Speaker
Jeffrey Rinehart, Ph.D.
Speaker's Institution
University of California, San Diego
Date
2023-04-11
Time
4:00pm
Location
Chemistry A101
Mixer Time
3:45pm
Mixer Time
Chemistry B101E
Calendar (ICS) Event
Additional Information

About the Seminar

On the nanoscale, magnetic order gives way to a fundamentally different behavior, enhancing the role of phonon coupling and giving rise to superparamagnetism, a distinct behavior combining the large moment of collective permanent magnetism with the equilibrium kinetics of paramagnetism. Superparamagnetism has rich functionality, finding applications at the intersections of diverse fields such as biomedicine, electronics, sensing, imaging, rheology, and catalysis. Further size reduction into the molecular regime, even down to a single magnetic atom, has been shown to support superparamagnetism, adding the possibility for new fundamental behavior and functionality based on the quantized nature of the spin states. This talk will explore our work in both nanoscale and molecular superparamagnetism with a specific focus on the design and verification of models for synthetic control of the wavefunction.

About the Speaker

Jeff grew up in Oconomowoc, WI, and, deciding it wasn’t nearly cold and snowy enough, moved to Ithaca, NY to get his B.A. in Chemistry. While at Cornell, he worked in the lab of Prof. Stephen Lee on characterizing the elusive structures of a series of metal cyanide polymer catalysts using powder x-ray diffraction and density functional theory.

After graduating in 2005, he moved to sunny California to work under Prof. Jeffrey Long at University of California, Berkeley. There, he became fascinated with the electronic structure of the f-elements (lanthanides & actinides) and how this electronic structure could be studied and modified through synthetic molecular chemistry. Of particular interest was how the electronic structure dictated magnetic properties and this became not only the focus of his dissertation work but also the seed of broader questions of how to use molecular magnetism to better understand extended solids and multi-scale interactions.

To learn more about the physics and chemistry beyond the scope of the molecular, Jeff sought out an expert in nanoscale materials. Securing a postdoctoral position in the lab of Prof. Daniel Gamelin at the University of Washington, Jeff moved up the (deceptively long) coast from NorCal to Seattle, where the fantastic science and people quickly outweighed the rainy and overcast climate. During his time there Jeff worked on a broad range of electronically and magnetically doped colloidal nanocrystalline semiconductors.

In a gambit to avoid “weather” entirely, in 2014 Jeff accepted an assistant professor position in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at at UC San Diego. He is a member of the Materials Science and Engineering Program as well.