Matthew Platz, chemistry division director at the National Science Foundation, will speak on "Ultrafast Time Resolved Studies of Excited States and Reactive Intermediates” at a chemistry colloquium 3:30 p.m., Oct. 7 in Hamilton Hall 112. The colloquium is open to the public.
Platz maintains his research laboratory as the Melvin S. Newman Professor of Chemistry and Distinguished University Professor at Ohio State University. He is an internationally acclaimed physical organic chemist and has received numerous honors.
He has been named an Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, a Camille and Henry Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar, an ACS Cope Scholar and a Remsen Awardee. Platz has authored more than 300 peer reviewed publications, and has mentored more than 80 graduate and postdoctoral coworkers.
Platz is an expert in the characterization of unstable, short-lived reactive intermediates such as radicals, carbenes and nitrenes. To directly observe these fascinating species, the Platz group uses laser flash photolysis techniques in the femto- to nanosecond time regime. These ultra fast spectroscopic methods allow him and his coworkers to directly detect the excited states of azides and diazo compounds and map the molecular and energetic details of their transformation into reactive nitrenoid and carbenoid intermediates, respectively.
More details at: http://go.unl.edu/cb9