Meet Our Graduates: J. Scott Niezgoda
Scott Niezgoda earned his Ph.D. in Dr. Sandra Rosenthal’s lab at Vanderbilt University, where he studied the photophysics and surface chemistry of quantum dots for application in solar cell technology. While at Vanderbilt, Scott was active in VINSE-lead community outreach to local public high schools in an effort to make college a distinct possibility for underserved youth and to spread knowledge of alternative energy technologies. After graduate school, he spent 2 years as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Dr. Joshua Choi’s lab at the University of Virginia’s Department of Chemical Engineering. There, he focused on the use of all-inorganic, halide-alloyed cesium lead perovskites for a NASA funded grant with the aim of developing lightweight, flexible, and high temperature-stable solar panels for use in space exploration. Currently, Scott is an assistant professor of chemistry at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, where he will be applying for tenure in the fall of 2023. Aside from general chemistry curricula, he teaches yearly courses in quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, and nanomaterials. The Niezgoda lab is active in the quantum dot surface science community, especially in the pursuit of on-particle ligand modification procedures that result in substantial ligand transformations without their removal from the crystal surface. Scott is also currently involved in analysis of Egyptian glass artifacts via elemental mapping with STEM-EDS on a JEOL F200 at the Singh Center for Nanotechnology at UPenn.