Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Poul Petersen, Cornell University
Physical Chemistry Seminar: Professor Poul Petersen, Cornell University, Sapp Center Lecture Hall, 4:30pm (Host: Tom Markland)
About the Seminar:
"Giving infrared spectroscopy a boost: new methods for studying interfaces, chirality, and strongly hydrogen-bonded complexes"
Mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy directly interrogates the chemical bonds molecules are composed of through their vibrational frequencies and thus offers a direct and local probe of molecular structure and nuclear motion. However, ultrafast IR spectroscopy is very challenging and thus heavily technology driven. Progress is driven by technical advances and the development of new laser sources and techniques that shed new light on existing problems, resolve controversies, and can lead to the discovery of new and unexpected phenomena. We are pushing the envelope of ultrafast mid-IR spectroscopic methods to probe the structure and dynamics at surface and in bulk systems, and further applying them to a series of novel systems. This includes new methods for studying chiral water structures in biological settings, surface-bound catalysts, and the ultrafast dynamics and vibrational couplings within strongly hydrogen-bonded proton transfer systems.
About the Speaker: Poul B Petersen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Cornell University. He received his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in chemistry from Aarhus University, Denmark and obtained his Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley, under the supervision of Richard J. Saykally. He did his postdoctoral research with Andrei Tokmakoff in collaboration with Daniel G. Nocera at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Petersen Research Group focuses on enhancing ultrafast infrared spectroscopic techniques for studying dynamical processes at surfaces and in the condensed bulk phase. In particular, the group focuses on water at surfaces and complex systems, chirality transfer, hydrogen-bonded complexes, and proton transfer reactions.