2024
August 7, 2024: A new editorial by Lea Nienhaus just appeared online in Matter that features our recent work examining how singlet fission spatially varies across rubrene crystals. You can check out the editorial here!
July 30, 2024: Congratulations to Brittany as she successfully defended her thesis examining chemical functionalization of silicon surfaces for improved solar energy production and fuels generation. Brittany is also a member of the Rose Group and has done some fantastic electrochemistry, synthesis, and spectroscopy during her PhD!
June 14, 2024: Congratulations to Kelly and Tanner! Their new paper describing wide field transient absorption microscopy was just accepted for publication by J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper was made possible by the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
June 8, 2024: Congratulations are in order for Kelly as he recently accepted a new position at nLIGHT Defense Systems. We'll miss you Kelly, but we wish you all the best as you start this new milestone in your career!
May 17, 2024: Congratulations to Danielle! Her new paper with the Rossky and Levine groups examining infrared spectra of ligands bound to PbS quantum dots just appeared online in J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper is a new release from the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
May 16, 2024: Congrats to Kelly! His new collaborative paper with the Landes and Link groups describing the design of a transient absorption setup for imaging single particles was accepted by J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper is the latest release from the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
April 16, 2024: Congratulations are in order for Danielle Cadena who successfully defended her thesis examining photoinduced charge transfer from quantum dots to molecules. Congrats Dr. Cadena!
January 29, 2024: Our group's new paper investigating how surface functionalziation can be used to control the structure of perylenediimide thin films has been published in Langmuir! This work was done in collaboration with the Rose group here at UT!
January 16, 2024: Congrats to Jussi! His new paper investigating the use of triplet fusion to drive 3D printing was published by ACS Central Science! This work was performed in collaboration with the Page group at UT Austin! You can check out a press release describing the work here.
January 4, 2024: Sean is featured as a guest on The Materials Universe, a podcast on materials science put out by the Center For Dynamics and Control of Materials! You can check out Sean's interview here!
2023
December 8, 2023: Congrats to Tanner and Kelly! Their manuscript examining how disorder found near the edges of rubrene crystals impacts singlet fission was accepted by J. Phys. Chem. Lett.! This paper came about through collaborative work with the Rossky, Zanni, and Frontiera groups that was made possible though the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI!
December 1, 2023: Congrats to Seth as our latest paper with the Page group examining the impact of electron donating groups on azaBODIPY photocatalysts has been accepted by Macromolecules!
October 15, 2023: We would like to welcome two new graduate students to our group, Toby Lopez and Rosemary Nguyen. Toby and Rosemary will both be working to advance some of our new projects in femtosecond time resolved microscopy. Welcome!
October 13, 2023: Congrats are in order for Danielle as she has been selected to receive an ACS PHYS Graduate Students Award! As a part of her award, Danielle gave a Zoom presentation to a national audience that included members of the ACS PHYS division. Great work Danielle!
September 13, 2023: Congrats to Seth! His collaborative paper with the Page group examining new near-infrared absorbing photocatalysts for 3D printing has been accepted by J. Mater. Chem. A!
August 8, 2023: Our new paper with the Rossky group at Rice which reports the use of machine learning to develop a simulation potential for PbS quantum dots was just published by J. Phys. Chem. Lett. You can check out the paper here!
July 24, 2023: Congrats to Tanner and Kelly! A review article on transient absorption and 2D microscopy that they contributed to along with other members of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI, just appeared in J. Phys. Chem. C.
June 12, 2023: Our new article which reports the formation of strongly coupled states wherein electrons are shared between molecules and silicon nanocrystals is published by Nature Chemistry! This work is the product of a fantastic collaboration between our group and those of Ming Lee Tang at Utah, Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside, and Joel Eaves at CU Boulder! You can check out a press release about the article here!
May 31, 2023: We would like to welcome our incoming class of students for the 2023 CREATE summer research program! CREATE pairs students from Austin Community College with research groups at UT with whom they work to design and explore a research project.
March 30, 2023: We would like to welcome Tai-Aji Alzona to the group! Tai is a UT Chemistry undergrad who will be working to explore new organic compounds for their potential to undergo photon upconversion. Welcome Tai!
March 30, 2023: Chemical REsearch At TExas (CREATE), a research program that Sean created that brings community college students to UT, has been showcased by an article by UT's College of Natural Sciences! You can check out the article here!
March 28, 2023: Congrats to Honghao who gave a presentation at the Spring ACS National Meeting on his working looking at how exciton delocalizing ligands impact energy transport in quantum dot solids. Awesome work Honghao!
March 29, 2023: Congrats to Seth! His collaborative paper with the Page group investigating new photocatalysts for 3D printing was accepted by Angewandte Chemie!
January 10, 2023: Congrats to Cam! Her collaborative paper with the Link, Landes, Rossky, and Dionne groups describing the use of plasmons to generate solvated electrons was just published by PNAS! This manuscript showcases some of the beautiful work that our group has been doing as a member of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI!
2022
December 12, 2022: Congrats are in order for Jess! Her paper describing a new research-focused organic chemistry course that she helped to develop in collaboration with faculty at Austin Community College was just accepted by the Journal of Chemical Education!
November 10, 2022: Congrats to Danielle, Danny, Jess, & Emily! Their paper examining the impact of molecular aggregation on electron transfer between quantum dots and molecules has been accepted by JACS! This paper is a collaboration between our group and the Rossky group at Rice via the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI! You can check out a press release describing the paper here.
November 10, 2022: Welcomes are in order for new graduate student Mark Jones who will be joining our group this fall! Mark will be a joint student with the Baiz lab and will be working to develop a new time-resolved microscope for following vibrational dynamics with high spatial resolution!
October 27, 2022: We are very happy to welcome new graduate students Margaret Hebert and Xinyi Wu to the group! Margaret plans on using 2DES to study the structure of supramolecular aggregates while Xinyi will examine nanocrystal systems designed for photon upconversion. Welcome to the group!
October 1, 2022: We are very happy to welcome Dr. Jussi Isokuortti who will be joining us as a postdoctoral researcher! Jussi completed his PhD at Tampere University in Hyvinkää, Finland under the guidance of Dr. Timo Laaksonen where he studied photon upconversion and photoswitching. Jussi will be working on a collaborative project between our group and that of Zak Page focused on 3D printing. Welcome Jussi!
September 1, 2022: Our group is very glad to welcome Dr. Dabin Kim, who will be joining us as a postdoctoral researcher. Dabin completed her PhD work at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Jessica Anna and will be working to expand our capabilities in electronic sum frequency generation. Welcome Dabin!
August 21, 2022: Sean and Laura head to Chicago to present some of the group's new work in time-resolved microscopy at the Fall ACS National Meeting!
August 1, 2022: Cam, Brittany, and Sean each present the group's work at the Electron Donor Acceptor Interactions GRC in Newport, RI!
July 29, 2022: Congratulations are in order for each of the ACC students who participated in CREATE this summer. CREATE students were immersed in a 8 week research program that concluded this week with a poster session held jointly with the CDCM's REU program. Great work everyone!
June 20, 2022: Together with Carlos Baiz's lab, this month our group organized Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy 2022, which brought over 150 attendees to Austin from across the US, Europe, and Asia. It was truly an honor to host this meeting and to be able to highlight some of the work that we've been doing here in ATX!
June 20, 2022: Our group's collaborative paper with Jean-Hubert Olivier's group at the University of Miami investigating stapled superstructures of dye aggregates has been accepted by Chemistry of Materials! Congrats are in order for Danielle for her work on this report!
May 23, 2022: I am very happy to announce that our new collaborative paper describing symmetry breaking charge transfer in organic dimers has been published by Accounts of Chemical Research. Congrats to Laura and Danny for their work on this!
April 28, 2022: We are pleased to announce that our group will receive a Spark Grant from UT's College of Natural Sciences. This grant will support the purchase of new equipment for time-resolved spectroscopy!
April 12, 2022: Congratulations to Jess who has been awarded a Research Distinction for her undergraduate degree, which she'll complete this spring! Research Distinctions are given out to fewer than 5% of the graduating seniors of UT's College of Natural Sciences. After completing her degree, Jess will matriculate to Pitt to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. Congrats Jess!
