March 2021

Congratulations to Safaa for his first publication in our group! He showed that metal anions may be the key to selective methane to methanol activation.

February 2021

Congratulations to Isuru who defended successully his thesis. Now he is getting ready for his next step at MIT!

The hard work of our group the past five years is materialized not only with articles, but with awards! The PI was blessed to receive the OpenEye Junior Faculty Award in Computational Chemistry given by the American Chemical Society! This is our first National award. Thank y'all!

December 2020

After the "quiet" month of November, three articles have been accepted for publication in December: JPCA, JACS, PCCP. The JACS article is a collaborative work with Prof. Kit Bowen (JHU). Thanks everyone for your hard work!

October 2020

Three more Isuru's articles have been accepted in three different jounrals (JQSRT, PCCP, JPCA). The last one is in honor of Professor Alexander Boldyrev (Utah State University). We have the honor to be given the front cover for this article! Congrats Isuru!

August 2020

Two collaborative articles were accepted this month in our group. Congrats to my colleague Ming Chen for our organic chemistry article in Angewandte Chemie, and to my student Ben and my colleague Jordan Harshman for our Chemical Education article on hypervalency!

One more article on the electronic structure is just published in JQSRT! Congrats Isuru!

The PI was selected as James E. Land Assistant Professor of Chemistry! See here

June 2020

One more insightful article on the reaction of transtion metal oxides (RuO) with water has just been accepted by PCCP. We show that anionic systems can activate OH bonds easier than the commonly used cationic ones. Congrats Isuru and Nuno!

It is now official! Our proposal on plasma driven nanostructure synthesis led by Professsor Andrew Adamczyk (Chemical Engineering Department, AU) has been funded by the IGP program of AU!

May 2020

Shahriar's first paper on metal ammonia complexes just came out at JPCA. It was a really challenging work. Congrats Shahriar!

March 2020

Ben's first paper has just been accepted for publication in PCCP. It shows how weak field ligands enable early transition metal oxides to activate methane. Check it out!

January 2020

Thanks to the hard of my group, our work on metal ammonia complexes has been selected for support by the National Science Foundation (NSF CAREER)!

December 2019

Emily's paper on NbO was selected as a 2019 HOT paper by PCCP!

November 2019

Emily's FIRST paper on NbO and its reaction with methane has been accepted in PCCP! Congratulations Emily! To the many more to come!

Our first article on f-block metal chemistry has just been published in PCCP! Check it out! Congrats Isuru!

Another paper has just been published; product of a wonderful collaboration of our group with Professors Ortiz and Pawłowski. It actually won the front cover of JPCA! Congrats to us all!

October 2019

Our twelfth article this year has just been accepted in JPCA. Congrats Isuru and Nuno!

September 2019

Holden Paz, undergraduate student, just loined our group. Welcome Holden!

August 2019

Nuno is moving soon to Michigan State University to join the research group of Professor Angela Wilson. I would like to thank him for his hard work and significant contribution to my group. He has been a valuable member. All the best Nuno!

Shariar's work on the activation of molecular nitrogen using carbene pairs just got accepted! Congrats Shahriar!

July 2019

July started and ended with two publications; Check out our PCCP and JPCA articles on metal-water and calcium-ammonia clusters.

June 2019

Nice kick off for June. Accepted article + cover at JPCA and another cover at JCC. Good job Shahriar and Isuru!

May 2019

We all went to SETCA in Knoxville. Five posters and a lot of fun!

A new member just joined us. Welcome Safaa!

April 2019

Our joint work on Pt anion + methane with Professor Kit Bowen and his group has been accepted in Angew. Chem.

This month is great for Isuru: Three awards at the departmental, college, and graduate school level! Well deserved Isuru!

March 2019

Nuno's work has finally been accepted in a joint PCCP article with Vince Ortiz and Filip Pawlowski. Congrats Nuno!
Isuru's article at JCC got one more Journal cover! Good job Isuru!

February 2019

Two more articles have been accepted this month in JCC and CTC. Congrats Isuru and Shahriar! We also all came back from two very constructive conferences (Sanibel and GRC). Many collaborations may be under way.

January 2019

Happy New Year! A good ending... makes a good beginning! Our 2018 work gave us a nice jump-start for 2019. Two articles just got accepted in PCCP and JCC! Congrats Isuru and Nuno!

December 2018

Our tenth paper for 2018 got published on the electric properties of molecular hydrogen. Check this out over the break. Happy Holidays!

November 2018

A couple of theoretical chemistry seminars will take place in our department this month.
Professor Angela Wilson (Michigan State University) will give our November 15 colloquium. The second seminar will be given by myself on November 14th, and will be an introductory "course" to non-theoretical chemists on how to use quantum chemical software.

I would like to welcome Emily Claveau and Benjamin Jackson in our group. Enjoy your time with us Emily and Ben!

Our participation at SERMACS was quite vigorous: two talks (Nuno and me) and four posters (Isuru x 2, Shahriar, and Jacob).

October 2018

Our work on the ligand effects in the C-H activation efficiency of iron-oxo complexes just got accepted for publication in PCCP! This work was a collaborative effort of Professor Vogiatzis' (UTK) and our groups.
Thanks a lot for involving us Konstantinos!

Our collaborative work with Professor Kit Bowen and Sotiris Xantheas in the activation of water employing platinum anions has also been accepted in JCP!
Thanks Kit for involving us too!

We are going to SERMACS in two weeks. See you there!

September 2018

Our work on Li,Na-SEPs and their dimers just got accepted in PCCP!
Thank you very much for the wonderful collaboration Isuru, Filip, and Vince!

Our second work with Professor Ming Chen has just been accepted for publication in Adv. Synth. Catal. Congratulations again guys!

June 2018

Our work in IJQC was selected for the front cover of the issue!

Our collaborative study with Professor Ming Chen has just been accepted for publication in Org. Lett. Congratulations Mengzhou, Shahriar and Ming!

May 2018

Isuru receives an Outstanding Poster Award at SETCA 2018. Congratulations Isuru!

Two of our manuscripts just got accepted in PCCP and IJQC. Congrats Nuno and Isuru!

April 2018

Our website just launched!

Group will go to SETCA 2018: Two oral presentations and two posters! Come to see and hear us!

EM will go to ISMS 2018. See you there!

EM will go to MWTCC 2018. See you there!

EM will go to ICCB 2018. See you there!

Isuru's work on MoO got accepted at PCCP. Congratulations Isuru!

Isuru won the COSAM award for his poster at "This is research" symposium.

March 2018

Group participated at the ACS in New Orleans with three posters and one invited talk.

December 2017

Our work on Be(NH₃)₄ got accepted at JPCL. Great job!

October 2017

EM participated at NWTCC (Richland,WA) to give an invited talk.

Our collaborative work with Anne Gorden and her group got the front cover at ChemComm. Nice!

September 2017

Dr Nuno Almeida joined our group as a post-doc. Welcome!

EM visited ERDC (Vicksburg,MS) to give an invited talk.

June 2017

EM participated at MWTCC (East Lansing, MI) to give an invited talk.

May 2017

EM visited UTK to give an invited talk. Thanks Professor Vogiatzis!

Group participated at SETCA (Oxford,MS) with two posters and one invited talk.

August 2017

Isuru's work on Be oxides and carbonyls got accepted at JPCA. Congratulations Isuru!

July 2017

Shahriar's work on oxidation of alkenes got accepted at PCCP as communication. Congratulations Shahriar!

August 2016

Group just started with two new arrivals. Welcome Isuru and Shahriar!