University of California, Santa Barbara
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of California; Mail Code 9501
Santa Barbara, CA 93106 Phone: (805) 893-5675
FAX: (805) 893-4120
Web: www.chem.ucsb.edu
E-mail: lazaro@chem.ucsb.edu
Department Information
Chairperson: Steve Buratto, Chair
Fields of Specialization: Analytical/ Materials Chemistry, Biochemistry, Biological
Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry, Physical Chemistry and Theoretical
Chemistry.
Interdisciplinary Programs: Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Joint Program with the
Department of Biological Sciences. Departmental Statistical Data: Number of degrees, graduate enrollments, postdoctoral
appointments and number of faculty.
Degrees Offered
B.A.
B.S.
M.A.
M.S.
Ph.D.
Faculty:
Aue, Donald Henry Associate Professor (b.1942)
Research Area(s): Physical Organic Chemistry, Computational Chemistry
Research Interests: Electrophilic additions and cycloadditions of strained olefins; synthesis
and reactions of strained carbocyclic and heterocyclic systems; organic synthesis; ionic
reactions in gas phase and in solution; computational chemistry.
Bazan, Guillermo Carlos Professor Above Scake (b.1963)
Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry, Materials Chemistry
Research Interests: Olefin oligomerization and polymerization catalysis by homogeneous
organometallic reagents; synthesis of novel organic materials for optoelectronic devices;
biosensors based on water soluble conjugated polymers.
Bowers, Michael Thomas Professor (b.1939)
Research Area(s): Biochemistry, Physical Chemistry
Research Interests: Structure and reactivity of semiconductor and metallic cluster ions and
their size selected deposition and characterization on metal oxide surfaces: structures of
polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxanes (POSS) cages and their attachment to organic
oligomer bakbones; structures, hydration energeties and aggregation properties of peptides
and proteins especially Aß-proteins and prions; structures of DNA and RNA single strands,
duplexes, quadruplexes and other motifs and their complexes with prospective drug ligands.
Brown, Frank Leon Halet Professor (b.1972)
Research Area(s): Theoretical Chemistry, Biophysics/Biophysical Chemistry
Research Interests: Biomembrane structure and dynamics; single molecule spectroscopy.
Bruice, Paula Yurkanis Senior Lecturer (b.1941)
Research Area(s): Bioorganic Chemistry
Bruice, Thomas Charles Research Professor (b.1925)
Research Area(s): Bioinorganic Chemistry
Research Interests: The dynamics and mechanisms of organic, bioorganic and bioinorganic
reactions.
Buratto, Steven K. Professor (b.1964)
Research Interests: The application of near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM); to
study nanoscale optical properties of organic thin films; single molecule spectroscopy of dye
molecules, polymer molecules and si quantum dots.
Butler, Alison Professor Above Scale (b.1954)
Research Area(s): Bioinorganic Chemistry
Research Interests: Metallobiochemistry and bioinorganic chemistry; mechanistic and
synthetic reactions of biological interest (halogenation, oxygenation, oxidation, etc.);
bioinorganic chemistry and bioorganic chemistry of diverse environments; kinetics and
mechanisms of metalloenzyme reactions; vanadium and iron haloperoxidases; siderophores.
Cheetham, Anthony Kevin Professor of Materials and Professor of Chemistry (b.1946)
Research Interests: Inorganic materials, catalysis, zeolites, structural characterization with
x-rays (laboratory and syncrotron); neutrons and solid state NMR.
Chen, Irene A. Assistant Professor Research Area(s): Biochemistry
Dahlquist, Frederick W. Professor Above Scale (b.1943)
Research Area(s): Biochemistry, Biophysics/Biophysical Chemistry
Research Interests: We study the relationships between protein structure and function.
While the investigation of this question is not restricted to any specific technique, nuclear
magnetic resonance offers a particularly useful and powerful approach to the problem and is
often used. We are interested in how extra-cellular information is gathered and utilized by
protein complexes to regulate biochemical activity inside the cell such as the events that
underlie bacterial chemotaxis.
de Vries, Mattanjah S. Professor (b.1950)
Research Area(s): Physical Chemistry
Research Interests: A combination of physical and analytical chemistry by combining laser
induced desorption of molecules from surfaces with photo ionization, multi photon
spectroscopy, and mass spectrometry. Included are studies of individual biomolecular
building blocks in the gas phase, including small peptides and DNA bases, as well as their
clusters with each other and with water.
Feldwinn, Darby Lecturer with Potential Security of Employment Research Area(s): Physical Chemistry
Ford, Peter C. Professor Above Scale (b.1941)
Research Area(s): Photochemistry, Inorganic Chemistry
Research Interests: Photochemical and thermal reaction mechanisms of transition metal
complexes; catalysis and catalysis mechanisms; biomedical applications of photochemistry;
bioinorganic chemistry of nitric oxide.
Han, Song-I Professor Research Area(s): Biophysics/Biophysical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry
Hawker, Craig J. Professor/Director (b.1964)
Research Area(s): Polymer Science, Materials Chemistry
Research Interests: Development of new synthetic strategies to functionalized block
copolymers and complex macromolecular architectures such as dendrimers. Application of
polymeric materials to nanotechnology through advanced lithography strategies and
biomaterials.