April 5, 2022: Congratulations are in order for Danny who successfully defended his thesis! Danny will be heading out in May to start as a postdoctoral research in Jahan Dawlaty's Group at USC. Congrats Dr. Cotton!
April 5, 2022: We are very happy to report that we will soon be receiving new funding from the National Science Foundation to support a new collaboration with the Page Group focused on developing new photocatalysts for 3D printing. Congrats to everyone involved in the efforts to get this project underway!
March 24, 2022: It's been a busy week! Sean, Danielle, and Kelly each attended the ACS national meeting in San Diego where they presented some of the group's new work on energy & charge transfer from nanocrystals to molecules and femtosecond transient microscopy!
January 31, 2022: Congrats to Danielle and Emily! Their paper describing how quantum dot ligands can be leveraged to control electron transfer rates has been accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters! This work represents a collaborative study with the Kilina group at NDSU and Iverson group here at UT. Nice work!
2021
November 23, 2021: We would like to extend a warm welcome to Celena Marsters, a new graduate student who is joining our lab! Celena will be studying semiconductor interfaces relevant for solar energy conversion. Welcome to the group Celena!
November 4, 2021: We are very happy to welcome new graduate student Seth Allen to the group! Seth will be working on developing new instrumentation for ultrafast microscopy!
November 1, 2021: Congratulations are in order for Jess who won a poster award for her presentation at the ACS SWRM! Great work Jess!
October 14, 2021: Welcomes are in order for graduate student Tanner Volek who joined our group this October and will be working to explore exciton transport in singlet fission materials. Welcome to the group Tanner!
September 10, 2021: Our new paper examining triplet fusion upconversion in blended quantum dot:organic solids in collaboration with the Tang group is accepted by RSC Advances. Nice work everyone!
August 24, 2021: Danny and Sean both give hybrid presentations at the National ACS Meeting in Atlanta to socially distanced audiences. It's great to have a chance to interact with the larger scientific community!
August 3, 2021: We are very excited to announce that the group will be a founding member of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features (CAFF), a NSF Phase 1 CCI based out of Rice University. You can learn more about the center via UT's Press Release.
July 22, 2021: Congrats are in order for Alex Freistman and Kelly Biv who joined our lab this summer via the CDCM REU program. Alex and Kelly gave a fantastic presentation summarizaing their work to develop a kinetic Monte Carlo model for describing exciton Migration in singlet fission materials.
July 21, 2021: Congrats are in order for the group as Sean has been appointed as a Faculty Fellow of the William H. Wade Endowed Professorship in Chemistry! This honor speaks to the hard work each member of our group has brought to their projects since the start of our group.
May 5, 2021: Words of welcome are in order for undergraduate Jess Tanner Boette who will be carrying out research on new chromophores for triplet fusion this summer.
April 23, 2021: Emily successfully defends her thesis work! Congratulations are in order for the newest Roberts group PhD! Emily will be starting a new position as a postdoc with Dr. Matthew Beard at NREL. Congrats Dr. Raulerson!
April 4, 2021: New work on triplet energy transfer! A new paper from our group looking at triplet energy transfer from Silicon Quantum Dots to Perylene was just accepted by Chemical Science! This paper is the latest in a collaborative project with the Tang and Mangolini groups at UC Riverside focused on designing nanocrystal systems for photon upconversion.
March 23, 2021: Congratulations are in order for Danielle as she has been awarded a 2021 NSF GRFP Fellowship! Awesome work Danielle!
March 16, 2021: Danny's paper modeling spectral interference in Sum Frequency Generation lineshapes was just published by J. Chem. Phys. Nice work Danny!
February 5, 2021: Welcomes are in order for new undergraduates Eden Chen and Shoshannah Isom! Eden will be working with Danny to compute properties of candidate molecules for singlet fission and Shoshannah will be working with Danielle to synthesize quantum dots.
January 4, 2021: New postdocs Laura Estergreen and Kelly Wilson join the group! Laura and Kelly will be working jointly with the Baiz lab to assemble a new transient absorption microscope funded by a MRI grant by the National Science Foundation. Welcome to Texas!
2020
December 14, 2020: New funding! The group receives a seed grant from UT's APX program to work with Michael Cullinan's group in Mechanical Engineering to examine how mechanical deformation of molecular semiconductors can be used to tune their electronic properties.
December 1st, 2020: Congrats are in order for Jon as he successfully defends his thesis work! Congratulations Dr. Bender!
October 22nd, 2020: Words of welcome are in order for Yan Li, a first year chemistry graduate student who will join the group this Fall. Yan will be co-supervised by Zachariah Page and will investigate photocatalyst dynamics!
October 20th, 2020: Sean "visits" Barcelona virtually to give a talk at the NanoGe Fall Conference on the group's work on quantum dot - to - molecule spin-selective exciton transfer!
August 10th, 2020: The group officially joins the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials via their seed grant program. This award will support the group's work investigating singlet fission materials for quantum information applications!
August 2nd, 2020: Congrats to Emily and Danielle! A collaborative paper describing their work with the Page and Yost groups looking at triplet forming dyes for photocatalysis is accepted by JACS. Great work!
July 27th, 2020: The group, along with Carlos Baiz at UT Austin and James Batteas at Texas A&M are awarded an MRI grant by the National Science Foundation to fund development of a transient absorption microscope for imaging femtosecond dynamics on nanometer length scales. The microscope will be developed in collaboration with the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials, UT Austin's MRSEC. You can check out UT's Press Release for the award here.
June 2nd, 2020: Congrats to Danny. His collaborative paper with the Mullins and Vanden Bout groups looking at moisture driven degradation in 2D Perovskites is accepted by ACS Energy Materials.
May 4th, 2020: Danny's paper examining the structure of perylenediimide thin film interfaces using electronic sum frequency generation is accepted by JPCC. Congrats Danny!
May 1st, 2020: Michelle successfully defends her PhD Thesis examining hot electron dynamics within Plasmonic Metal Oxide Nanocrystals. Congrats Dr. Blemker!
April 28th, 2020: Honghao passes his second year qualifier! Congrats Honghao on becoming an official PhD candidate!
April 9th, 2020: Congratulations to Jon. His collaborative paper with the Krische Lab investigating new diindenoperylenes is accepted by Chem. Euro. J.!
March 31st, 2020: Congrats to Michelle and Emily! Their collaborative paper with the Milliron Group examining electron heating in indium tin oxide nanocrystal films is accepted by ACS Photonics. Nice work!
February 14th, 2020: It's official! Sean Receives Tenure! He'll be promoted to Associate Professor starting Sept. 1st! Big thanks go out to all current and past members of the group for their work in getting us to this milestone!
February 12th, 2020: Sean is announced as a recipient of a Sloan Fellowship! Thanks are due to the entire group for their hard work in advancing our science! Please check out UT's Press release on the fellowship here.
February 4th, 2020: Brittany passes her second year qualifier! Congrats on advancing to candidacy Brittany!
January 31st, 2020: Sean describes the groups work on organic:inorganic junctions at the Pacific Conference on Spectroscopy and Dynamics in San Diego!
2019
November 7th, 2019: Sean gives a talk describing the group's work on quantum dot to molecule energy transfer at the Functional Dynamics - Visualizing Molecules in Action Meeting organized by Nature Publishing Group at Arizona State University!
October 28th, 2019: Congratulations are in order for Emily as her paper describing triplet fusion photon upconversion using Silicon Quantum Dots is accepted by Nature Chemistry. Nice work Emily! This paper represents a collaboration between our group and those of Ming Lee Tang and Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside. You can check out UT's press release on the article here.
October 18th, 2019: 1st year graduate student Cam Li joins the group. Welcome to Texas Cam!
September 19th, 2019: The group welcomes two new members, postdoc Dr. Max Verkamp from the Vura-Weis group and graduate student Danielle Cadena from the Caram lab. Welcome to Texas!
September 18th, 2019: Sean gives a talk on the group's work examining triplet energy transfer from quantum dots to organic molecules at the FIO + LS meeting in Washington DC!
