Older News (2015-2022)
2022
June 2022 - Shana and Dimuthu's article about Pt-doping effects on Au25 luminescence has been accepted for the Faraday Discussions paper and conference on Nanoalloys. Great job!!!
June 2022 - Yuchen's first paper with Chris Ackerson's group on understanding the NMR of diglyme-ligated gold nanoclusters has been published in Nanoscale. Congratulations, Yuchen!
April 2022 - Zhen's paper with the Bryan Wong group on excitation energy transfer in silver nanocluster dimers has been published in JCP. Great job, Zhen!
January 2022 - Shana's paper with Anandita Das's group has been published in JACS. Congratulations!
2021
Fall 2021 - The Aikens group is excited to welcome Ms. Vera Truttmann (TU Wien, Austria), who received a Marshall Fellowship to work with our group. Great to have you in the group, Vera!
Oct/Nov 2021 - Gowri's papers on excited state absorption in silver nanoclusters and O2 dissociation on silver nanoclusters have been published in JPCA and JPCC. Congratulations, Gowri!
August 2021 - Shana's paper on dual luminescence in Au14Cd has been published in JCP. Great job!
June 2021 - Dimuthu's paper with Chris Johnson has been published in JCP. Nice job, everyone!
June 2021 - Shana's paper with Indranath Chakraborty has been published in JACS. Hard work definitely pays off!
June 2021 - The Aikens group welcomes Jacqueline Pinkerton, REU student, to the group for the summer. Great to have you in the group, Jacqueline!
May 2021 - Pratima's paper on electron dynamics in N2@Al13- systems has been published in JPCA. Check out this paper!
May 2021 - Fahri's paper on plasmon coupling in symmetry-broken nanorods has been published in JPCC. Great paper!
May 2021 - Pratima and Ravithree's paper on nonradiative dynamics in mixed Au-Ag nanoclusters has been published in JCP. Nice job!
April 2021 - The group presented several virtual presentations at the National American Chemical Society meeting. Always good to keep up with research even in pandemic times!
2020
November 2020 - Zhen's collaboration with the Di Sun group on an interesting 34-electron Ag78 cluster has been published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Fantastic!
November 2020 - Gowri's paper examining vibronic coupling in naphthalene and how this affects plasmon decay has been published in JPCA. Great job, Gowri!
November 2020 - Two papers with Yihan Shao (U. Oklahoma) have been published in PCCP. Nice to work with you, Yihan!
October 2020 - Zhen's paper on optical coupling in silver nanoparticle dimers (especially heterodimers) has been published in JCP. Congratulations!
August 2020 - Olivia's paper on the dissociation of N2 attached to silver nanowires has been published in JPCC. Great job, Olivia!
August 2020 - Gowri's paper on the nonlinear mechanisms of plasmon decay in small silver nanoclusters has been published in JPCC. Congratulations!
June 2020 - ReaxFF parameterization work by Emily and Brian helped lead to the discovery of a new Au25 nanocluster structure! The collaborative work with the Häkkinen group has been published in Chemical Communications. Congratulations to all involved!
May 2020 - Pratima's paper on parallel dimer and Dolmen trimer nanowires has been published in JPCC. Great job, Pratima!
April 2020 - Christine Aikens selected as a University Distinguished Professor at Kansas State. This award really arises from the contributions that the students and postdocs in the group have made over the last 13 years. Thank you, Aikens group!
March 2020 - Zhen's paper analyzing the electronic structure of a Cu23 nanoparticle in collaboration with the Di Sun group has just been published in JACS. Congratulations, Zhen!
February 2020 - Ravithree's paper discussing ligand effects in the nonadiabatic dynamics of Au25 has been published in PCCP.
February 2020 - Zhen's poster at the GRC on Atomically Precise Nanoclusters was chosen for a short talk. Congratulations, Zhen!
2019
December 2019 - Welcome to Yuchen Wang, newest graduate student in the Aikens group! Great to have you!
November 2019 - Dimuthu and Pratima's article on luminescence and electron dynamics in the Au13 nanocluster (and comparison to the Au25 nanocluster) has been published in JACS. We enjoyed our collaboration with the Rongchao Jin group. Congratulations to all!
October 2019 - Christine Aikens was named a 2020 Rising Star by the Women Chemist's Committee of the American Chemical Society.
October 2019 - Gowri, Pratima, and Olivia presented their research at the Midwest ACS meeting. Nice job, everyone!
