Regular Faculty

Christopher Ackerson - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
970-491-0521 / ackerson@mail.colostate.edu
Nanoparticle structure, nanoparticle chemistry, novel nanoparticle synthesis strategies, applications of nanoparticles to biological imaging.

Oren Anderson - Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. Northwestern University
970-491-6339 / opa@lamar.colostate.edu
Structural chemistry of inorganic compounds, including Group IIA complexes, iron/copper bioinorganic model compounds, and metalloporphyrins; protein crystallography.

Travis Bailey - Associate Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Ph.D., University of Minnesota
970-491-4648 / travis.bailey@colostate.edu
His research interests at Colorado State will focus on the thermodynamics of nanoscale self-assembly processes in block copolymer composite materials and their applications in a variety of environments, including polymer-based photovoltaics, bio-enzymatic fuel cells, chemical and biological sensing devices, targeted chemical delivery, and hydrogel-based shape memory materials.

B George Barisas - Professor
Ph.D., Yale University
970-491-6641 / barisas@lamar.colostate.edu
Laser optical techniques for analysis of cell surface phenomena; microcalorimetry

Randy Bartels - Associate Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D., University of Michigan
970-491-1464 / randy.bartels@colostate.edu
The research that we do in our group is highly multidisciplinary, drawing on optics, chemistry, biological, and engineering principles. Our group is working to unravel fundamental questions concerning the interaction of femtosecond light pulses with molecules to induce coherent motion in specific degrees of freedom of the molecules.

Elliot Bernstein - Professor
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
970-491-6347 / erb@lamar.colostate.edu
Conformation and potential energy surfaces of isolated and solvated non-rigid molecules, nucleation, growth, and structure of van der Waals clusters in the gas phase, energy dynamics and chemical reaction in van der Waals clusters, spectroscopy of reactive intermediates, metal oxide cluster catalysis

Thomas Borch - Associate Professor in Soil and Crop Sciences
Ph.D., Montana State University
970-491-6235 / thomas.borch@colostate.edu
My research is directed at determining reactions influencing the fate of trace elements and organic contaminants in soils.

Kristen Buchanan - Assistant Professor in Physics
Ph.D., University of Alberta
970-491-5424 / kristen.buchanan@colostate.edu
My research explores lateral confinement and coupling effects in nanomagnets through both experimental investigations and numerical modeling. In addition to being an exciting subject of study from a fundamental perspective, nanomagnets are also important for the advancement of technology, for example, in spintronics devices, storage media, and for medical applications. My present work focuses on the magnetization reversal and spin excitations of patterned magnetic elements.

Eugene Chen - Professor
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts
970-491-5609 / eugene.chen@colostate.edu
Polymer Chemistry, Sustainability, Renewable Energy, and Catalysis
Bioplastics from renewable feedstocks, biomass conversion into chemicals and fuels, metal-catalyzed stereospecific and asymmetric polymerizations, Lewis pair polymerization, organopolymerization catalysis, precision polymer synthesis, polymer photovoltaics

Debbie Crans - Professor
Ph.D., Harvard University
970-491-7635 / crans@lamar.colostate.edu
Molecular recognition of enzymes, bioorganic chemistry, biological and physical organic chemistry of organic phosphate compounds and analogs, bioinorganic chemistry of vanadium (V) compounds, insulin mimetic compounds, NMR spectroscopy, enzyme catalyzed synthesis, development of methods for trace metal speciation, seed germination

C Michael Elliott - Professor
Ph.D., University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
970-491-5204 / elliott@lamar.colostate.edu
Electron- transfer reactions, photochemistry and electrochemistry of metal complexes, redox active polymer materials, materials-properties and sensor applications, redox catalysis, coordination chemistry, molecular assemblies, bioinorganic and bioanalystical chemistry of redox enzymes.

Delphine Farmer - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California-Berkeley
970-491-0624 / delphine.farmer@colostate.edu
Atmospheric biogeochemistry and mass spectrometry
Atmospheric chemistry; Instrument development & high resolution mass spectrometry; Field and laboratory measurements of reactive trace gases, pesticides and particles; Oxidation of organic compounds in the atmosphere; Biosphere-atmosphere exchange.

Eric Ferreira - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
970-491-6379 / emferr@mail.colostate.edu
Synthetic methodology; transition metal catalysis; natural product synthesis

Richard Finke - Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
970-491-2541 / rfinke@lamar.colostate.edu
Chemical catalysis, nanoparticle research, energy research and kinetics and mechanism

Ellen Fisher - Professor, Department Chair
Ph.D., University of Utah
970-491-5250 / erfisher@lamar.colostate.edu
Plasma chemistry, reactivity of radicals with surfaces using LIF and molecular beam techniques. Plasma polymerization deposition and etching of materials. Characterization of plasma synthesized thin films.