September 5th, 2019: Congratulations to Emily for being named a recipient of a Fellowship from DOE's Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program. Emily will be headed to NREL to complete an internship there in Spring 2020! You can read more about Emily's fellowship here.
September 1st, 2019: Mike's paper describing how we use two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to follow energy migration in quantum dot solids is accepted by J. Phys. Chem. Lett.! Congrats to Mike on publishing the final chapter of his thesis!
August 25th, 2019: Sean heads to the ACS meeting in San Diego where he gives a pair of talks detailing the group's work in looking at energy transfer within quantum dot arrays and from quantum dots to functional ligands. While he's there, does take the time to check out a site or two.
July 21st, 2019: Danny and Sean head to the International Conference on Photochemistry held at CU Boulder where Sean discusses the group's work on quantum dot mediated triplet energy transfer and Danny presents his work using electronic sum frequency generation to look at organic semiconductor interfaces.
July 16th, 2019: Sean attends the Nanomaterials: Computation, Theory, & Experiment Workshop held in Telluride, CO where he presents on the group's work in designing nanocrystal systems for photon upconversion.
July 10th, 2019: Sean attends the Cottrell Scholars workshop in Tucson, AZ where he discusses and learns about some new ideas for science communication.
June 17th, 2019: The group, together with Michael Rose at UT Austin and Joel Eaves at CU Boulder, is awarded a grant by the W. M. Keck Foundation to develop interfaces for extracting energy from singlet fission materials. We are incredibly grateful for this support of our research. You can check out UT's coverage of the award here.
June 9th, 2019: Sean travels to Fudan University in Shanghai to give an invited presentation at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces workshop!
May 9th, 2019: Jon is named the winner of this year's Paul Barbara Endowed Fellowship, Emily is named the winner of the Charles Morton Share Fellowship, and Danny the winner of the BASF Endowed Fellowship. Congrats to you all!
May 9th, 2019: Our latest paper from our collaboration with the Krische group examining new polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is accepted in Chem. Eu. J. Congrats Michelle and all others involved!
May 6th, 2019: Aaron L. defends his thesis work examining singlet fission in perylenediimide films! Congrats Dr. Le!
April 30th, 2019: New UT ChemE undergraduate Filippos Kallivokas joins our group! Filippos will be working on enhancing energy and charge conduction in quantum dot solids. Welcome to the group!
April 26th, 2019: Aaron M. successfully defends his thesis work using ESFG to examine buried organic interface. Congrats Dr. Moon!
April 24th, 2019: At the Spring MRS meeting in Phoenix, Sean presents some new work from the group on triplet fusion upconversion involving silicon nanocrystals performed in collaboration with Ming Lee Tang and Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside!
April 8th, 2019: Jon attends the Faraday Discussion on Ultrafast Energy and Charge Transfer in Ventura, CA. By all accounts, the discussion was quite lively!
April 3rd, 2019: Emily and Michelle give back-to-back talks at the ACS meeting in Orlando on their work on plasmonic and semiconducting nanocrystals. Fantastic work!
March 8th, 2019: Mike successfully defends his thesis work looking at energy transport in quantum dot solids! Congrats Dr. Azzaro!
March 5th, 2019: Congrats to Annie on being granted an Undergraduate Research Fellowship to support her work in our group. Nice Job!
2018
November 27th, 2018: Sean, Aaron L. and Aaron M. all head to the MRS meeting in Boston to give talks describing our work on exciton migration in nanocrystal films, singlet fission, and interface-specific spectroscopies. Nice work guys!
November 14th, 2018: Sean gives a seminar at Purdue University on photon up and downconverison that is recorded by their Nanohub initiative. You can check it out here!
November 1st, 2018: Words of welcome are in order for Brittany Pollok and Honghao Wang, two first year graduate students who are joining our group! Brittany is joint with the Rose group and will work on silicon sensitization while Honghao is set to work on exciton delocalizing nanocrystal ligands.
October 29th, 2018: Inki Lee wins an Undergraduate Research Fellowship that will support his work investigating triplet energy transfer from nanocrystals to molecules. Way to go Inki!
August 19th, 2018: Sean gives talks on both coasts in the same week, one at ACS in Boston and one at SPIE in San Diego! It's nice to be back in Austin!
August 17th, 2018: Congrats to Jon. His paper examining polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced by the Krische group is accepted to Chemical Science!
August 8th, 2018: Sean gives an invited talk at the Electron Donor Acceptor Interactions GRC in Newport, RI. Afterwards, he takes in some of the local cuisine at Flo's Clam Shack where even the buzzers to let you know your food's ready know what's on the menu.
July 15th, 2018: Sean, Emily, & Michelle head out to the Semiconductor Nanocrystal GRC where Sean's poster on Mike's Nanoletters paper is selected for an evening talk! Way to go!
July 9th, 2018: Back to Telluride, CO for the Multidimensional Spectroscopy workshop! Sean shows off some of the group's new data looking at plasmon-assisted charge transfer!
June 23rd, 2018: Jon presents our group's work looking at PDI films at the Singlet Fission Workshop in Estes Park, CO. Nice work Jon!
June 15th, 2018: Sean showcases some of our groups recent ESFG work at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces Telluride Workshop. A chance to get out of the Austin summer heat is most welcome!
May 29th, 2018: Our group's work looking at triplet energy transfer from semiconductor nanocrystals to pentacene molecules is accepted by JACS. This represents a new collaboration with the Tang group at UC Riverside and the Van Voorhis group at MIT. Congrats everyone!
May 28th, 2018: Sean describes the group's work looking at photon upconversion and photon downconversion at the Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference in Edmonton!
April 19th, 2018: Congrats to Danny & Emily on passing their second-year qualifiers! Way to go!
April 12th, 2018: Mike's paper describing how exciton delocalizing ligands modify energy transport in nanocrystal solids is accepted by Nano Letters! Nice work Mike!
April 6th, 2018: Jim Hall joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Jim will be working to measure electrochemical properties of semiconductor films. Welcome Jim!
March 18th, 2018: Sean organizes a symposium at the Spring ACS meeting in New Orleans on energy transfer at nanoscale interfaces. Mike also gives a talk about his work following energy migration in nanocrystal solids! Nice work!
February 12th, 2018: Sean is named a Cottrell Scholar by Research Corporation for Science Advancement! Congrats to everyone for the work they've put into the group!
February 6th, 2018: The first report from our new collaboration with the Krische group to investigate the properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon cages is published by JACS! Congrats to Jon for his work on this project!
2017
December 14th, 2017: Our group's work looking at Singlet Fission in Perylenediimide films is accepted by JACS! Big congrats to Aaron L., Jon, and Danny for all the work they did to get this paper put together!
December 13th, 2017: Mike receives a Research Excellence Award from the Department of Chemistry for his work on energy migration in nanocrystal solids. Nice work Mike!
November 29th, 2017: Our group's collaborative work with Aaron Rury at Wayne State using impulsive Raman spectroscopy to investigate defects in singlet fission materials is accepted by JPC Letters! Congrats to Jon for his work on this!
November 27th, 2017: Mike heads out to the Fall MRS meeting in Boston to talk about his work looking at how exciton delocalizing ligands impact energy transport in quantum dot films. Wicked!
October 16th, 2017: UT undergrad Inki Lee joins the group to help prepare quantum dots for our project examining organic-inorganic exciton transfer. Welcome!
September 13th, 2017: Sean receives the Rom Rhome Endowed Teaching Excellence Award. Way to go!
August 5th, 2017: Aaron M.'s paper on heterodyne electronic sum frequency generation is accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Kudos to Aaron M., Jon, Danny, Benny, and Ravindra for putting this together!
July 21st, 2017: GREAT's inaugural summer program comes to a close with a poster session showcasing the cool science done by ACC students over the past few weeks. Nice work everyone!
June 19th, 2017: Sean, Jon and Aaron M. head to Quebec City for OP2017. Sean talks about singlet fission, Jon speaks about the work that he's been doing with triplet upconversion, and Aaron shows a poster on his HD-ESFG work! While in town, we take in a bit of culture at the Musee National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec.
June 15th, 2017: Sean talks about the group's new spectrometer for heterodyne sum frequency generation experiments at ICAVS9 in Victoria, BC!