October 2019 - Gowri's article on chloride-stabilized nanoclusters has been published in JPCA. Great job!
September 2019 - Christine Aikens presented an invited lecture at the International Symposium on Monolayer-Protected Clusters in Xiamen, China. Thanks to the organizers for a great conference!
September 2019 - Fahri's article on plasmon coupling in nanorod dimers has been published in PCCP. Fantastic!
September 2019 - Ravithree's article on hot electrons/hot holes in Au18 has been published in JCP. Great job!
June 2019 - Dimuthu's article on water splitting on Ca-doped Mn oxide clusters has been published. Nice job!
June 2019 - Best wishes to Dimuthu as she leaves to begin her postdoc in the Shuford group at Baylor. We will miss you!
May 2019 - Welcome to Alice Li (REU student from Bates College) who will work in the Aikens group for the summer!
May 2019 - Congratulations to Tejaswi Shrestra, new Manhattan High School graduate! Best wishes at Northwestern this fall!
May 2019 - Ravithree and Gowri's paper on real-time TDDFT of gold nanowires (a collaboration with the Xiaosong Li group) has been published in JPCC. Great job!
April 2019 - Best wishes to Dr. Fahri Alkan as he leaves to begin his professorship at Abdullah Gul University in Turkey. Congratulations!
March 2019 - An article by Fahri and Pratima on the doping of Au25, Ag25, and Au38 clusters with transition metals has been published in JPCC. Nice job!
February 2019 - Fahri's article with the Di Sun group on a Ag48 cluster protected by both organic and inorganic ligands has been published in JACS. Great job, Fahri!
January 2019 - Article #100 from the Aikens group has just been published! This article describes collaborative work on a phosphine-protected gold nanocluster by Ravithree Senanayake in our group with the group of Di Sun at Shandong University, China. Our group is fortunate to have so many wonderful collaborators!
2018
December 2018 - Welcome to Shana Havenridge, newest graduate student in the Aikens group!
November 2018 - Fahri's collaborative paper with the Di Sun group using DFT+TB on large silver nanoparticles is published in Angewandte Chemie International Edition. Great job, Fahri!
November 2018 - Dimuthu's paper on linear response and real-time TDDFT for silver and gold nanoparticles is published in Computational and Theoretical Chemistry.
November 2018 - Aikens group invited review is published in Accounts of Chemical Research.
October 2018 - Pratima and Gowri presented their work at the Midwest ACS meeting. Nice job!
October 2018 - Christine Aikens was an academic panelist at the 2018 Women in Science Conference at Notre Dame. Thanks to former group member Suzie Neidhart for the invitation!
June 2018 - Gowri and Olivia presented their work at the Gordon Research Conference on Noble Metal Nanoparticles. Wonderful conference!
June 2018 - Ravithree's paper on Au38 relaxation dynamics is now published in JPCC
June 2018 - Fahri's paper on TD-DFT and TD-DFTB studies of silver nanorods and nanorod dimers has been published in JPCC. It was selected for Cover Art AND for ACS Editor's Choice. Great job, Fahri!
June 2018 - Best wishes to Ravithree as she leaves to begin her postdoc in the Cramer group at Minnesota!
May 2018 - Natasha's paper on CD of phosphine-protected Au11 and Au8 clusters and a collaborative paper with the Xiaosong Li group over plasmon transfer are now published in JPCC.
April 2018 - Congratulations to Ravithree for successfully defending her Ph.D. Way to go!
April 2018 - Congratulations to Olivia Hull on receiving a Department of Energy Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. Fantastic job, Olivia!
March 2018 - Welcome back to Dimuthu, who joins the Aikens group as a Research Assistant. Great to have you back!
March 2018 - Ravithree presented her nonadiabatic dynamics research at the National ACS meeting in New Orleans. Fahri presented his TD-DFTB work on silver nanorod arrays and his doping work on Au25. Great job, everyone!
February 2018 - Dimuthu's articles on Ag25 luminescence and review article on gold and silver nanoclusters are now published
2017
December 2017 - Ravithree's article with the Di Sun group is now published
November 2017 - Welcome to Olivia and Zhen, new graduate students in the Aikens group!
October 2017 - Aikens, Liu, Smith, Schmit, Comer, and Andresen groups awarded NSF Major Research Instrumentation grant!
October 2017 - Best wishes to Natasha as she leaves to begin her postdoc in the Benny Gerber group at UC Irvine!
