‘Janet Macdonald’
Andrey Shults recipient of VINSE Best Collaborative Paper Award
Nov. 15, 2023—VINSE is excited to announce Andrey Shults is the recipient of the VINSE Best Collaborative Paper award. Andrey’s paper has contributions from two VINSE groups from different departments – the Macdonald group in Chemistry and the Caldwell group in Mechanical Engineering. The authors report on colloidal chemistry synthesis and characterization that provides key insights for the...
Episode 5 | Meet our Faculty | Janet Macdonald
Aug. 15, 2023—Learn more about Dr. Janet Macdonald and her group. The Macdonald group uses synthetic chemistry techniques to hunt for uncharted paths to make nanocrystals in crystal phases never before seen in nature. Watch on YouTube | Hear more from Janet Macdonald Macdonald Lab
Researcher Highlight: Alex Stoneman
Jan. 5, 2023—Alex Stoneman, senior Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering & Chemistry undergraduate student in the Lang lab T-cells are key parts of the mammalian immune response, and T-cell receptors (TCRs) help them recognize their foreign targets. Previous lab work has shown that TCRs act as mechanosenors; piconewton-scale forces facilitate their extremely specific interactions with antigens. The lab...
Dissertation Defense, Madeleine Fort, Interdisciplinary Materials Science
Dec. 5, 2022—DISSERTATION DEFENSE Madeleine Fort, Interdisciplinary Materials Science *under the direction of Dr. Janet Macdonald “Improving Charge Separation and Transfer in Semiconducting Nanocrystalline Materials” 12.07.22 | 11:30am CST | 5502 Stevenson Center This thesis examines charge transfer from semiconductor nanocrystals. A discussion of charge transfer mechanisms and their importance to renewable technologies is given. The relationship between...
Dissertation Defense: Nathan Spear, Interdisciplinary Materials Science
Nov. 28, 2022—DISSERTATION DEFENSE Nathan Spear, Interdisciplinary Materials Science *under the direction of Dr. Janet Macdonald & Dr. Richard Haglund “Enhanced Plasmonic Upconversion in Coupled Metal-Semiconductor Nanoparticle Films” 12.06.22 | 11:00am CST | 132 Olin Hall A large class of nonlinear materials show enhanced harmonic generation by exciting the localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) of metallic or semiconducting nanoparticles....
Dissertation Defense: Christopher Sharp, Chemistry
Nov. 28, 2022—DISSERTATION DEFENSE Christopher Sharp, Chemistry *under the direction of Dr. Janet Macdonald “Cation Exchange in Nanocrystals Towards Novel Ternary Copper Chalcogens” 12.02.22 | 1:00pm CST | 202 Light Hall (RLH) | Zoom This thesis concerns the synthesis of copper chalcogen nanocrystals through cation exchange with focus on ternary intermediate and final products. Firstly, synthetic targeting of metastable and thermodynamic CuFeS2...
Researcher Highlights: Ethan Lippmann and Janet Macdonald
Aug. 26, 2022—Ethan Lippmann, Associate Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering The majority of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s are incurable, and the incidence of neurodegenerative disease is expected to increase concurrently with worldwide life expectancies. The Lippmann lab combines principles from engineering, neuroscience, and regenerative medicine to model, understand, and ultimately treat neurodegeneration more effectively. For biological investigations, we...
“Minimizing the Reorganization Energy of Cobalt Redox Mediators Maximizes Charge Transfer Rates from Quantum Dots” selected as VINSE Spotlight Publication
Jun. 8, 2022—About the author: Madeleine Fort is working on her PhD in Interdisciplinary Materials Science under the guidance of Dr. Janet Macdonald. In this recently published article, she, and Sophia Click from Dr. Sandra Rosenthal’s lab, observed the effect of the reorganization energy of a charge acceptor on electron transfer rates from cadmium-based quantum dots. This...
Spotlight Publication: “Alkyl Selenol Reactivity with Common Solvents and Ligands: Influences on Phase Control in Nanocrystal Synthesis” published in Nanoscale
Dec. 15, 2021—“Alkyl Selenol Reactivity with Common Solvents and Ligands: Influences on Phase Control in Nanocrystal Synthesis” published in Nanoscale has been selected as a VINSE spotlight publication. About the authors: In his honors project in the chemistry laboratory of Assoc. Prof. Janet Macdonald, undergraduate Eric Ho examined the synthesis of copper selenide nanocrystals. Eric closely looked...
Spring 2022 Graduate Student Research Highlights
Dec. 13, 2021—Spring Newsletter 2022 graduate student research highlights: Ella Hoogenboezem, 5th year graduate student in the Duvall lab Short interfering RNA (siRNA) is a powerful gene silencing platform that has the potential to silence tumor-driving genes. However, siRNA medicines for tumor delivery have remained clinically elusive. In their native form, siRNAs are rapidly cleared by...