June 12th, 2017: Sean gives a talk and Aaron L. gives a poster highlighting the group's work at the Singlet Fission Workshop at the Peaceful Valley Ranch in Colorado!
May 30th, 2017: A warm welcome is in order for Mitchell Haecker, who will be working with our group this summer. Mitchell is an Austin Community College student that is a part of the inaugural class for GREAT!
April 26th, 2017: We throw Ravindra a going away party before he leaves the group to start a group of his own as a faculty member at IACS in Kolkata, India. Thanks for the hard work and we wish you all the best!
April 13th, 2016: Sean heads Philadelphia to give a talk at Temple University! While he's there, he talks about molecular crystals with Frank Spano, one of the giants in the field, and SFG with Eric Borguet!
April 4th, 2016: Sean heads out to the ACS meeting at San Francisco to show off some of Mike's data on exciton migration in quantum dot films and to give an invited talk highlighting the group's latest work on singlet exciton fission!
March 17th, 2017: UT undergrad Brooks Clingman joins the group! Brooks will be making organic crystals for our group's work investigating singlet fission. Welcome Brooks!
March 13th, 2017: Spring Moveout! Our group starts our move into our new home in the North Wing of Welch Hall.
March 9th, 2017: Michelle and Mike publish our group's first results from our collaboration with the Milliron group to investigate energy relaxation in plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystals in J. Mater. Chem. C. Nice work guys!
March 9th, 2017: The Daily Texan runs a story about our research and our outreach program with Austin Community College. You can check it out here.
February 28th, 2017: Diana wins an undergraduate research fellowship to fund her work on quantum dot films! Way to go!
February 1st, 2017: The group starts the process of relocating our labspace from the 78 wing of Welch Hall to the newly renovated 29 wing!
January 26th, 2017: Sean is awarded the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award by the National Science Foundation to support the group's work using ESFG to probe interfacial charge transfer! The grant also supports a collaborative research program with Austin Community College, which you can read about here. Nice work everyone!
2016
November 21st, 2016: Mike's paper on how exciton delocalizing ligands impact the relaxation behavior of quantum dots is accepted by JPCC! Congrats!
November 16th, 2016: Sean heads out to LSU for an invited Physical Chemistry seminar! Time to show off the group's spiffy new HD-ESFG data!
November 14th, 2016: Aaron and Jon's paper on Singlet Fission in Perylenediimide thin films is accepted by JPC Letters! Nice work guys!
October 19th, 2016: First year graduate students Emily Raulerson, Danny Cotton, & Atlantis Frost join the group! Welcome!
August 1st, 2016: Sean is awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to support his group's project to study how surface ligands can be used to modify the properties of semiconductor nanocrystals! Nice work guys!
August 1st, 2016: Mike, Michelle, and Sean present posters at the Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystal Gordon Research Conference where Mike has his first encounter with a lobster!
July 25th, 2016: Sean wins a collaborative opportunities grant from the American Chemical Society to start a summer research program with students from Austin Community College! You can read more about this here.
June 30th, 2016: Sean heads to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the home of the photon echo, to present the group's work at CMDS 2016. Check out all the cool folks that were there, including Douwe Wiersma himself!
June 22nd, 2016: Sean presents some of the group's new ESFG spectra at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces Workshop in Telluride, CO.
June 19th, 2016: Sean talks about the trials and tribulations of making triplets by singlet fission in perylene diimide thin films at the annual Singlet Fission Workshop in Estus Park, CO. Jon and Aaron L. are there too to back Sean up with a pair of spiffy posters!
June 16th & 17th, 2016: Sean and Carlos Baiz host the first annual Southwest Ultrafast Conference at UT which featured Ben Schwartz and Greg Engel as plenary speakers. Many thanks to Coherent for sponsoring the meeting! Check out some photos of the meeting here!
June 7th, 2016: Lauren Dossett, a Welch Summer Scholar, joins the group for the summer and will try out a new method for making nanoparticles. Welcome!
June 1st, 2016: New undergraduate researcher Jacob Anderson joins the group to work on Singlet Fission. Welcome to the group!
April 19th, 2016: Sean gives an invited seminar at the Center for Excitonics at MIT, his PhD alma mater!
March 16th, 2016: Sean presents the group's recently published ESFG work at the ACS Meeting in San Diego.
March 2nd, 2016: Our paper on Electronic Sum Frequency Generation from Organic Semiconductor Surfaces is accepted in J. Phys. Chem. Lett! Congrats to Ravindra, Aaron M., & Jon. Nice work guys!
January 15th, 2016: Undergraduate John Gao joins the group to make core-shell nanoparticles. Welcome!
2015
November 6th, 2015: Mark wins an award for his presentation at the GCURS meeting at Rice. Nice work!
November, 4th 2015: Sean heads to Beijing to present the group's work on Electronic Sum Frequency Generation!
September 22nd, 2015: Check out Sean's perspectives article on Singlet Fission in Nature Chemistry!
September 21st, 2015: Our new TOPAS is installed by Coherent. We'll be producing NIR photons in no time!
September 11th, 2015: The Roberts group welcomes its newest group member, graduate student Michelle Blemker. Welcome to Austin!
September 3rd, 2015: Undergraduates Mirna Gonzalez & Benny Renard join the group. Welcome Aboard!
August 19th, 2015: Sean presents the group's latest singlet fission and ESFG work at the ACS Meeting in Boston, MA. Wicked Awesome!
June 24th, 2015: Sean receives a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to investigate the properties of plasmonic metal oxide nanoparticles!
June 20st, 2015: Jon, Aaron L., and Sean attend the Singlet Fission Workshop in Estus Park, CO.
June 9th, 2015: Sean heads out to the ENM meeting in Cancun, Mexico to talk about the group's latest ESFG work.
June 8th, 2015: Kelby Erickson, a Welch Summer Scholar, joins the Roberts group for the next five weeks. Kelby will be working with Mike to make quantum dots!
April 17th, 2015: Mark receives an award for his poster presentation at the UT's Undergraduate research forum. Nice work!
April 15th, 2015: Aaron M., Aaron L. and Mike each pass their second year qualifying exams. Great work guys!
April 8th, 2015: Sean presents the group's recent singlet fission results at the Spring Materials Research Society Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
April 7th, 2015: Sean is awarded a research grant by the Welch Foundation to support the group's work on singlet fission!
March 15th, 2015: New photos posted showing the laser in action. Check them out here.
March 3rd, 2015: Sean presents recent lab progress at the APS meeting in San Antonio, TX.
2014
October 15th, 2014: Mark receives an Undergraduate Research Fellowship! Congrats Mark!
October 14th, 2014: The group receives its first external funding from ACS PRF!
October 14th, 2014: Jon Bender joins the Roberts Group to work on singlet fission!
October 7th, 2014: The group's first postdoc, Ravindra Pandey, joins us from Mischa Bonn's lab. Welcome to UT Ravindra!
August 5th, 2014: Aaron's broadband NOPA is complete and now undergoing optimization.
June 24th, 2014: Beam paths taking shape. Check out our photos section for details.
May 28th, 2014: Installation of our oscillator and amplifier begin!
May 19th, 2014: Mark Babin, an undergraduate at UT double majoring in physics & chemistry joins the group. Welcome Aboard!
April 28th, 2014: Sean receives the 2014 Natural Science Foundation Advisory Council Teaching Award! This is a student nominated award given out to a faculty member in UT's College of Natural Sciences.
March 25th, 2014: Sean's paper on Hydroxide Ion Transport in Water is accepted to JPCB!
March 14th, 2014: A paper describing some of Sean's work on Semi-Random Donor:Acceptor Conjugated Polymers appears in JPCC!
2013
December 18th, 2013: Construction officially begins on the Roberts group labspace. Excelsior!
December 2nd, 2013: Aaron M., Aaron L., and Mike join the Roberts group. Welcome Guys!
December 1st, 2013: Sean Joins UT Austin's Department of Chemistry!
August 7, 2024: A new editorial by Lea Nienhaus just appeared online in Matter that features our recent work examining how singlet fission spatially varies across rubrene crystals. You can check out the editorial here!
