Faculty News

#FacesOfUConnChem: Meet Assistant Professor, Dr. Steve Barshay

Our next faculty highlight comes from Dr. Steve Barshay! Background: Ph.D. in Inorganic Chemistry and Planetary Astronomy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology; teaching postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Arizona; 32-year career in the nuclear power industry. Current position: After retiring from industry, Dr. Barshay came to UConn as an Assistant Professor because of his […]

#FacesOfUConnChem: Meet Undergraduate Program Director, Dr. Nicholas Leadbeater

Next for our faculty highlights is Dr. Nicholas Leadbeater! Background: Ph.D. and research fellowship at the University of Cambridge, UK; faculty position in London Current position: Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director at UConn Storrs, where he has been since 2004. He chose UConn Chemistry because of its great facilities and faculty.

Meet Assistant Professor Alexander Aksenov

Meet Assistant Professor Alexander Aksenov, a chemist who is passionate about exploring the underlying chemistries of the molecular world using mass spectrometry. Early Career Growing up, chemistry had always piqued young Alexander Aksenov’s interest. Although having a physicist as a father certainly helped, it wasn’t until he found a mentor in his chemistry teacher that […]

Four Chemistry Professors Awarded Research Funding From UConn Office of Vice President for Research

The UConn Office of the Vice President for Research established the START Preliminary Proof-of-Concept (PPOC) Fund through support from the CTNext Higher Education Fund. The program aims to support the preliminary validation of innovative early stage technologies from across all disciplines for early stage projects that may one day result in inventions and technologies that […]

#FacesOfUConnChem: Meet Department Head, Dr. Christian Brueckner!

This year, we are doing a series of features on all the amazing people that make up UConn Chemistry, and who better to start with than our department head, Dr. Christian Brückner! Academic background: MS at RWTH, Germany; Ph.D. at University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; Postdoc at University of California at Berkeley Current position: […]

New Faculty Bring Antiracism and the Environment to the Forefront

New faculty join the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (CLAS) this fall as part of two groups launched by Dean Juli Wade to increase interdisciplinary scholarship in human-environment interactions and diversity, equity, and inclusion.    Over the past year, faculty within the College collaborated to propose topic areas for the cluster hires, and two were selected in environment and human interactions, and antiracism.  

8 UConn Faculty Receive NSF CAREER Awards

Eight UConn researchers across six disciplines have received CAREER awards for 2021.   The National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (NSF CAREER) Program awards competitive grants to support the research programs of early-career faculty who demonstrate remarkable potential to become leaders in their field.   In addition to advancing research, these projects work to actively engage students and the community. This broadens the impact of the research and encourages […]

Tiny Bubbles: Treating Asthma with Gene Silencing Nanocapsules

Steroid-based inhalers deliver life-saving medication for millions of asthma sufferers, providing relief and the ability to simply breathe. Unfortunately, inhalers do not work for all patients, and with rates on the rise for a disease that leads to hundreds of thousands of deaths world-wide each year, new asthma treatments and strategies are needed. A team of UConn researchers […]

Professors He and Rusling Receive NSF Grant

Chemistry professors Jie He and Jim Rusling have been awarded a 3-year $464,000 NSF grant from the CBET division entitled “SusChEM: C-H Bond Electroactivation of Nonpolar Organic Substrates in Water: Enzyme-Mediated Reaction Pathways in Microemulsions.” This project will explore new electrocatalyst materials for activating enzymes in films to synthesize high value chemicals using fluids called […]

High School Students Exposed to UConn Chemistry Through Virtual Event

Students from Berlin High School didn’t let COVID-19 get in the way of learning directly from UConn faculty The UConn Department of Chemistry, working alongside the Office of Early College Programs & UConn Early College Experience (ECE), annually brings high school students from around Connecticut to the Storrs campus to see exactly what happens in […]