Education
2009 - Present: Ph.D. Candidate, Northwestern University
2005 - 2009: B.S. in Chemistry, University of Michigan – Ann Arbor
Research Interests
In organic photovoltaic systems, long range order is crucial to long range charge transport over large
distances. In an optimal system, well-ordered, bicontinuous donor-acceptor networks would selfassemble into charge collection pathways. In the Wasielewski Group, donor and acceptor molecules are
typically covalently bound, and pi-pi interactions among the molecules lead them to stack parallel to the
direction of charge transport.1 Other driving interactions can also be used to form interesting selfassembled structures. These include reversible covalent bonds, metal-ligand bonds, hydrogen bonds,
electrostatic interactions, Van der Waals interactions and hydrophobic interactions.2 The last of these is
attractive because of the reversible, solvent-based self-assembly, and the wide variety of accessible
morphologies .3
My research goal is to explore the self-assembly and charge transfer characteristics of amphiphilic
dyads, and the effect of the dielectric medium on these characteristics.
1) Wasielewski, M. Acc. Chem. Res. 2009, 42 (12), 1910–1921.
2) Whitesides, et. al. Science. 1991, 254 (5036), 1312–1319.
3) Rybtchinski, et. al. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2009, 48, 926–930.