (LEM). James was last here in 2019 for the Cyclic Voltammetry International School. Thanks to Benedikt Lassalle-Kaiser for the invitation and everyone at ITODYS for the very warm welcome!
11 May 2026 – Today, James visited the Laboratoire d’Chimie Moleculaire (LCM) at École Polytechnique and delivered an invited talk on our group’s collaborative work with Dr. Richard Wilson on neptunium chemistry, as well as our work on uranyl crown ether redox chemistry. Thanks to Dr. Cédric Tard for the invitation to visit l’X, and Grégory Nocton for taking time for discussions. Wonderful to have the chance to brainstorm about future experiments focused on molecular electrochemistry—and thanks for all the advice, Cédric!
6 May 2026 – Congratulations to our undergraduate student Noah Tucker, who has been selected to conduct a summer of collaborative research at Brookhaven National Laboratory! Noah will be collaborating with Dr. Dmitry Polyansky and Dr. David Grills on studies of metal-oxo bond activation with pulse radiolysis and stopped-flow methods. Noah is being supported by the DOE SULI program, which aims to help the United States to maintain a “highly skilled scientific and technical workforce.” As a SULI student, Noah will use advanced instruments available at the Accelerator Center for Energy Research (ACER) at BNL as well as the laboratories of the Artificial Photosynthesis Group. Congratulations, Noah!
1 May 2026 – Congratulations to our senior undergraduate Tej Gumaste, who has been named the recipient of a 2026 Tradition of Excellence Award by the KU Alumni Association! Students selected as recipients “exemplify the highest standards of student excellence” at KU and are “recognized for their transformative contributions to KU.” Tej is graduating this year from KU with a B.S. in Computer Science, and published a paper on his undergraduate research with us in the area of chemical informatics applied to crystallography earlier this year. Congratulations, Tej!
30 April 2026 – Today, Chancellor Doug Girod and Provost Arash Mafi provided their official notification that James has been awarded promotion to the rank of Professor. James's appointment as Full Professor will be effective at the start of the 2026-2027 academic year. As in 2020 when James was promoted to Associate Professor, thanks to our department and the chemistry community for their support over the past ten years. Onward to more good chemistry in the years ahead!
28 April 2026 – Our graduate student Ty OJanovac has been named a recipient of the Madison and Lila Self Graduate Fellowship! The fellowship will provide support for Ty over the next four years (2026 to 2030) and is the most prestigious award at KU for graduate students. Congratulations, Ty!
28 April 2026 – Today, James delivered an invited virtual seminar at Idaho National Laboratory (INL). He presented our group’s collaborative work with Richard Wilson and Jochen Autschbach on understanding redox transformations of neptunium that lead to multinuclear species. Thanks to Dr. Lauren Ward and Dr. Samantha Kruse for the invitation and opportunity to speak about our work at INL!
23 April 2026 – Today, Noah Tucker delivered an oral presentation at the 29th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium at KU. This symposium is one component of the annual celebration of undergraduate research on our campus, and Noah presented his research on “Synthesis and Characterization of a Novel Crown Ether Complex.” Way to go, Noah!
20 April 2026 – Today, James visited the University of Tübingen to deliver an invited seminar on our group’s collaborative work in neptunium and uranium redox chemistry. Thanks to Prof. Dr. Reiner Anwander for the invitation to visit Tübingen, and to the students, Jun.-Prof. Manfred Manßen and Prof. Dr. Lars Wesemann for sharing their chemistry during the visit! A dual pleasure to visit such a distinguished university and such a beautiful city to talk chemistry!
17 April 2026 - Congratulations to our undergraduate Andrew Jacobs, who has been named a 2026 Stephen C. Glover Summer Research Scholar. The support from this scholarship includes a full stipend as well as funds for research supplies and travel. With this support, Andrew will be continuing his studies of heterobimetallic vanadium-uranium compounds, supported by his co-mentor Grant Arehart. Way to go, Andrew!