Nick Fisk - Assistant Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin
970-491-4115 / Nick.Fisk@colostate.edu
My research involves expanding the genetic code to include specifically reactive amino acids and using these types of non-natural amino acids to construct branched proteins and control the physical properties of protein assemblies.

Lou Hegedus - University Distinguished Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. Harvard
970-491-6376 / hegedus@lamar.colostate.edu
Organic synthesis, organometallic chemistry.

Charles Henry - Professor
Ph.D., University of Arkansas
970-491-2852 / cshenry@mail.colostate.edu
Microscale bioanalytical and environmental chemistry
Bioanalytical chemistry; environmental chemistry; chemical separations; microscale chemical instrumentation; capillary electrophoresis; biosensor development; paper-based analytical devices; microfluidics

Alan Kennan - Associate Professor, Associate Chair for Academic Affairs
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
970-491-6046 / kennan@lamar.colostate.edu
Peptide/Protein Recognition and Design
Molecular recognition, self-assembly, development of novel biological recognition motifs, construction of synthetic receptors for small molecules of biological interest, design of catalytic peptides.

Amber Krummel - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison
970-491-3694 / Amber.Krummel@colostate.edu
Structure & dynamics in condensed phase systems; two-dimensional infrared spectroscopy.

Branka Ladanyi - Professor
Ph.D., Yale University
970-491-5196 / bl@lamar.colostate.edu
Statistical mechanics, structure and dynamics of molecular fluids and solids. Theoretical and computational studies of surfactant self-assembly, nanoconfined and supercritical fluids, liquid interfaces, solvation dynamics, light scattering and nonlinear optical phenomena.

Nancy Levinger - Professor and University Distinguished Teaching Scholar
Ph.D., University of Colorado
970-491-1331 / levinger@lamar.colostate.edu
Dynamics of molecules and chemistry in the condensed phase, especially molecular assemblies, molecules at liquid interfaces and in confined environments by ultrafast spectroscopic techniques, NMR, and neutron scattering.

Gary Maciel - Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
970-491-6480 / maciel@lamar.colostate.edu
Multinuclear NMR studies of structural and intermolecular effects, studies of solid polymers, plant materials and organic geochemicals, NMR as a bridge between the solid state, and liquid solutions, NMR studies of surfaces, NMR studies of fibers, ceramics and conductors, materials imaging, NMR application to the study of fundamental behavior of pollutants in soil/groundwater systems.

Brian McNaughton - Assistant Professor of Chemistry, and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology
Ph.D., University of Rochester
970-491-7060 / Brian.McNaughton@ColoState.edu
Macromolecular evolution and engineering, targeted delivery of protein therapies and imaging reagents
Development of new macromolecular therapeutics and targeted therapeutic delivery systems. Toward this end, researchers in my lab employ a diverse experimental platform, which includes protein engineering, protein evolution, phage display and selection, analysis of protein delivery and function in mammalian cell culture and in vivo, and biophysical analysis of protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions.

Carmen Menoni - Professor in Electrical and Computer Engineering
Ph.D., Colorado State University
970-491-8659 / carmen.menoni@colostate.edu
Prof. Menoni’s research bridges from material to optical sciences. She is engaged in the growth and characterization of high bandgap oxide materials for the engineering of interference coatings for high power lasers. She is also actively involved in using bright coherent beams of light of wavelengths between 10-50 nm for optics applications such as imaging and ablation.

James Neilson - Assistant Professor
Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara
james.neilson@colostate.edu
Functional inorganic materials for energy and biomineralization
New materials and methodologies involving solid-state and solution-phase reactions, particularly those involving kinetic control. We study structure/property relationships of materials (e.g., magnetism, electrical transport) using advanced synchrotron X-ray and time-of-flight neutron scattering and spectroscopic methods.

Amy Prieto - Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
970-491-1592 / alprieto@lamar.colostate.edu
Electrochemical synthesis of inorganic bulk and nanoscale materials, low-temperature solid-state chemistry, nanomaterials.

Anthony Rappe - Professor
Ph.D., California Institute of Technology
970-491-6292 / rappe@lamar.colostate.edu
Theoretical characterization of reaction mechanisms in homogeneous and heterogeneous catalysis, new electronic structure techniques, development of force fields or model potentials for chemical reactivity studies.

