Gas-Phase Optical Spectroscopy, Transition-Metal Ion Complexes and Clusters, Electronic Structure Calculation, Molecular Mechanics Simulation.

Chemistry is the science of making new molecules, understanding and predicting their properties, and controlling and manipulating those properties toward our own end. It is natural to push the limits of such a strategy by attempting to synthesize more and more bizarre molecules with exotic and unpredictable properties. My interests include making small molecules (ions) with unusual chemical bonds and measuring their detailed quantum-mechanical structure spectroscopically, i.e, with light. This quest has largely focused on open-shell species containing transition-metals, and sometimes even rare-gas atoms, isolated in the gas-phase and cooled to nearly absolute zero of temperature.