FIP Virtual Seminar "Melding Photonics and Chemistry for new forms of Single-Molecule Spectroscopy"

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Wed, 11/17/2021 - 12:00 to 13:00

Presenter

Dr. Randall Goldsmith, Professor, Department of Chemistry, University of Wisconsin Madison

Goldsmith Seminar

Photonic devices offer new ways of sculpting light-matter interactions to alter how scientists use light to probe the behavior of molecules. I will tell three stories to illustrate this exciting notion. In the first story, I will describe how we can use Zero-Mode Waveguides to do high-concentration single-molecule biophysical studies and elucidate the mechanism of an important regulator of pacemaking ion channels. In the second story, I will discuss how high-Q optical microresonators can be used as spectrometers for non-emissive molecules and show an application in the exploration of the electronic structure of a conducting polymer, PEDOT:PSS. Finally, I will describe the beginnings of a new project on using topological photonics for spectroscopy, including the development of new 3D-printed topological waveguides.

Randall Goldsmith completed undergraduate degrees in chemistry and biology (2002) at Cornell University.  He received his Ph.D at Northwestern University (2008) studying photoinduced electron transfer under the direction of Professors Michael Wasielewski and Mark Ratner, and performed postdoctoral work at Stanford University with Professor W.E. Moerner, where he became profoundly convinced that molecules deserve to be looked at one at a time. He has been a faculty member in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin Madison since 2011 where his research interests span single-molecule spectroscopy, micro and nanophotonics, chemical catalysis, photochemistry, and biophysics.  His work has been recognized with a DARPA young faculty award, NSF CAREER award, Alzheimer’s Association Young Faculty Award, Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar Award, and Journal of Physical Chemistry Lectureship Award.