Group News

8/1/08 - Jonas Baltrusaitis’ Ph.D. dissertation wins University of Iowa thesis award!!  Graduate College has selected his thesis for a  Graduate Deans’ Distinguished Dissertation Award for 2008 – Congratulations Jonas!!

7/20/08 - Dr. Courtney Hatch leaves Iowa to begin her new faculty position at Hendrix College.  Good luck to Courtney and her family!!

7/10/08 - Courtney Hatch’s review article “Applications of analytical techniques in laboratory studies of the chemical and climatic impacts of mineral dust aerosol in the Earth's atmosphere” by Hatch and Grassian has been published as a special 10th Anniversary Review in the Journal of Environmental Monitoring. 

7/10/08 - Jennifer Schuttlefield defends her thesis – Congratulations Dr. Schuttlefield!!!  She is now moving west to begin a postdoc position with Professor Bruce Parkinson.

7/7/08 - Visiting scholar Hongbo Fu from Fudan University comes to do the University of Iowa research on Fe-containing mineral dust aerosol.  Welcome!

7/1/08 - The Grassian research group welcomes new postdoc Dr. James Zahardis who comes to the University of Iowa after finishing his Ph.D. at the University of Vermont.

6/12/08 - Grassian group evacuates out of IATL due to flooding of the  caused by the Iowa River and moves to the Chemistry Building where they will be temporarily located.  

6/8/08 - Claire Doskey from Knox College comes to Iowa to participate in research in the Grassian group through the NSF REU program hosted by the Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at UI.

5/5/08 - Courtney Hatch has a new beautiful baby boy.  Both mom and baby are doing great – congratulations!

4/17/08 - Pragati Galhotra passes her comprehensive exam.  Congratulations Pragati on a job well done!!

3/29/08 - Sherrie wins first place at Math, Physical, and Engineering Sciences Division at the Jakobsen Graduate Conference for a poster presentation and paper, titled "FTIR Study of the Selective Catalytic Reduction of NO2 with Ammonia on Nanocrystalline NaY and CuY". Great job Sherrie!!!

2/10/08 - Pradeep M. Jayaweera from Department of Chemistry University at Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka joins Grassian group - welcome Pradeep!

2/1/08 - Julie (Heaweon) Park joins the Grassian group - welcome Julie!

01/26/08 - Gayan Rubasinghege and his wife welcomed a baby boy 7 1/2 lbs

01/15/08 - Welcome new Postdocs Larissa Stebounova and Asif Rahaman

12/1/07 - Min Huang (Chemical and Biochemical Engineering), Gayan Rubasinghege (Chemistry) and Ryan Wright (Chemistry) join the Grassian research group.  Min is co-advised by Professor Greg Carmichael.  Welcome to all three!!! 

11/15/07 - Sherrie Elzey puts together a new tandem nano-DMA apparatus for her research on nanoparticles.  Nice going Sherrie!

9/24/07 - Vicki Grassian gives a tutorial at AAAR entitled “Inhalation Toxicology of Nanomaterials” in Reno, Nevada.

9/15/07 - Jonas Baltrusaitis and Jenny Schuttlefield get Inside Cover Art posted on the PCCP website, see http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/Gallery.asp. The paper can be found here:http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/article.asp?doi=b705189a

8/15/07 - David Cwiertny leaves to start his faculty position in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of California-Riverside.  Good luck to David in his new position!!!

6/27/07 - Jonas Baltrusaitis successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Experimental and Theoretical Studies of the Adsorption of Atmospherically Relevant Gases on Metal Oxide and Carbonate Surfaces". Nice job Dr. Baltrusaitis!

6/15/07 - Drs. Paula Hudson and Dan Curtis move to southern California to start their new positions at Cal State Fullerton and UCLA, respectively. Good luck Paula and Dan in your new positions!

6/1/07 - Jason Bone joins the Grassian group for summer undergraduate research. Welcome Jason!

4/23/07 - Praveen Mogili successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Heterogeneous Chemistry and Optical Properties of Mineral Dust Aerosol".  Congratulations Dr. Mogili!

4/20/07 - Lizzie Gibson successfully defends her dissertation entitled "Mineral Dust Aerosol Chemistry and Climate". Congratulations Dr. Gibson!

4/15/07 - Sherrie Elzey is named a National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship Awardee.  Way to go Sherrie! See http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/may/050407engineering-fellowship.html

3/1/07 - Schuttlefield, Al-Hosney, Zachariah and Grassian article is highlighted on the cover of the Journal of Applied Spectroscopy.  See
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/00037028

3/1/07 - Article by Baltrusaitis, Usher and Grassian in Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics on sulfur dioxide reactions on carbonate surfaces is designated as Hot! See http://www.rsc.org/Publishing/Journals/CP/Hotindex.asp

2/22/07 - Vicki Grassian named Collegiate Fellow. See
http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2007/february/022207clas-fellows.html

2/12/06 - Dr. Courtney Hatch comes to Iowa from CU-Boulder to work with Professors Vicki Grassian and Gregory Carmichael on a joint project with Kim Prather’s group at UCSD.  We’re glad to have her!