July 30, 2024: Congratulations to Brittany as she successfully defended her thesis examining chemical functionalization of silicon surfaces for improved solar energy production and fuels generation. Brittany is also a member of the Rose Group and has done some fantastic electrochemistry, synthesis, and spectroscopy during her PhD!
June 14, 2024: Congratulations to Kelly and Tanner! Their new paper describing wide field transient absorption microscopy was just accepted for publication by J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper was made possible by the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
June 8, 2024: Congratulations are in order for Kelly as he recently accepted a new position at nLIGHT Defense Systems. We'll miss you Kelly, but we wish you all the best as you start this new milestone in your career!
May 17, 2024: Congratulations to Danielle! Her new paper with the Rossky and Levine groups examining infrared spectra of ligands bound to PbS quantum dots just appeared online in J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper is a new release from the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
May 16, 2024: Congrats to Kelly! His new collaborative paper with the Landes and Link groups describing the design of a transient absorption setup for imaging single particles was accepted by J. Phys. Chem. C! This paper is the latest release from the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI.
April 16, 2024: Congratulations are in order for Danielle Cadena who successfully defended her thesis examining photoinduced charge transfer from quantum dots to molecules. Congrats Dr. Cadena!
January 29, 2024: Our group's new paper investigating how surface functionalziation can be used to control the structure of perylenediimide thin films has been published in Langmuir! This work was done in collaboration with the Rose group here at UT!
January 16, 2024: Congrats to Jussi! His new paper investigating the use of triplet fusion to drive 3D printing was published by ACS Central Science! This work was performed in collaboration with the Page group at UT Austin! You can check out a press release describing the work here.
January 4, 2024: Sean is featured as a guest on The Materials Universe, a podcast on materials science put out by the Center For Dynamics and Control of Materials! You can check out Sean's interview here!
2023
December 8, 2023: Congrats to Tanner and Kelly! Their manuscript examining how disorder found near the edges of rubrene crystals impacts singlet fission was accepted by J. Phys. Chem. Lett.! This paper came about through collaborative work with the Rossky, Zanni, and Frontiera groups that was made possible though the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features, a NSF CCI!
December 1, 2023: Congrats to Seth as our latest paper with the Page group examining the impact of electron donating groups on azaBODIPY photocatalysts has been accepted by Macromolecules!
October 15, 2023: We would like to welcome two new graduate students to our group, Toby Lopez and Rosemary Nguyen. Toby and Rosemary will both be working to advance some of our new projects in femtosecond time resolved microscopy. Welcome!
October 13, 2023: Congrats are in order for Danielle as she has been selected to receive an ACS PHYS Graduate Students Award! As a part of her award, Danielle gave a Zoom presentation to a national audience that included members of the ACS PHYS division. Great work Danielle!
September 13, 2023: Congrats to Seth! His collaborative paper with the Page group examining new near-infrared absorbing photocatalysts for 3D printing has been accepted by J. Mater. Chem. A!
August 8, 2023: Our new paper with the Rossky group at Rice which reports the use of machine learning to develop a simulation potential for PbS quantum dots was just published by J. Phys. Chem. Lett. You can check out the paper here!
July 24, 2023: Congrats to Tanner and Kelly! A review article on transient absorption and 2D microscopy that they contributed to along with other members of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI, just appeared in J. Phys. Chem. C.
June 12, 2023: Our new article which reports the formation of strongly coupled states wherein electrons are shared between molecules and silicon nanocrystals is published by Nature Chemistry! This work is the product of a fantastic collaboration between our group and those of Ming Lee Tang at Utah, Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside, and Joel Eaves at CU Boulder! You can check out a press release about the article here!
May 31, 2023: We would like to welcome our incoming class of students for the 2023 CREATE summer research program! CREATE pairs students from Austin Community College with research groups at UT with whom they work to design and explore a research project.
March 30, 2023: We would like to welcome Tai-Aji Alzona to the group! Tai is a UT Chemistry undergrad who will be working to explore new organic compounds for their potential to undergo photon upconversion. Welcome Tai!
March 30, 2023: Chemical REsearch At TExas (CREATE), a research program that Sean created that brings community college students to UT, has been showcased by an article by UT's College of Natural Sciences! You can check out the article here!
March 28, 2023: Congrats to Honghao who gave a presentation at the Spring ACS National Meeting on his working looking at how exciton delocalizing ligands impact energy transport in quantum dot solids. Awesome work Honghao!
March 29, 2023: Congrats to Seth! His collaborative paper with the Page group investigating new photocatalysts for 3D printing was accepted by Angewandte Chemie!
January 10, 2023: Congrats to Cam! Her collaborative paper with the Link, Landes, Rossky, and Dionne groups describing the use of plasmons to generate solvated electrons was just published by PNAS! This manuscript showcases some of the beautiful work that our group has been doing as a member of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI!
2022
December 12, 2022: Congrats are in order for Jess! Her paper describing a new research-focused organic chemistry course that she helped to develop in collaboration with faculty at Austin Community College was just accepted by the Journal of Chemical Education!
November 10, 2022: Congrats to Danielle, Danny, Jess, & Emily! Their paper examining the impact of molecular aggregation on electron transfer between quantum dots and molecules has been accepted by JACS! This paper is a collaboration between our group and the Rossky group at Rice via the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features, a NSF CCI! You can check out a press release describing the paper here.
November 10, 2022: Welcomes are in order for new graduate student Mark Jones who will be joining our group this fall! Mark will be a joint student with the Baiz lab and will be working to develop a new time-resolved microscope for following vibrational dynamics with high spatial resolution!
October 27, 2022: We are very happy to welcome new graduate students Margaret Hebert and Xinyi Wu to the group! Margaret plans on using 2DES to study the structure of supramolecular aggregates while Xinyi will examine nanocrystal systems designed for photon upconversion. Welcome to the group!
October 1, 2022: We are very happy to welcome Dr. Jussi Isokuortti who will be joining us as a postdoctoral researcher! Jussi completed his PhD at Tampere University in Hyvinkää, Finland under the guidance of Dr. Timo Laaksonen where he studied photon upconversion and photoswitching. Jussi will be working on a collaborative project between our group and that of Zak Page focused on 3D printing. Welcome Jussi!
September 1, 2022: Our group is very glad to welcome Dr. Dabin Kim, who will be joining us as a postdoctoral researcher. Dabin completed her PhD work at the University of Pennsylvania under Dr. Jessica Anna and will be working to expand our capabilities in electronic sum frequency generation. Welcome Dabin!
August 21, 2022: Sean and Laura head to Chicago to present some of the group's new work in time-resolved microscopy at the Fall ACS National Meeting!
August 1, 2022: Cam, Brittany, and Sean each present the group's work at the Electron Donor Acceptor Interactions GRC in Newport, RI!
July 29, 2022: Congratulations are in order for each of the ACC students who participated in CREATE this summer. CREATE students were immersed in a 8 week research program that concluded this week with a poster session held jointly with the CDCM's REU program. Great work everyone!
June 20, 2022: Together with Carlos Baiz's lab, this month our group organized Coherent Multidimensional Spectroscopy 2022, which brought over 150 attendees to Austin from across the US, Europe, and Asia. It was truly an honor to host this meeting and to be able to highlight some of the work that we've been doing here in ATX!
June 20, 2022: Our group's collaborative paper with Jean-Hubert Olivier's group at the University of Miami investigating stapled superstructures of dye aggregates has been accepted by Chemistry of Materials! Congrats are in order for Danielle for her work on this report!
May 23, 2022: I am very happy to announce that our new collaborative paper describing symmetry breaking charge transfer in organic dimers has been published by Accounts of Chemical Research. Congrats to Laura and Danny for their work on this!
April 28, 2022: We are pleased to announce that our group will receive a Spark Grant from UT's College of Natural Sciences. This grant will support the purchase of new equipment for time-resolved spectroscopy!
April 12, 2022: Congratulations to Jess who has been awarded a Research Distinction for her undergraduate degree, which she'll complete this spring! Research Distinctions are given out to fewer than 5% of the graduating seniors of UT's College of Natural Sciences. After completing her degree, Jess will matriculate to Pitt to pursue a PhD in Chemistry. Congrats Jess!
