Daniel Higgins

Dr. Daniel Higgins

Professor
location King 309 (Office)
phone 785-532-6371 (office)
email higgins@ksu.edu
Research Themes

Functional Materials, Catalysis, and Nanochemistryblank spacerEnergy, Environment, Agriculture, and Sustainabilityblank spacerSpectroscopy, Imaging, and Dynamics

Lab Website Link phone 785-532-6668 (fax)

Biography

2006-Present
2016-2022
2001-2006
1996-2001
1993-1996
1988-1993
1983-1988
Professor
Professor and Department Head
Associate Professor
Assistant Professor
Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Minnesota
Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
B.A. in Chemistry, St. Olaf College

Research Overview

Research projects in the Higgins labs are centered around the use of novel existing and emerging optical microscopic methods to probe the structure and dynamics of mesostructured materials. Single molecule detection and spectroscopy, along with fluorescence correlation spectroscopy are the most extensively used methods in the group, but we also make use of Raman microscopy and multiphoton-excited fluorescence microscopy as necessary. We are currently investigating the structure and organization of lyotropic liquid crystal mesophases; the structure, organization and mass transport characteristics of mesoporous silica materials and the nanoscale properties of organically-modified silica thin film gradients. We also have projects investigating the electric-field-induced dynamics of DNA at electrode surfaces and are interested in understanding the blinking dynamics of CdSe nanorods dispersed in semiconducting organic polymer films.

Selected publications

  1. Maryanne M. Collinson and Daniel A. Higgins "Organosilane Chemical Gradients: Progress, Properties, and Promise", Langmuir, 2017, in press.
  2. Daniel A. Higgins, Seok Chan Park, Khanh-Hoa Tran-Ba and Takashi Ito "Single-Molecule Investigations of Morphology and Mass Transport Dynamics in Nanostructured Materials", Annu. Rev. Anal. Chem., 2015, 8, 193.
  3. Daniel A. Higgins, Khanh-Hoa Tran-Ba and Takashi Ito "Following Single Molecules to a Better Understanding of Self-Assembled One-Dimensional Nanostructures", J. Phys. Chem. Lett., 2013, 4, 3095.
  4. Dipak Giri, Zi Li, Kayesh M. Ashraf, Maryanne M. Collinson and Daniel A. Higgins "Molecular Combing of lambda-DNA using Self-Propelled Water Droplets on Wettability Gradient Surfaces", ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 2016, 8, 24265.
  5. Ruwandi Kumarasinghe, Eric. D. Higgins, Takashi Ito and Daniel A. Higgins "Spectroscopic and Polarization-Dependent Single-Molecule Tracking Reveal the One-Dimensional Diffusion Pathways in Surfactant-Templated Mesoporous Silica", J. Phys. Chem. C, 2016, 120, 715.