12/15/06 - Graduate student Pragati Galhotra joins the Grassian research group.  Welcome Pragati!

10/26/06 -  Gibson, Hudson and Grassian feature article is highlighted on the cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry A. http://pubs3.acs.org/acs/journals/toc.page?incoden=jpcafh&indecade=0&involume=110&inissue=42

9/10/06 - Sustainability and Chemistry Workshop report "Chemistry for a Sustainable Future" is now available at http://www.chem.uiowa.edu/research/sustainability/index.html

8/24/06 - Vicki Grassian named Director of the new Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Institute at the University of Iowa

7/21/06 - Postdoc Dr. Juan Navea from Baylor University joins the Grassian research group to work on a joint project with Professors Charlie Stanier and Mark Young. Welcome Juan!!

7/1/06 - Postdoc Kevin Knagge leaves for a job with Bruker Instruments - good luck Kevin!

6/12/06 - Vicki Grassian receives the Regents Award for Faculty Excellence see press release at http://itsnt166.iowa.uiowa.edu/unsarchives/2006/june/061206faculty_awards.html for further details.

6/01/06 - Undergraduates David Cox and Jacyln Schwarz join the Grassian research group.

5/30/06 - Vicki Grassian co-chairs with Gerald Meyer (Johns Hopkins University) a National Science Foundation Workshop on Chemistry and Sustainability. Look for the workshop report soon to be posted on the UI and NSF websites.

5/01/06 - Lizzie Gibson is awarded a was awarded a 2006 GCEP Graduate Research Environmental Fellowship from the Department of Energy.

4/15/07 – New AFM arrives from Asylum and is installed. Courtney Usher is working on getting the environmental chamber working and using phase and polarization capabilities of the new instrument to study surface reactions on environmental interfaces.

4/01/06 - Dan Curtis and collaborators (Mark Young and Paul Kleiber) finish laser scattering apparatus to measure angle resolved scatter of the components of mineral dust aerosol.

3/15/06 - Jonas Baltrusaitis gets student travel grant to attend the GRC on Chemistry at Interfaces

2/15/06 - Jennifer Schuttlefield finishes the design, construction and implementation of a flow cell quartz crystal microbalance for making simultaneous ATR FTIR Spectroscopic and QCM Measurements to quantify water uptake on clays and other components of mineral dust aerosol. Way to go Jenny!

01/28/06 Lizzie (Johnson) Gibson is pictured in the latest 2006 winter issue of Chemistry, a publication of the American Chemical Society (see http://acswebcontent.acs.org/chemistry/index.html). Lizzie was photographed (three times!) talking to several Nobel Prize winning chemists at the 55th Meeting of Nobel Laureates in Lindau, Germany.

12/16/05 Ann Zachariah and Joanna Sciegienka graduate with Honors in Chemistry and Environmental Sciences, respectively Congratulations and good luck to both of them as they continue on with their studies.

12/10/05 Welcome new Grassian group members graduate students – Sherrie Elzey (Chemical Engineering), Kelly Gierlus (Chemistry) and Gordy Hunter (Chemistry)

12/01/05 Shannon Stout submits the final draft of her M.S. Thesis entitled “Adsorption/Desorption and Oxidation Studies of 2-Chloroethyl Ethyl Sulfide on Nanocrystalline Zeolites” to the Graduate College.

11/01/05 MAARS (Multi-Analysis Aerosol Reactor System) has been tested and works. The instrument is now being used to study the heterogeneous chemistry, optical properties, hygroscopic growth and CCN activity of mineral dust aerosol and reacted mineral dust aerosol. Nice going Paula and Lizzie!

11/01/05 Despite problems with delivered equipment, Kratos Ultra Axis XPS system begins to crank out high quality data!!! Nice going Jonas!.

10/30/05 Grassian elected Fellow of AAAS (see news release at http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/2005/october/102705aaas-fellows.html)

10/15/05 Welcome Dr. David Cwiertny to Iowa. David joins us from Johns Hopkins University and will work on a joint project with Professor Michelle Scherer, Environmental Engineering.

10/05/05 Good news! A paper "Heterogeneous uptake and reactivity of formic acid on calcium carbonate particles: a Knudsen cell reactor, FTIR and SEM study" by Hashim A. Al-Hosney, Sofia Carlos-Cuellar, Jonas Baltrusaitis and Vicki H. Grassian has been published (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2005, 7(20), 3509). The figure from the paper became cover art for the same issue of the journal. Check it out online at: http://www.rsc.org/publishing/journals/CP/Gallery.asp

07/19/05 Group is left to starve to death during tomorrow's group meeting, cause Jonas was busy editing groups web page

07/11/05 Hashim Ali defended his Ph. D. thesis. Now he is out of here!