Theoretical, statistical thermodynamical studies of liquid state polymers represent an important scientific tool in modern polymer physics. One of our interests lies in predicting the thermodynamic properties of multi-component polymer mixtures, such as phase behavior, miscibility, or neutron scattering intensity as a function of monomer structures, temperature, pressure, and blend composition. Another interest focuses on the equilibrium polymerization that is a paradigm for clustering transitions occurring in numerous systems, ranging from various nano-particle filled materials to proteins in living organisms. An illustrative example of this research is provided by our recent description of the equilibrium polymerization of actin. 

(Personal Profile)

As a member of the Sibener group, my interests involve studying gas-surface interactions. The main tool for these studies is an ultra-high-vacuum chamber that allows us to expose the surface of interest to gases from three independent molecular beams. Reactions at the surface, and the energy, angular distribution, and identity of any scattered or desorbed atom or molecule can be determined. Recent experiments have examined the oxidation of benzene and the translational energy dependence of methane decomposition on Rh(111). We have also studied the surface reactions of atomic O, examining the partial oxidation of adsorbed organic compounds, and the modification of the transition metal surface. The latter allowed us to grow a novel, dense water overlayer. Currently, we are studying the scattering of gases from organic monolayers. Future work will measure the surface reactions of atomic O at high kinetic energies, a problem for objects in low-earth orbit. 

Dr. Qiti Guo joined Professor Emeritus Ole Kleppa’s group in 1992, working on experimental thermochemistry. He has determined the standard enthalpies of formation for more than 150 intermetallic compounds of early transition metals with late transition metals and with noble metals. In 1998, he accepted a job offer from the Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC) and has been in charge of the Materials Preparation Laboratory (MPL) since then. His research interests include: (1) Applications of Scanning Probing Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy to materials research. (2) Application of electron beam lithography to materials research. (3) Thermochemistry of intermetallic compounds and mixed oxide systems, using high-temperature reaction calorimetry. (4) Theoretical analysis of topological structures of phase diagrams for systems of n+3 phases (n stands for the number of independent components of the systems), with emphasis on the interrelationship between phase chemography and phase diagram topology. (5) Topological relations in systems of more than n+3 phases. He is also responsible for training students and postdocs for operating SEM, AFM/STM and other MRSEC shared facilities in MPL.

Dr. Lin obtained her Ph. D in Physics at Northwestern University in 1990 and joined Professor Stuart Rice's group as a postdoc the same year. In 1994, she became a beamline scientist at Consortium for Advanced Radiation Sources (CARS), University of Chicago. She is in charge of liquid surface/interfacial scattering experimental station in ChemMatCARS at the Advanced Photon Sources, Argonne National Laboratories (CheMatCARS is a national synchrotron x-ray facility for chemistry and material sciences). Her research interests in CARS are on surface/interfacial structural and dynamic properties of soft materials, and systems of interests include Langmuir monolayers, polymer/metal nano-particle composites, and liquid metals. Dr. Lin also conducts research in James Franck Institute on the behaviors of colloidal suspensions confined in one-dimensional narrow channels. Digital video microscopy is used for the experimental measurements, and synchrotron x-ray static/dynamic scattering techniques are to be used in the future measurements. She is studying the effects of the confinement on the diffusion and ordering of the colloidal spheres in the channels.

Daniel Silevitch arrived here after completing his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins University under Dan Reich and C.L. Chien, where he studied the behavior of ferromagnetic materials at sub-micron length scales. Currently, he works for Prof. Tom Rosenbaum, studying the behavior of reduced-dimensional Ising ferromagnets.
 

(Personal Profile)

Dr. Zhao is a research associate working with Professor Stuart Rice. His research include active control of quantum dynamical processes, the properties of solid-liquid and liquid-vapor interfaces, especially the structure of liquid-X interfaces of metals and alloys, quantum mechanical reactive scattering, unimolecular reaction rate theory, as well as relativistic quantum mechanics. Dr. Zhao is also working as the director of general chemistry laboratories.

Postdoctoral Scholar Sanghun An joined Prof. Woowon Kang's group after completing his Ph.D with Prof. Tom Gramila at the Ohio State. His Ph.D research focused on Coulomb drag measurements in bilayer two-dimensional electron systems (2DES), in which he directly probed interlayer electron interactions in tilted magnetic fields to study its anomalous character. His current study explores the nu=5/2 fractional quantum Hall state (FQHE) of 2DES at below 20mK, with a focus on the possible non-Abelian nature of the quasiparticle excitations, which is a prime candidate to realize the qubit for error-tolerant topological quantum computations.

