COSAM News Articles 2023 October Hear from Christy F. Landes at the Schneller Frontiers Lecture on Nov. 16

Hear from Christy F. Landes at the Schneller Frontiers Lecture on Nov. 16

Published: 10/31/2023

By: Chris Greico

Please join us for this year’s Schneller Frontiers Lecture where Christy Landes from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champagne will deliver her talk titled Towards predictive protein separations: Imaging protein dynamics at nanoscale interfaces. The lecture is scheduled for Nov. 16 at 3:45 PM in SCC 115. Prof. Landes is co-hosted by Assistant Professors Paul Ohno and Chris Grieco from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry.

Christy F. Landes is the Jerry A. Walker Endowed Chair in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. After graduating with a BS from George Mason University in 1998, she completed a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology in 2003 under the direction of Prof. Mostafa El-Sayed. She was a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oregon and an NIH postdoctoral fellow at the University of Texas at Austin, under the direction of Prof. Geraldine Richmond and Prof. Paul Barbara, respectively, before joining the University of Houston as an assistant professor in 2006. She moved to Rice University in 2009 and became a professor of chemistry and electrical & computer engineering. In 2023 she began her current role at UIUC. Prof. Landes is the recipient of numerous awards and distinctions, including the 2020 Award for Special Creativity from the National Science Foundation, 2019 Kavli Fellow of the U.S. National Academy of Science, 2016 Early Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry from the Division of Physical Chemistry of the American Chemical Society, and 2011 NSF CAREER Award.

Prof. Landes is an active member of the American Chemical Society and the Physical Chemistry Division, and was elected to be Vice-Chair Elect, Vice-Chair, Chair-Elect and Chair of the Division from 2020-2023. One of her interests is in bringing scientists together to form communities that span different areas of expertise. She has organized national, regional, and local symposia. She serves as a senior editor of the Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters, on the Editorial Committee of the Annual Review of Physical Chemistry and on the Editorial Advisory Board of ACS Nano.

Prof. Landes is also the Director of the Center for Adopting Flaws as Features (CAFF) and leads a multi-university team seeking to characterize and thereby exploit chemical heterogeneity, or intrinsically ‘flawed’ molecular systems, using novel experimental and computational tools to obtain a deeper understanding of disordered materials that show potential for unique chemical function.

The Landes Group is comprised of chemists, applied physicists, and engineers who develop next-generation tools to image dynamics at soft interfaces at the limit of a single event. Her group devises new methods and models for controlling macroscale processes such as protein separations and photocatalysis using this super-resolved chemical knowledge. The group also uses advanced signal and image processing methods to improve accuracy and precision in low-signal measurements. Prof. Landes’s outreach activities emphasize the importance of mathematics and computer programming in our increasingly data-driven world. Her goal for the community goal is to underscore our common values despite the expanding need to broaden and redefine our respective specializations.

The Schneller Frontiers Lectureship was endowed by Professor and Mrs. Stewart Schneller in 2015. It is to be an annual event to recognize 21st century international pioneers in chemistry and biochemistry. Between 1994 and 2010, Professor Schneller had the privilege of serving as Dean of the College of Sciences and Mathematics and Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Having stepped down as Dean, he continues teaching along with his ongoing research program. This lectureship is an opportunity for the Schnellers to acknowledge the professional and personal fulfillment these opportunities have provided them.

Previous lecturers: