The goal of Professor Prezhdo’s research is to obtain a theoretical understanding at the molecular level of chemical reactivity and energy transfer in complex condensed-phase chemical and biological environments. This requires the development of new theoretical and computational tools and the application of these tools to challenging chemical problems in direct connection to experiments.
Recent News...
16 October 2007 It's been quite a busy Summer (and Fall) in the Prezhdo Group. Eric Heatwole successfully defended his thesis titled 'Statistical Mechanics in the Second Order Quantized Hamilton Dynamics'. Dr. Heatwole accepted a post-doctoral position in Germany at Humboldt University. He is working with Dr. habil V. May on modeling 2 photon photon emission spectroscopy. Brad Habenicht was awarded an IGERT fellowship from the Nanotechnology Center at the University of Washington. Kim Gunnerson has set her thesis defense date for October 18th- Good Luck, Kim! Dr. Prezhdo was awarded a fellowship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science to collaborate with Dr. Tanimura at the University of Kyoto. Brad Habenicht also traveled to Japan to collaborate with Dr. Yamashita and his group at the University of Tokyo. Dr. Prezhdo and Brad would like to thank Dr. Yamashita and Dr. Tanimura for their hospitality during their respective stays. Finally, please check the Publications section for our updated list.
13 March 2007 Congratulations to Walter Duncan on defending his thesis and earning his Ph.D.
2 FEB 07 ... Happy Groundhog Day! We have quite an update for everyone (it's been a busy couple of months in the Prezhdo Group!). First, congratulations to Colleen on graduating and receiving her Ph.D. from UW! Colleen is now teaching chemistry at Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA. In light of this fact, Brad has taken over the website duties. Walter Duncan is getting ready to graduate himself, with a defense date set sometime in March- Good Luck, Walter! Now on to publications- and there have been many (please see the 'Publications' Section). Hideyuki and Svetlana's paper on Vibrational Dephasing in PbSe quantum dots was published in Nanoletters. Several Members of our group contributed to a book chapter Quantum Dynamics on the Nanoscale published by Springer. Oleg and Walter's research on Ab Initio Photoinduced Molecule-Semiconductor Electron Transfer was published in NANOMATERIALS: DESIGN AND SIMULATION, 18. Walter and Oleg also collaborated on a paper for Annual Review of Physical Chemistry entitled Theoretical Studies of Photoinduced Electron Transfer in Dye-Sensitized TiO2 . Yuriy recently had a paper published in Physical Review E and the Virtual Journal of Biological Physics Research. You can find his paper on Universal laws in the force-induced unraveling of biological bonds here . And finally, Svetlana's paper "Ab Initio Time-Domain Study of Phono-Assisted Relaxation of Charge Carriers in a PbSe Quantum Dot" was accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Congratulations to everyone for their success! In other news (yes, there's still more), Oleg has been working to put together sessions for a couple of conferences. He and Phil Reid are organizing a "Dynamics on the Nanoscale" symposium for the March 2007 ACS meeting. Also, Sergei Tretiak, Vladimir Chernyak and Oleg are putting together a workshop entitled "Nonequilibrium Phenomena, Nonadiabatic Dynamics and Spectroscopy" for the Telluride conference in July. Good luck to him and everyone else. Anyways, that's it for now...
1 NOV 06 ... Colleen has set her defense date: Thursday, December 14th at 11am. Clearly this is only a hot news item because Colleen also maintains this webpage. WAY TO GO, GIRL!!
31 OCT 06 ... HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! =)
28 OCT 06 ... The pedagogical paper "Control of Chemical Equilibrium by Solvent: A Basis for Teaching Physical Chemistry of Solutions" by Oleg V. Prezhdo, Colleen F. Craig, Yuriy Fialkov, and Victor V. Prezhdo has been accepted to the Journal of Chemical Education.
8 AUG 06 ... Oleg was invited to contribute to the "New Perspectives in Theoretical Chemistry" issue of Theoretical Chemistry Accounts, a special issue dedicated to representing "the voice of a new generation of theoretical chemists." Oleg was one of only 35 young theoretical chemists to receive this honor. His contribution will be published this month; download an electronic version here.
7 AUG 06 ... Yuriy's analysis of the P-selectin/PGSL-1 catch-slip bond indicates that variations in heart rate could play a vital role in cell transport and adhesion to blood-vessel walls during inflammatory processes. The catch-slip bond, which increases in strength with increasing shear force, was first described by our group here.
Proofs are available for chapters our group has contributed to two upcoming books. "Photoexcitation dynamics on the nanoscale" will appear in Quantum Dynamics of Complex Molecular Systems (Springer), and "Ab Initio Simulations of Photoinduced Molecule-Semiconductor Electron Transfer" will appear in Nanomaterials: Design and Simulation (Elsevier). Both books hit the stands this fall.
Oleg and Walter's review article, "Theoretical studies of photo-induced electron transfer in dye-sensitized TiO2", was recently accepted by Annual Reviews of Physical Chemistry. The article will appear in the 2007 issue.
2 aug 06 ... Congratulations to Svetlana, who has been awarded the Huckabay Teaching Fellowship for the Winter 2007 quarter.
27 July 06 ... Bonanza has been successfully installed in its new location and is on-line again. Users, start your jobs!
17 July 06 ... The bonanza computer cluster move will occur Tuesday, 25 July. The move should take about three days. Users are advised to stop any running jobs, and to back up data.
30 June 06 ... Congratulations to Walter, who has just accepted a instructorship at Seattle University. Walter will start this fall teaching introductory chemistry courses to undergraduates.
20 June 06 ... Brad's recent Physical Review Letter (96, 187401 (2006)) on relaxation dynamics in excited carbon nanotubes has been selected for the June 2006 issue of the Virtual Journal of Ultrafast Science.
25 May 06 ... Brad's recent Physical Review Letter (96, 187401 (2006)) on relaxation dynamics in excited carbon nanotubes has been selected for the May 29, 2006 issue of Virtual Journal of Nanoscale Science & Technology.
1 May 06 ... The Prezhdo Group says goodbye to Svetlana and Dmitri, who will be working with Sergei Tretiak at Los Alamos Natl. Lab for the summer months.
12 March 06 ... We welcome Hideyuki Kamisaka, PhD, from the University of Tokyo, who will be visiting our group during spring and summer 2006. Hideyuki's work in here involves the estimation of dephasing times in quantum dots.