Postdoctoral Scholar Kathy-Ann Brickman joins Prof. Chin's Lab.

Eric Brown joined the JFI as a postdoctoral scholar after receiving a Ph.D. in physics for studying the flow dynamics of turbulent thermal convection with Prof. Guenter Ahlers at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is at the JFI to study jamming in granular systems and colloids with Sid Nagel and Heinrich Jaeger.

Postdoctoral Scholar Chih-Chun Chien working in Prof. Levin's Lab.

Postdoctoral Scholar Hyunchang Choi joined Prof. Kang's lab January 2007.

Grainger Postdoctoral Fellow Nathan Gemelke completed his PhD on ultracold atomic gases and Bose-Einstein condensation under direction of Nobel Leaureate Dr. Steven Chu at Stanford University.  His research there included investigations of fractional quantum Hall effects in rotating ultracold Bose gases, atomic parametric oscillation, superfluid-Mott insulator transitions, sub-recoil laser cooling, and photoassociation of ultracold molecules.  In May, 2007, he joined the James Franck Institute to participate in research on quantum degenerate atomic Bose and Fermi gases, few-body physics, and quantum information in the group of Prof. Cheng Chin.  Since joining, he has delivered the 66th Arthur H. Compton Lecture Series, and assisted in producing the first Bose-Einstein condensate of cesium atoms in the United States. 

Postdoctoral Scholar You jin Hao working in Prof. Biron's Lab.

Post-Doctoral Scholar working with Prof. Greg Engel.

Post-Doctoral Scholar working with Prof. Heinrich Jaeger.

Rafael Jaramillo works on antiferromagnetic quantum phase transitions and domain properties in Prof. Rosenbaum's group.

Dan Killelea joined JFI as a postdoc after completing his Ph.D. with Prof. Arthur Utz at Tufts University. His research focused on the role that vibrational energy in gas-phase reagents plays in heterogeneously catalyzed reactions and demonstrated bond and isotope selective control of gas-surface reactions using IR laser light. Currently, he is working for Prof. Steven Sibener and is studying reactions on polymer surfaces.

Postdoctoral Scholar Dongxu Li joins Prof. Rice's Lab.

Postdocoral Scholar Alexandre Pourret joined Philippe Guyot-Sionnest group after completing his PhD supervised by Kamran Behnia at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielle in Paris. He used thermoelectricity (Nernst and Seebeck effects) to study the superconducting fluctuations in amorphous thin films of NbxSi 1-x and the electronic orders in the heavy fermion compound PrFe4P12. He now studies the transport in thin films of semiconductor quantum dots (CdSe, CdSeCdS...) using magnetoresistance and photoconductance measurements.

Postdoc Evgeny Stukalin arrived here after completing a postdoc at Rice University where he worked with Prof. Anatoly Kolomeisky on assembly dynamics in rigid multifilament biopolymers, length fluctuations in actin filaments influenced by accompanying nucleotide transformation, and motor proteins translocation. Previously, he earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from Moscow State University on solvation thermodynamics of fullerenes and noncovalent bonding in solid cosolvent complexes. Currently, he joins Prof. Karl Freed, in collaboration with Dr. Jacek Dudowicz (JFI) and Dr. Jack Douglas (NIST), to work on dynamics of polymers in the liquid phase appealing to structural and chemical relaxation of macromolecules. The work focuses on statistical mechanics of flexible chains and chemical dynamics in equilibrium aggregating systems. Consideration involves the interplay between the kinetic mechanism for viscoelastic relaxation from breaking/restoration of the bonds and stress relaxation due to the chain motions..
 

Ali joined Prof. Dinner's group after completing his PhD at the University of Waterloo in Canada. He studied disordered quantum magnetic materials theoretically with Prof. Michel Gingras. In Dinner's group he is going to theoretically study regulatory networks in biological systems.

Postdoctoral Scholar Barbara Wild working in Prof. Scherer's Lab.

Xinliang joined Prof. Dinner's group after completing his PhD at the University of Chicago with Prof. Rice.