Single-Molecule Chemistry:
Catalysis, Bioinorganics, Biophysics
March 2022:
- Felix wins a NRSA Postdoctoral fellowship from NIH. Congratulations!
February 2022:
- Susil Baral, a postdoc in the group, accepts a tenure-track assistant professor position at Illinois State University. Susil will start his new position this summer. Congratulations!
- Former postdoc Justin Sambur, now on the faculty at Colorado State University, wins a presitigous Sloan Fellowship.
January 2022:
- Chemical Engineering News highlights Xianwen's work: "Probing the properties of interfacet junctions."
- Cornell Chronicle features Xianwen's work: "3D semiconductor particles offer 2D properties."
December 2021:
- Xianwen's paper on interfacet junction effects on photoelectrodes appeared on-line on Christmas Eve! See also pdf.
- Group celeberates the coming of holidays with a lunch together.
November 2021:
- We bid farewell to Xianwen Mao, who moves to National University of Singapore to start his independent career as a Presidential Young Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
October 2021:
- Surprise pumpkin carving work from the group!
- Congratulations to Xianwen on the acceptance of his work on inter-facet junction effects on photoelectrocatalysts by Nature Materials!
- We welcome Zhaohong Wang and Paul Padgett as our newest graduate students! Zhaohong did his undergrad at Shanghai JiaoTong University, China and was a summer REU in our group previously. Paul did his undergraduate at SUNY Geneseo.
- We welcome Dr. Muwen Yang to join the group as a postdoc. Muwen did her PhD in Chemistry at Northwestern University, jointly advised by the late Prof. Richard van Duyne, Prof. George Schatz, and Prof. Emily Weiss.

September 2021:
- We bid farewell to Dr. Feifan Wang, after his visiting us for a couple of months. Feifan moves to ETH Zurich for a new postdoc position.
August 2021:
- The group celebrates the end of summer with a picnic at Taughannock State Park, frisbee games, music, hike/trek through the waters to the Taughannock Falls, and canoeing in the lake! Thanks to Felix for organizing it and to all for fun spirits.
- Nature Reviews Materials highlights Rocky and Ming's work on nanoscale mapping of cooperative adsorption. See article: "The many facets of cooperativity."
- Former postdoc Xiangcheng Sun starts his tenure-track assistant professorship in the Department of Chemical Engineering at Rochester Institute of Technology. Congrats!

July 2021:
- US Army Research Lab features Rocky and Ming's work: "Chemistry discovery could remove micropollutants from environment."
- Cornell Chronicle features Rocky and Ming's work: "Small molecule plays outsize role in controlling nanoparticle."
- Rocky and Ming's paper on nanoscale cooperative adsorption appears online in Nature Commun, and is featured in Editors' Highlights in Materials Science and Chemistry.
- We welcome Dr. Feifan Wang to join the group as a visiting scientist for a few months. Dr. Wang was previously a postdoc at Columbia University and did his PhD at Peking University, China.
June 2021:
- Congratulations to Rocky and Ming on the acceptance of their paper on "Nanoscale cooperative adsorption for materials control" by Nature Communications!
- US Army Research Lab highlights Susil's work: "Pioneering chemistry approach could lead to more robust soft electronics."
- Cornell Chronicle feastures Susil's work: "Magnetic tweezers reveal polymers’ hidden properties."
- Susil's work on conjugated polymers appeared online in Chem here.
- Congratulations to Aaron Keller, a former PhD student in the group, on earning tenure at William Jewell College and being promoted to associate professor!