April 5, 2022: Congratulations are in order for Danny who successfully defended his thesis! Danny will be heading out in May to start as a postdoctoral research in Jahan Dawlaty's Group at USC. Congrats Dr. Cotton!
April 5, 2022: We are very happy to report that we will soon be receiving new funding from the National Science Foundation to support a new collaboration with the Page Group focused on developing new photocatalysts for 3D printing. Congrats to everyone involved in the efforts to get this project underway!
March 24, 2022: It's been a busy week! Sean, Danielle, and Kelly each attended the ACS national meeting in San Diego where they presented some of the group's new work on energy & charge transfer from nanocrystals to molecules and femtosecond transient microscopy!
January 31, 2022: Congrats to Danielle and Emily! Their paper describing how quantum dot ligands can be leveraged to control electron transfer rates has been accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters! This work represents a collaborative study with the Kilina group at NDSU and Iverson group here at UT. Nice work!
2021
November 23, 2021: We would like to extend a warm welcome to Celena Marsters, a new graduate student who is joining our lab! Celena will be studying semiconductor interfaces relevant for solar energy conversion. Welcome to the group Celena!
November 4, 2021: We are very happy to welcome new graduate student Seth Allen to the group! Seth will be working on developing new instrumentation for ultrafast microscopy!
November 1, 2021: Congratulations are in order for Jess who won a poster award for her presentation at the ACS SWRM! Great work Jess!
October 14, 2021: Welcomes are in order for graduate student Tanner Volek who joined our group this October and will be working to explore exciton transport in singlet fission materials. Welcome to the group Tanner!
September 10, 2021: Our new paper examining triplet fusion upconversion in blended quantum dot:organic solids in collaboration with the Tang group is accepted by RSC Advances. Nice work everyone!
August 24, 2021: Danny and Sean both give hybrid presentations at the National ACS Meeting in Atlanta to socially distanced audiences. It's great to have a chance to interact with the larger scientific community!
August 3, 2021: We are very excited to announce that the group will be a founding member of the Center for Adapting Flaws into Features (CAFF), a NSF Phase 1 CCI based out of Rice University. You can learn more about the center via UT's Press Release.
July 22, 2021: Congrats are in order for Alex Freistman and Kelly Biv who joined our lab this summer via the CDCM REU program. Alex and Kelly gave a fantastic presentation summarizaing their work to develop a kinetic Monte Carlo model for describing exciton Migration in singlet fission materials.
July 21, 2021: Congrats are in order for the group as Sean has been appointed as a Faculty Fellow of the William H. Wade Endowed Professorship in Chemistry! This honor speaks to the hard work each member of our group has brought to their projects since the start of our group.
May 5, 2021: Words of welcome are in order for undergraduate Jess Tanner Boette who will be carrying out research on new chromophores for triplet fusion this summer.
April 23, 2021: Emily successfully defends her thesis work! Congratulations are in order for the newest Roberts group PhD! Emily will be starting a new position as a postdoc with Dr. Matthew Beard at NREL. Congrats Dr. Raulerson!
April 4, 2021: New work on triplet energy transfer! A new paper from our group looking at triplet energy transfer from Silicon Quantum Dots to Perylene was just accepted by Chemical Science! This paper is the latest in a collaborative project with the Tang and Mangolini groups at UC Riverside focused on designing nanocrystal systems for photon upconversion.
March 23, 2021: Congratulations are in order for Danielle as she has been awarded a 2021 NSF GRFP Fellowship! Awesome work Danielle!
March 16, 2021: Danny's paper modeling spectral interference in Sum Frequency Generation lineshapes was just published by J. Chem. Phys. Nice work Danny!
February 5, 2021: Welcomes are in order for new undergraduates Eden Chen and Shoshannah Isom! Eden will be working with Danny to compute properties of candidate molecules for singlet fission and Shoshannah will be working with Danielle to synthesize quantum dots.
January 4, 2021: New postdocs Laura Estergreen and Kelly Wilson join the group! Laura and Kelly will be working jointly with the Baiz lab to assemble a new transient absorption microscope funded by a MRI grant by the National Science Foundation. Welcome to Texas!
2020
December 14, 2020: New funding! The group receives a seed grant from UT's APX program to work with Michael Cullinan's group in Mechanical Engineering to examine how mechanical deformation of molecular semiconductors can be used to tune their electronic properties.
December 1st, 2020: Congrats are in order for Jon as he successfully defends his thesis work! Congratulations Dr. Bender!
October 22nd, 2020: Words of welcome are in order for Yan Li, a first year chemistry graduate student who will join the group this Fall. Yan will be co-supervised by Zachariah Page and will investigate photocatalyst dynamics!
October 20th, 2020: Sean "visits" Barcelona virtually to give a talk at the NanoGe Fall Conference on the group's work on quantum dot - to - molecule spin-selective exciton transfer!
August 10th, 2020: The group officially joins the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials via their seed grant program. This award will support the group's work investigating singlet fission materials for quantum information applications!
August 2nd, 2020: Congrats to Emily and Danielle! A collaborative paper describing their work with the Page and Yost groups looking at triplet forming dyes for photocatalysis is accepted by JACS. Great work!
July 27th, 2020: The group, along with Carlos Baiz at UT Austin and James Batteas at Texas A&M are awarded an MRI grant by the National Science Foundation to fund development of a transient absorption microscope for imaging femtosecond dynamics on nanometer length scales. The microscope will be developed in collaboration with the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials, UT Austin's MRSEC. You can check out UT's Press Release for the award here.
June 2nd, 2020: Congrats to Danny. His collaborative paper with the Mullins and Vanden Bout groups looking at moisture driven degradation in 2D Perovskites is accepted by ACS Energy Materials.
May 4th, 2020: Danny's paper examining the structure of perylenediimide thin film interfaces using electronic sum frequency generation is accepted by JPCC. Congrats Danny!
May 1st, 2020: Michelle successfully defends her PhD Thesis examining hot electron dynamics within Plasmonic Metal Oxide Nanocrystals. Congrats Dr. Blemker!
April 28th, 2020: Honghao passes his second year qualifier! Congrats Honghao on becoming an official PhD candidate!
April 9th, 2020: Congratulations to Jon. His collaborative paper with the Krische Lab investigating new diindenoperylenes is accepted by Chem. Euro. J.!
March 31st, 2020: Congrats to Michelle and Emily! Their collaborative paper with the Milliron Group examining electron heating in indium tin oxide nanocrystal films is accepted by ACS Photonics. Nice work!
February 14th, 2020: It's official! Sean Receives Tenure! He'll be promoted to Associate Professor starting Sept. 1st! Big thanks go out to all current and past members of the group for their work in getting us to this milestone!
February 12th, 2020: Sean is announced as a recipient of a Sloan Fellowship! Thanks are due to the entire group for their hard work in advancing our science! Please check out UT's Press release on the fellowship here.
February 4th, 2020: Brittany passes her second year qualifier! Congrats on advancing to candidacy Brittany!
January 31st, 2020: Sean describes the groups work on organic:inorganic junctions at the Pacific Conference on Spectroscopy and Dynamics in San Diego!
2019
November 7th, 2019: Sean gives a talk describing the group's work on quantum dot to molecule energy transfer at the Functional Dynamics - Visualizing Molecules in Action Meeting organized by Nature Publishing Group at Arizona State University!
October 28th, 2019: Congratulations are in order for Emily as her paper describing triplet fusion photon upconversion using Silicon Quantum Dots is accepted by Nature Chemistry. Nice work Emily! This paper represents a collaboration between our group and those of Ming Lee Tang and Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside. You can check out UT's press release on the article here.
October 18th, 2019: 1st year graduate student Cam Li joins the group. Welcome to Texas Cam!
September 19th, 2019: The group welcomes two new members, postdoc Dr. Max Verkamp from the Vura-Weis group and graduate student Danielle Cadena from the Caram lab. Welcome to Texas!
September 18th, 2019: Sean gives a talk on the group's work examining triplet energy transfer from quantum dots to organic molecules at the FIO + LS meeting in Washington DC!