October 2017 - Christine Aikens receives the 2017 Commerce Bank and W. T. Kemper Foundation Distinguished Graduate Faculty Award!
October 2017 - Congratulations to Dimuthu on successfully defending her Ph.D.!
September 2017 - Fahri's paper on electronic structure effects of doping Au25 with transition metals has been accepted in Nanoscale. It was chosen for the 2017 HOT Article Collection. Great job!
September 2017 - Congratulations to Natasha on successfully defending her Ph.D.!
August 2017 - Natasha's paper on MCD of phosphine-protected Au8 clusters is now published in JPCC
June 2017 - Dimuthu's paper on luminescence of Au38 and Au22 nanoclusters is now published in JPCC. Congratulations, Dimuthu!
June 2017 - A collaborative paper with Xiaosong Li's group regarding contributions of molecular vibrations to plasmon decay has been published in JPCC
May 2017 - Congratulations to new B.S. graduates Marquix Adamson (soon to be graduate student at Iowa State) and Hannah Devore (Pfizer). Best wishes in the future!
April 2017 - Congratulations to former group members Emilie Guidez (Ph.D. 2014) and Makenzie Provorse (B.S. 2009) who will be starting Assistant Professorships at the University of Colorado - Denver and the University of Central Arkansas. Best wishes!
April 2017 - Ravithree, Dimuthu, and Natasha gave oral presentations at the National ACS meeting in San Francisco. Congratulations!
March 2017 - Christine Aikens presented the Kroto Lecture in Chemical Physics at Florida State University
March 2017 - Brandon's paper on the interaction of silver clusters with DNA has just been published in APL Materials
February 2017 - Natasha, Ravithree, and Dimuthu presented their research at the Kansas Physical Chemistry Symposium
2016
November 2016 - Welcome to Pratima and Gowri, new graduate students in the Aikens group!
November 2016 - Ravithree's and Natasha's papers have been published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry. Great job!
November 2016 - Welcome to Dr. Fahri Alkan, new postdoctoral research associate in the Aikens group!
October 2016 - Great job to Ravithree, Natasha, Dimuthu, Marquix, and Katie who presented research at the Midwest ACS meeting!
September 2016 - Amendra's paper on water splitting on manganese oxide cubane complexes has been published in JPCC
August 2016 - Dimuthu's paper on luminescence of Au25(SR)18 - nanoparticles has been published in JACS. Congratulations!
August 2016 - Dimuthu presented her research at the National ACS meeting in Boston. Great job, Dimuthu!
August 2016 - Best wishes to Andre and Mike as they start their positions at UMKC (as professor and as graduate student)!
July 2016 - Dimuthu, Natasha, and Ravithree presented their research at the International Symposium on Theoretical Chemical Physics (ISTCP). Nice job!
June 2016 - Amendra's newest paper about ligand exchange on Au38(SR)24 nanoparticles has been published in JPCC
May 2016 - Congratulations to Andre, who will be a professor at the University of Missouri at Kansas City this fall. Best wishes!
April 2016 - Congratulations to Amendra who started his position as a postdoc in the Batista group at Yale. Best wishes!
March 2016 - Dimuthu's paper on ligand effects on Au20(SR)16 and Amendra and Tyler's paper on water splitting on a manganese dimer complex are now published!
March 2016 - Ravithree presented her research at the National ACS meeting in San Diego. Great job!
January 2016 - Amendra's paper on photochemistry of DPP compounds has been published in JPCA
January 15, 2016 - Congratulations to Dr. Amendra Fernando Hewa Dewage, who just successfully defended his Ph.D.! Way to go!
2015
December 2015 - Dimuthu and Ravithree presented their research at the annual Kansas Physical Chemistry Symposium
November 2015 - Amendra's paper on water splitting on a Mn dimer complex treated with multiconfigurational methods is now published in PCCP
October 2015 - Amendra, Dimuthu, and Ravithree presented their research about gold nanoparticles and polysilo-acenes at the Midwest Regional ACS meeting. Great job!
September 2015 - Tack's paper on optical properties of highly symmetric gold nanoparticles is published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C
September 2015 - Amendra's papers on the photochemistry of DHI compounds and on ligand exchange on the Au25(SR)18 nanoparticle are now published!
August 2015 - Christine Aikens presented the Journal of Physical Chemistry A Lectureship at the PHYS division Awards symposium in Boston
August 2015 - Congratulations to Brian Barngrover (Ph.D. 2015) who started a position as Assistant Professor at Stephen F. Austin State University! We will miss you!