PUBLICATIONS
These published works at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL) highlights articles, features, research-based pieces, and published works that reflect my work as a writer and research communicator. Each publication demonstrates my ability to analyze complex topics, tell compelling stories, and produce clear, engaging content for diverse audiences.
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Spanish scholar brings atmospheric research to UNL
Photo by Peta-Gaye Clachar: UNL postdoctoral researcher Manoj Kumar and Josep Anglada Rull (right), senior researcher at the Spanish National Research Council.
By: Peta-Gaye Clachar, University of Nebraska-Lincoln | June 8, 2016
After seven years of long-distance collaboration that began in Barcelona, a Spanish scholar will spend his summer researching in Hamilton Hall with the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Department of Chemistry.
Visiting Fulbright scholar Josep Anglada Rull will join Joseph Francisco, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, in continuing his study of atmospheric reactions that include the oxidation of ascorbic acid, a form of Vitamin C, by ozone.
“Vitamin C is one of the most important antioxidants,” said Anglada, senior researcher at the Spanish National Research Council. “The mechanism of ozonolysis is not fully understood, and this is essential for obtaining a deeper knowledge of the effects of ozone as a pollutant in living organisms.
“Among the antioxidants protecting living organisms from ozone, ascorbic acid plays an important role. With this project, we will investigate the reaction between both (chemical) species.”
Each year, about 800 international faculty and professionals receive Fulbright grants to conduct research and lecture in the United States. Being able to work directly with Anglada on the UNL campus, without the time- and focus-sapping barriers of travel and long-distance communication, should also allow for more productive brainstorming that could yield future collaborative projects, Francisco said.
The two researchers first met face-to-face in 2009, when Anglada – who had developed an interest in Francisco’s research from afar – invited him to a theoretical chemistry conference in Barcelona. Since then, Anglada and Francisco’s research teams have worked closely to advance understanding of atomic and molecular reactions in the atmosphere.
That collaboration has resulted in 14 peer-reviewed studies to date, appearing in such journals as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
“Cross-cultural collaboration, when it works, is synergistic and brings understanding between partners that neither is likely to develop alone,” Francisco said. “There are people in the world who know something, but nobody knows everything.
“It is exciting to have a Fulbright research scholar in the College of Arts and Sciences,” he said. “What was encouraging was that Anglada was attracted to our college and university as the place for him to do his research as a Fulbright, given that there were so many universities around the world for him to select.”
Computational chemistry space opens in Hamilton Hall
Photo by Peta-Gaye Clachar: The Department of Chemistry inaugurates the new Nebraska Cluster for Computational Chemistry at a ribbon-cutting ceremony held Dec. 10. From left: Hui Li, Xiao Cheng Zeng, Joseph Francisco, Eugene Cordes, Lance Pérez and David Berkowitz.
By: Peta-Gaye Clachar, University of Nebraska-Lincoln | December 17, 2015
More than 100 attendees joined UNL’s Department of Chemistry for the Dec. 10 unveiling of a newly refurbished Hamilton Hall space dedicated to advancing research in an ever-important cornerstone of modern chemistry.
As the new home to the Nebraska Cluster for Computational Chemistry, the fourth-floor space of Hamilton’s east wing will accommodate the NC3’s three inaugural faculty: Joseph Francisco, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences; Xiao Cheng Zeng, Ameritas University Professor of Chemistry; and Hui Li, associate professor of chemistry.
Spurred in part by Francisco’s 2014 move from Purdue University to UNL, the space will also serve as a collaborative hub for students, postdoctoral researchers and visiting scholars.
“It’s about creating an environment that stimulates ideas,” said Francisco, the Elmer H. and Ruby M. Cordes Chair of Chemistry. “It’s really exciting to encourage students to explore their creativity.
“We have the capacity, the brain-power, the enthusiasm and the commitment from students to push the envelope and solve challenging global problems that need scientific solutions.”
David Berkowitz, chair of the department, pointed to the successful research partnership between Zeng and Francisco as the impetus for launching the NC3.
“It gives us an idea of the sort of things that can happen when the scientists, grad students and postdocs who will sit in this physical space can collaborate, exchange ideas and perform computations together,” Berkowitz said. “This group … will continue to push experimentalists to find structures they have not already seen or that may be lying under the earth.”
The department also revealed a small mural that graces a prominent wall in the new space and visually encapsulates the work to be conducted there. It depicts a configuration of water-housed hydrogen molecules passing through a carbon nanotube – an enclosure one billion times thinner than a human hair – as predicted by a signature computational study from Zeng, Francisco and colleagues.
Zeng and Francisco’s initial collaborations, which began when Francisco was at Purdue, sprang from a mutual interest in the molecular-level properties and dynamics of water.
“At the time, we were interested in hydrogen storage and posed the question, ‘Could we use water to store hydrogen?’ So, we started exploring water cages to try to understand what was the optimal kind of orientation and configuration that would allow hydrogen to be trapped for a very short time,” Francisco said.
That question has expanded to many others, Zeng said, including the ways that atmospheric chemistry may shape the accumulation and spread of air pollution. Their ongoing and future research will rely on algorithms and simulations of intermolecular interactions developed by Li.
The NC3 researchers will also continue working with engineering and physics faculty to explore designs for nanomaterials that boast optical, electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties critical to the development of new technologies.
Nebraska Today: https://news.unl.edu/newsrooms/unltoday/article/computational-chemistry-space-opens-in-hamilton-hall
Photo by Peta-Gaye Clachar: UNL alumni (from left) Ed Chess and Paul Ries, members of UNL’s Chemistry Industrial Advisory Board, speak with Joseph Francisco, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.