September 5th, 2019: Congratulations to Emily for being named a recipient of a Fellowship from DOE's Office of Science Graduate Student Research (SCGSR) Program. Emily will be headed to NREL to complete an internship there in Spring 2020! You can read more about Emily's fellowship here.
September 1st, 2019: Mike's paper describing how we use two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy to follow energy migration in quantum dot solids is accepted by J. Phys. Chem. Lett.! Congrats to Mike on publishing the final chapter of his thesis!
August 25th, 2019: Sean heads to the ACS meeting in San Diego where he gives a pair of talks detailing the group's work in looking at energy transfer within quantum dot arrays and from quantum dots to functional ligands. While he's there, does take the time to check out a site or two.
July 21st, 2019: Danny and Sean head to the International Conference on Photochemistry held at CU Boulder where Sean discusses the group's work on quantum dot mediated triplet energy transfer and Danny presents his work using electronic sum frequency generation to look at organic semiconductor interfaces.
July 16th, 2019: Sean attends the Nanomaterials: Computation, Theory, & Experiment Workshop held in Telluride, CO where he presents on the group's work in designing nanocrystal systems for photon upconversion.
July 10th, 2019: Sean attends the Cottrell Scholars workshop in Tucson, AZ where he discusses and learns about some new ideas for science communication.
June 17th, 2019: The group, together with Michael Rose at UT Austin and Joel Eaves at CU Boulder, is awarded a grant by the W. M. Keck Foundation to develop interfaces for extracting energy from singlet fission materials. We are incredibly grateful for this support of our research. You can check out UT's coverage of the award here.
June 9th, 2019: Sean travels to Fudan University in Shanghai to give an invited presentation at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces workshop!
May 9th, 2019: Jon is named the winner of this year's Paul Barbara Endowed Fellowship, Emily is named the winner of the Charles Morton Share Fellowship, and Danny the winner of the BASF Endowed Fellowship. Congrats to you all!
May 9th, 2019: Our latest paper from our collaboration with the Krische group examining new polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons is accepted in Chem. Eu. J. Congrats Michelle and all others involved!
May 6th, 2019: Aaron L. defends his thesis work examining singlet fission in perylenediimide films! Congrats Dr. Le!
April 30th, 2019: New UT ChemE undergraduate Filippos Kallivokas joins our group! Filippos will be working on enhancing energy and charge conduction in quantum dot solids. Welcome to the group!
April 26th, 2019: Aaron M. successfully defends his thesis work using ESFG to examine buried organic interface. Congrats Dr. Moon!
April 24th, 2019: At the Spring MRS meeting in Phoenix, Sean presents some new work from the group on triplet fusion upconversion involving silicon nanocrystals performed in collaboration with Ming Lee Tang and Lorenzo Mangolini at UC Riverside!
April 8th, 2019: Jon attends the Faraday Discussion on Ultrafast Energy and Charge Transfer in Ventura, CA. By all accounts, the discussion was quite lively!
April 3rd, 2019: Emily and Michelle give back-to-back talks at the ACS meeting in Orlando on their work on plasmonic and semiconducting nanocrystals. Fantastic work!
March 8th, 2019: Mike successfully defends his thesis work looking at energy transport in quantum dot solids! Congrats Dr. Azzaro!
March 5th, 2019: Congrats to Annie on being granted an Undergraduate Research Fellowship to support her work in our group. Nice Job!
2018
November 27th, 2018: Sean, Aaron L. and Aaron M. all head to the MRS meeting in Boston to give talks describing our work on exciton migration in nanocrystal films, singlet fission, and interface-specific spectroscopies. Nice work guys!
November 14th, 2018: Sean gives a seminar at Purdue University on photon up and downconverison that is recorded by their Nanohub initiative. You can check it out here!
November 1st, 2018: Words of welcome are in order for Brittany Pollok and Honghao Wang, two first year graduate students who are joining our group! Brittany is joint with the Rose group and will work on silicon sensitization while Honghao is set to work on exciton delocalizing nanocrystal ligands.
October 29th, 2018: Inki Lee wins an Undergraduate Research Fellowship that will support his work investigating triplet energy transfer from nanocrystals to molecules. Way to go Inki!
August 19th, 2018: Sean gives talks on both coasts in the same week, one at ACS in Boston and one at SPIE in San Diego! It's nice to be back in Austin!
August 17th, 2018: Congrats to Jon. His paper examining polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons produced by the Krische group is accepted to Chemical Science!
August 8th, 2018: Sean gives an invited talk at the Electron Donor Acceptor Interactions GRC in Newport, RI. Afterwards, he takes in some of the local cuisine at Flo's Clam Shack where even the buzzers to let you know your food's ready know what's on the menu.
July 15th, 2018: Sean, Emily, & Michelle head out to the Semiconductor Nanocrystal GRC where Sean's poster on Mike's Nanoletters paper is selected for an evening talk! Way to go!
July 9th, 2018: Back to Telluride, CO for the Multidimensional Spectroscopy workshop! Sean shows off some of the group's new data looking at plasmon-assisted charge transfer!
June 23rd, 2018: Jon presents our group's work looking at PDI films at the Singlet Fission Workshop in Estes Park, CO. Nice work Jon!
June 15th, 2018: Sean showcases some of our groups recent ESFG work at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces Telluride Workshop. A chance to get out of the Austin summer heat is most welcome!
May 29th, 2018: Our group's work looking at triplet energy transfer from semiconductor nanocrystals to pentacene molecules is accepted by JACS. This represents a new collaboration with the Tang group at UC Riverside and the Van Voorhis group at MIT. Congrats everyone!
May 28th, 2018: Sean describes the group's work looking at photon upconversion and photon downconversion at the Canadian Society for Chemistry Conference in Edmonton!
April 19th, 2018: Congrats to Danny & Emily on passing their second-year qualifiers! Way to go!
April 12th, 2018: Mike's paper describing how exciton delocalizing ligands modify energy transport in nanocrystal solids is accepted by Nano Letters! Nice work Mike!
April 6th, 2018: Jim Hall joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Jim will be working to measure electrochemical properties of semiconductor films. Welcome Jim!
March 18th, 2018: Sean organizes a symposium at the Spring ACS meeting in New Orleans on energy transfer at nanoscale interfaces. Mike also gives a talk about his work following energy migration in nanocrystal solids! Nice work!
February 12th, 2018: Sean is named a Cottrell Scholar by Research Corporation for Science Advancement! Congrats to everyone for the work they've put into the group!
February 6th, 2018: The first report from our new collaboration with the Krische group to investigate the properties of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon cages is published by JACS! Congrats to Jon for his work on this project!
2017
December 14th, 2017: Our group's work looking at Singlet Fission in Perylenediimide films is accepted by JACS! Big congrats to Aaron L., Jon, and Danny for all the work they did to get this paper put together!
December 13th, 2017: Mike receives a Research Excellence Award from the Department of Chemistry for his work on energy migration in nanocrystal solids. Nice work Mike!
November 29th, 2017: Our group's collaborative work with Aaron Rury at Wayne State using impulsive Raman spectroscopy to investigate defects in singlet fission materials is accepted by JPC Letters! Congrats to Jon for his work on this!
November 27th, 2017: Mike heads out to the Fall MRS meeting in Boston to talk about his work looking at how exciton delocalizing ligands impact energy transport in quantum dot films. Wicked!
October 16th, 2017: UT undergrad Inki Lee joins the group to help prepare quantum dots for our project examining organic-inorganic exciton transfer. Welcome!
September 13th, 2017: Sean receives the Rom Rhome Endowed Teaching Excellence Award. Way to go!
August 5th, 2017: Aaron M.'s paper on heterodyne electronic sum frequency generation is accepted by the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Kudos to Aaron M., Jon, Danny, Benny, and Ravindra for putting this together!
July 21st, 2017: GREAT's inaugural summer program comes to a close with a poster session showcasing the cool science done by ACC students over the past few weeks. Nice work everyone!
June 19th, 2017: Sean, Jon and Aaron M. head to Quebec City for OP2017. Sean talks about singlet fission, Jon speaks about the work that he's been doing with triplet upconversion, and Aaron shows a poster on his HD-ESFG work! While in town, we take in a bit of culture at the Musee National des Beaux-Arts du Quebec.
