Accurately characterizing the structure of molecules is a fundamental goal for chemists. Many powerful techniques exist to do so (e.g. NMR, IR Spectroscopy, X-ray Crystallography, etc.) and have proven themselves to be extremely effective. However, there are certain cases where these standard ensemble methods struggle to characterize certain systems. In 1986, Binning and coworkers developed Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) as a complementary method to these traditional techniques.

An externally corrected coupled cluster (CC) ¹ method, where an adaptive configuration interaction (ACI) ^2,3 wave function provides the external cluster amplitudes, named ACI-CC, was presented. By exploiting the connection between configuration interaction and coupled cluster through cluster analysis, the higher-order T₃ and T₄ terms obtained from ACI are used to augment the T₁ and T₂ amplitude equations from traditional coupled cluster.

The interactions between gaseous SO₂ and the surface of water droplets have been studied extensively over the years due to the environmental impacts of aerosols. Spectroscopic methods including vibrational sum-frequency spectroscopy (VSFS) have been used to better understand the mechanism in which gaseous SO₂ reacts and dissolves on a water droplet surface^1-3. A weakly bonded SO₂:H₂O complex on the surface of water droplets has been observed before dissolution using VSFS¹.

Dr. Gregory Robinson, UGA Foundation Professor of Chemistry, is the lead faculty member coordinating the University of Georgia's participation in a comprehensive effort to increase faculty diversity and the use of inclusive teaching practices in STEM fields. Robinson is part of a team composed of UGA faculty, staff, and administrators working with the IChange Network to spearhead this initiative.

This 2020-2021 academic year serves as the inaugural year for the First-Year Peer Mentoring Program coordinated by both the Department of Chemistry and the Chemistry Graduate Student Organization (CGSO).  This program was designed to help integrate and acclimate incoming first-year chemistry graduate students to a graduate career in the UGA Chemistry Department. It aims to serve first-year students primarily in three areas: graduate coursework, teaching assistantships, and selection of a research group/PhD committee.

Doped or functionalized silica thin films are highly desirable technologies for many chemical applications. Current procedures for doping can be costly, environmentally unfriendly, require many synthetic steps, or have low doping efficiency. Kinetic doping is a technique for loading guest molecules into sol-gel thin films that involves introducing guest molecules into a still-evolving film, allowing them to be entrapped by the growing silica network developed by the Yip lab.

Excitation of light-harvesting pigment-protein complexes is the first step in photosynthesis. The absorbed energy is transferred to reaction centers where it is used to fuel biological processes. Pump-probe and time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy have been traditionally used to study the energy flow within these systems. However, in the past decades two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy (2DES) emerged as a powerful technique for detailed study of the ultrafast energy transfer within photosynthetic systems.

Striking transformations in the chemical complexity of the Earth's atmosphere have led to a multitude of pathways to aerosol formation. Likewise, the search for more efficient fuels and engine designs has resulted in similar increases in the composition of combustible fuels. These changes present opportunities to the scientific community to develop a molecular-scale understanding of the available chemical pathways in both environments.