16-17 April 2026 – This week, James was thrilled to visit Prof. Charlotte Williams and the Williams Research Group at the University of Oxford. Although motivated by different goals, the Williams Group and our own have kindred interests in chemistry. On Thursday, we discussed quantifying the effective Lewis acidity of metal cations, as well as the concept of Lewis acidity as a descriptor in multimetallic chemistry and catalysis. On Friday, James delivered an invited seminar on our approaches to quantification of Lewis acidity and understanding heterometallic effects in platinum-templated macrocycles. Thanks to Charlotte for the invitation—a real pleasure to meet and discuss the bright future of multimetallic chemistry!
8-10 April 2026 – This week, James is attending the Ecatalytix-II meeting in Strasbourg, France. This meeting is operando and in situ techniques for examining electrocataltic reactions, and on this theme, James is presenting our collaborative work with Tonya Vitova's group on monitoring reversible electrochemical reactions of molecular uranium complexes. Thanks to the organizers Benedikt Lassalle-Kaiser (Université Paris Cité) and Tristan Asset (Université de Strasbourg) for the invitation and opportunity to attend!
23 March 2026 – James returns to Germany to continue his extended research visit to the Institute for Nuclear Waste Disposal (Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, INE) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT). At KIT, James is being hosted by our collaborator Prof. Tonya Vitova and her research group, and supported by a KIT International Excellence Fellowship. Funding for the fellowship comes from the Exzellenzstrategie des Bundes und der Länder, with backing from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) and the German Science and Humanities Council (Wissenschaftsrat). This grant is supporting our joint work on generation and spectroscopic studies of reactive U(V) compounds and their derivatives. Graduate students Natalie Lind, Alex Ervin, and Grant Arehart are all contributing expertise to this project as well from the Kansas side. Onward to more science!
12 March 2026 - Congratulations to Ty OJanovac, who has been selected to be a 2026 Berger Summer Scholar by the KU Department of Chemistry! Ty was "selected by the faculty based on his performance to date and future potential for scholarly contributions to research." As a Summer Scholar, Ty's stipend, tuition, and fees will be covered so that he can concentrate on his ongoing studies of multimetallic compounds. Congratulations, Ty!
28 February 2026 - This week, James attended International Conference on Organic Synthesis and Advanced Materials (IC-OSAM) in Warangal, Telangana, India. At the meeting, he presented our group's work on immobilization of high-valent uranium complexes on carbon electrodes. Thanks to core committee members Profs. Raghu Chitta and K. Kashinath, organizers Prof. Rajesh Manda, V. Rajeshkumar, and S. Nagarajan, and Chair Prof. Santhosh Penta of the National Institute of Technology Warangal (NITW) Department of Chemistry for the invitation to present our work at the meeting! Looking forward to visiting Warangal again one day to talk science and cultivate international collaborations!
23 February 2026 – Congratulations to our graduate student Alex Ervin, who is beginning a year of collaborative research in transuranium chemistry with Dr. Richard Wilson in the Heavy Element Chemistry and Separation Science Group at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL)! Alex is being supported at ANL by the DOE Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) program, as part of the 2025 Solicitation 1 round of awards. To begin, we will be doing some Np and Pu electrochemistry to probe proton-coupled electron transfer processes and their influence on solution speciation. Congratulations, Alex, and good luck with the research!
11 February 2026 – Graduate student Natalie Lind is spending the next two weeks in Karlsruhe, Germany to carry out collaborative research in advanced X-ray spectroscopy and spectroelectrochemical studies of uranium complexes with Dr. Tonya Vitova and her research group at the Institute for Nuclear Waste Management (Institut für Nukleare Entsorgung, INE) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology. Good luck with the research, Natalie!
5 January 2026 – This week, James is participating in the NSF-sponsored Workshop on Reproducibility in Homogeneous Catalysis in Denver, Colorado. This workshop aims to address the perceived reproducibility issues in contemporary molecular/homogeneous catalysis research. The efforts of the workshop will pertain to public confidence in science, and ideally benefit future pursuits in catalysis science. Thanks to Prof. Rory Waterman (Vermont) for the invitation and opportunity to participate in this important venture.
1 January 2026 – The Blakemore Lab celebrates its tenth anniversary at KU! Current group members include graduate students Davis Curry, Alex Ervin, Fynn Cooper, Grant Arehart, Natalie Lind, Jared Schaeffer, Sunidhi Arora, Chad Lakin, and Ty OJanovac and undergraduates Tej Gumaste, Noah Tucker, and Andrew Jacobs. Let the fun continue!