Melissa Reynolds - Assistant Professor of Chemistry and School of Biomedical Engineering
Ph.D., University of Michigan
970-491-3775 / melissa.reynolds@colostate.edu
Biomaterials and biomedical engineering
Multidisciplinary chemical design and fabrication of biomimetic materials for use in medical device applications. Research work includes: synthesis of organic and inorganic compounds including small-molecule therapeutics, polymers, and extended frameworks; analytical studies utilizing fluorescence, chemiluminesence, zeta potential, and LC/MS-TOF; fabrication and engineering of materials; biomedical efficacy and toxicity studies.

Dawn Rickey - Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
970-491-2364 / rickey@mail.colostate.edu
Relationships among metacognition (monitoring and regulation of one’s own thinking), conceptual change, and ability to solve novel (transfer) problems in chemistry. Applications to chemical education, including the design and assessment of learning environments and associated instructor professional development experiences.

Tomislav Rovis - Professor
Ph.D., University of Toronto
970-491-7208 / rovis@lamar.colostate.edu
Asymmetric catalysis, organometallic chemistry, reaction development, synthesis of biologically important molecules.

Yian Shi - Professor
Ph.D., Stanford University
970-491-7424 / yian@lamar.colostate.edu
Organic and biological chemistry, new synthetic methodology, synthesis of chemically and biologically interesting natural products and study of their molecular mechanisms of action, study of enzymatic reaction mechanisms and development of therapeutic agents.

Matthew Shores - Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley
970-491-7235 / Matthew.Shores@colostate.edu
(Magnetic) applications of coordination complexes
Coordination and organometallic complex synthesis and characterization: environmental control of spin-crossover properties; single-molecule magnets; solar photochemistry employing earth-abundant materials.

Frank Stermitz - Centennial Professor Emeritus
Ph.D., University of Colorado
970-491-5158 / frslab@lamar.colostate.edu
Alkaloid chemistry, natural product isolation, characterization, synthesis and biosynthesis, chemical ecology, plant-insect interactions.

Steven Strauss - Professor
Ph.D., Northwestern University
970-491-5104 / steven.strauss@colostate.edu
Fundamental and applied aspects of synthetic inorganic, analytical and environmental chemistry; fluorinated superweak ions; selective fluorination and chlorination of fullerenes; pollution prevention; infrared sensors for environmental and industrial applications; redox-cyclable ion-exchange; layered materials; metal carbonyls

Grzegorz Szamel - Professor
Ph.D., Warsaw University, Poland
970-491-2795 / szamel@lamar.colostate.edu
Statistical mechanics, dynamics of colloidal and polymeric fluids, structure and dynamics of colloidal fluids under non-uniform flow conditions.

Stephen Thompson - Professor Emeritus
Ph.D. University of Birmingham, England
970-491-1700 / sthompson@csmate.colostate.edu
Investigation of techniques and procedures for low cost under graduate laboratory education, chemical education, amthocyanin chemistry, atmospheric aerosols.

Alan Van Orden - Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of California at Berkeley
970-491-6286 / vanorden@lamar.colostate.edu
Bioanalytical chemistry, single molecule detection and spectroscopy, laser spectroscopy, optical and scanning probe microscopy, optical biosensors for pharmaceutical and clinical chemistry.

Robert Williams - University Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., Massachutsetts Institute of Technology
970-491-6747 / rmw@lamar.colostate.edu
Synthesis of natural products of biomedical significance and development of synthetic methodology for the construction of complex target molecules, design and synthesis of active site activated irreversible enzyme inhibitors, asymmetric synthesis of of alpha-amino acids, mechanism of action studies on anti-tumor drugs and antibiotics, oxidative cleavage and cross-linking of DNA, total synthesis and biogenesis of mycotoxic indole alkaloids from fungi, taxol biosynthesis, design and synthesis of antibiotics for drug-resistant microbial diseases, molecular biology and protein bioichemistry.

John Wood - Professor
Ph.D., The University of Pennsylvania
970-491-5703 / jlwood@lamar.colostate.edu

Special Faculty Members

Joseph DiVerdi - Associate Professor, Upper Division Undergraduate Lab Coordinator
970-491-1761 / joseph.diverdi@colostate.edu

Lisa Dysleski - Assistant Professor, Head Academic Advisor
970-491-0722 / lisa.dysleski@colostate.edu


Benjamin Reynolds - General Chemistry Undergraduate Lab Coordinator
970-491-1322 / benjamin.reynolds@colostate.edu