June 15th, 2017: Sean talks about the group's new spectrometer for heterodyne sum frequency generation experiments at ICAVS9 in Victoria, BC!
June 12th, 2017: Sean gives a talk and Aaron L. gives a poster highlighting the group's work at the Singlet Fission Workshop at the Peaceful Valley Ranch in Colorado!
May 30th, 2017: A warm welcome is in order for Mitchell Haecker, who will be working with our group this summer. Mitchell is an Austin Community College student that is a part of the inaugural class for GREAT!
April 26th, 2017: We throw Ravindra a going away party before he leaves the group to start a group of his own as a faculty member at IACS in Kolkata, India. Thanks for the hard work and we wish you all the best!
April 13th, 2016: Sean heads Philadelphia to give a talk at Temple University! While he's there, he talks about molecular crystals with Frank Spano, one of the giants in the field, and SFG with Eric Borguet!
April 4th, 2016: Sean heads out to the ACS meeting at San Francisco to show off some of Mike's data on exciton migration in quantum dot films and to give an invited talk highlighting the group's latest work on singlet exciton fission!
March 17th, 2017: UT undergrad Brooks Clingman joins the group! Brooks will be making organic crystals for our group's work investigating singlet fission. Welcome Brooks!
March 13th, 2017: Spring Moveout! Our group starts our move into our new home in the North Wing of Welch Hall.
March 9th, 2017: Michelle and Mike publish our group's first results from our collaboration with the Milliron group to investigate energy relaxation in plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystals in J. Mater. Chem. C. Nice work guys!
March 9th, 2017: The Daily Texan runs a story about our research and our outreach program with Austin Community College. You can check it out here.
February 28th, 2017: Diana wins an undergraduate research fellowship to fund her work on quantum dot films! Way to go!
February 1st, 2017: The group starts the process of relocating our labspace from the 78 wing of Welch Hall to the newly renovated 29 wing!
January 26th, 2017: Sean is awarded the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award by the National Science Foundation to support the group's work using ESFG to probe interfacial charge transfer! The grant also supports a collaborative research program with Austin Community College, which you can read about here. Nice work everyone!
2016
November 21st, 2016: Mike's paper on how exciton delocalizing ligands impact the relaxation behavior of quantum dots is accepted by JPCC! Congrats!
November 16th, 2016: Sean heads out to LSU for an invited Physical Chemistry seminar! Time to show off the group's spiffy new HD-ESFG data!
November 14th, 2016: Aaron and Jon's paper on Singlet Fission in Perylenediimide thin films is accepted by JPC Letters! Nice work guys!
October 19th, 2016: First year graduate students Emily Raulerson, Danny Cotton, & Atlantis Frost join the group! Welcome!
August 1st, 2016: Sean is awarded a grant by the National Science Foundation to support his group's project to study how surface ligands can be used to modify the properties of semiconductor nanocrystals! Nice work guys!
August 1st, 2016: Mike, Michelle, and Sean present posters at the Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystal Gordon Research Conference where Mike has his first encounter with a lobster!
July 25th, 2016: Sean wins a collaborative opportunities grant from the American Chemical Society to start a summer research program with students from Austin Community College! You can read more about this here.
June 30th, 2016: Sean heads to the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, the home of the photon echo, to present the group's work at CMDS 2016. Check out all the cool folks that were there, including Douwe Wiersma himself!
June 22nd, 2016: Sean presents some of the group's new ESFG spectra at the Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces Workshop in Telluride, CO.
June 19th, 2016: Sean talks about the trials and tribulations of making triplets by singlet fission in perylene diimide thin films at the annual Singlet Fission Workshop in Estus Park, CO. Jon and Aaron L. are there too to back Sean up with a pair of spiffy posters!
June 16th & 17th, 2016: Sean and Carlos Baiz host the first annual Southwest Ultrafast Conference at UT which featured Ben Schwartz and Greg Engel as plenary speakers. Many thanks to Coherent for sponsoring the meeting! Check out some photos of the meeting here!
June 7th, 2016: Lauren Dossett, a Welch Summer Scholar, joins the group for the summer and will try out a new method for making nanoparticles. Welcome!
June 1st, 2016: New undergraduate researcher Jacob Anderson joins the group to work on Singlet Fission. Welcome to the group!
April 19th, 2016: Sean gives an invited seminar at the Center for Excitonics at MIT, his PhD alma mater!
March 16th, 2016: Sean presents the group's recently published ESFG work at the ACS Meeting in San Diego.
March 2nd, 2016: Our paper on Electronic Sum Frequency Generation from Organic Semiconductor Surfaces is accepted in J. Phys. Chem. Lett! Congrats to Ravindra, Aaron M., & Jon. Nice work guys!
January 15th, 2016: Undergraduate John Gao joins the group to make core-shell nanoparticles. Welcome!
2015
November 6th, 2015: Mark wins an award for his presentation at the GCURS meeting at Rice. Nice work!
November, 4th 2015: Sean heads to Beijing to present the group's work on Electronic Sum Frequency Generation!
September 22nd, 2015: Check out Sean's perspectives article on Singlet Fission in Nature Chemistry!
September 21st, 2015: Our new TOPAS is installed by Coherent. We'll be producing NIR photons in no time!
September 11th, 2015: The Roberts group welcomes its newest group member, graduate student Michelle Blemker. Welcome to Austin!
September 3rd, 2015: Undergraduates Mirna Gonzalez & Benny Renard join the group. Welcome Aboard!
August 19th, 2015: Sean presents the group's latest singlet fission and ESFG work at the ACS Meeting in Boston, MA. Wicked Awesome!
June 24th, 2015: Sean receives a grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to investigate the properties of plasmonic metal oxide nanoparticles!
June 20st, 2015: Jon, Aaron L., and Sean attend the Singlet Fission Workshop in Estus Park, CO.
June 9th, 2015: Sean heads out to the ENM meeting in Cancun, Mexico to talk about the group's latest ESFG work.
June 8th, 2015: Kelby Erickson, a Welch Summer Scholar, joins the Roberts group for the next five weeks. Kelby will be working with Mike to make quantum dots!
April 17th, 2015: Mark receives an award for his poster presentation at the UT's Undergraduate research forum. Nice work!
April 15th, 2015: Aaron M., Aaron L. and Mike each pass their second year qualifying exams. Great work guys!
April 8th, 2015: Sean presents the group's recent singlet fission results at the Spring Materials Research Society Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
April 7th, 2015: Sean is awarded a research grant by the Welch Foundation to support the group's work on singlet fission!
March 15th, 2015: New photos posted showing the laser in action. Check them out here.
March 3rd, 2015: Sean presents recent lab progress at the APS meeting in San Antonio, TX.
2014
October 15th, 2014: Mark receives an Undergraduate Research Fellowship! Congrats Mark!
October 14th, 2014: The group receives its first external funding from ACS PRF!
October 14th, 2014: Jon Bender joins the Roberts Group to work on singlet fission!
October 7th, 2014: The group's first postdoc, Ravindra Pandey, joins us from Mischa Bonn's lab. Welcome to UT Ravindra!
August 5th, 2014: Aaron's broadband NOPA is complete and now undergoing optimization.
June 24th, 2014: Beam paths taking shape. Check out our photos section for details.
May 28th, 2014: Installation of our oscillator and amplifier begin!
May 19th, 2014: Mark Babin, an undergraduate at UT double majoring in physics & chemistry joins the group. Welcome Aboard!
April 28th, 2014: Sean receives the 2014 Natural Science Foundation Advisory Council Teaching Award! This is a student nominated award given out to a faculty member in UT's College of Natural Sciences.
March 25th, 2014: Sean's paper on Hydroxide Ion Transport in Water is accepted to JPCB!
March 14th, 2014: A paper describing some of Sean's work on Semi-Random Donor:Acceptor Conjugated Polymers appears in JPCC!
2013
December 18th, 2013: Construction officially begins on the Roberts group labspace. Excelsior!
December 2nd, 2013: Aaron M., Aaron L., and Mike join the Roberts group. Welcome Guys!
December 1st, 2013: Sean Joins UT Austin's Department of Chemistry!