Hayton, Trevor Wade Associate Professor (b.1975)
Research Area(s): Inorganic Chemistry, Organometallic Chemistry
Research Interests: Synthetic inorganic chemistry; structure and bonding in the actinides;
inorganic photochemistry and electrochemistry.
Heeger, Alan J. Ph.D. (b.1936)
Research Area(s): Polymer Science
Research Interests: Professor Heeger has pioneered research in highly conducting organic
solids, emphasizing on semiconducting and metallic polymers. His research has focused on
the development of fundamental physics and chemistry, determining the electronic and
optical properties of semiconducting and metallic polymers with the goal of making these
materials available for applications in technology. More recently, Professor Heeger has
initiated studies of conjugated polyelectrolytes and its use with biosensors.
Jaeger, Luc Albert Professor (b.1967)
Research Area(s): Nanochemistry, Biochemistry
Research Interests: Study of the assembly and folding of large ribozymes (group I introns
and RNA RNase P); in vitro selection and evolution of nucleic acids (RNA); sequence and
structural comparative analysis of RNA; RNA structure as a proto-language; RNA tectonics:
rational design of artificial RNA supra-molecular structures; RNA/DNA based
nanotechnology; supra-molecular assembly of biomolecules; programmable self-assembling
bio-materials based on RNA.
Kahn, Kalju Lecturer with Security of Employment (b.1970)
Research Area(s): Computational Chemistry, Enzymology
Research Interests: Molecular simulations to understand enzyme catalysis and biological
recognition. Development of accurate force fields to describe conformational dynamics and
binding affinities in biological systems. Development of computational strategis for efficient
conformational analysis.
Kirtman, Bernard Professor Above Scale (b.1935)
Research Area(s): Theoretical Chemistry, Materials Science
Research Interests: Electronic structure; nonlinear optical properties; localized electronic
interactions in polymers, surfaces and solid state materials; computational methods for
extended systems.
Kohn, Walter Emeriti (b.1923)
Research Interests: Density funtional theory.
Laverman, Leroy Senior Lecturer with Security (b.1971)
Research Area(s): Chemistry Education
Lipshutz, Bruce Howard Professor Above Scale (b.1951)
Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry
Research Interests: Synthetic organic methods, natural products, organometallic chemistry,
biaryl-containing natural and unnatural products, homo- and heterogeneous catalysis,
heterocycles in synthesis, peptide alkaloids; polyene-containing natural products.
Little, Raymond Daniel Professor (b.1947)
Research Area(s): Electrochemistry, Organic Chemistry
Research Interests: Synthesis of bioactive materials; physical organic chemistry; organic
electrochemistry; the chemistry of diradicals, cation and anion radicals; photochemistry.
Metiu, Horia Professor Above Scale (b.1940)
Research Area(s): Theoretical Chemistry, Physical Chemistry
Research Interests: Time-dependent statistical mechanics with applications to reaction rates,
hydrogen diffusion on surfaces, desorption rate; catalysis by metal nanoparticles on oxide
supports; simulations of fuel-cell membranes.
Moskovits, Martin Professor (b.1943)
Research Area(s): Materials Science, Chemical Physics
Research Interests: Nanoscience and technology, surface enhanced Raman, chemical
sensors and biosensors. Nguyen, Thuc-Quyen Professor Research Area(s): Materials Chemistry, Physical Chemistry
Research Interests: Electronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes and their function
in optoelectronic devices; effects of structure, molecular interactions, morphology, and
environment on charge transport in organic single crystals and thin films; charge transport in
metal-organic hybrid systems; charge injection at metal-organic interface and chemistry of
the interface; photophysics of conjugated polymers; organic photovoltaics.
Parsons, Stanley Monroe Professor Above Scale (b.1943)
Research Area(s): Biochemistry, Neuroscience
Research Interests: Presynaptic neurochemistry, chemical mechanisms of neurotransmitter
storage; site-directed mutagenesis, mammalian cell culture; presynaptic cholinergic
pharmacology and toxicology; in vivo neuro-imaging; regulation of acetylcholine storage and
release; rapid detection of drugs of abuse.
Pettus, Thomas R. R. Professor (b.1967)
Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry, Synthesis
Research Interests: Our group synthesizes molecules of biological importance. We are
interested in the synthesis of compounds that are important to human health and the treatment
of disease. We select targets not easily addressed by current synthetic methods.
Plaxco, Kevin W. Professor (b.1965)
Research Area(s): Biophysics/Biophysical Chemistry, Bioengineering
Research Interests: Folding based electrochemical biosensors; time-resolved biophysical
and computational studies of protein folding kinetics; biophysical characterization of the
structure and dynamics of the denatured state. Read de Alaniz, Javier Assistant Professor (b.1975)
Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry
Research Interests: Research in our group will focus on new reaction developments and
their application to the synthesis of architecturally challenging and biologically important
molecules. Initially, we will focus on identifying efficient new methods for the construction
of carbon-nitrogen bonds. Nitrogen-containing molecules are valuable pharmaceutical targets
and fundamental building blocks in natural product synthesis.
Reich, Norbert Otto Professor (b.1952)
Research Area(s): Biochemistry
Research Interests: Molecular origins of specificity and enzyme catalysis with respect to
DNA modifying enzymes. Structure-function analysis using analogs, protein engineering,
presteady state and steady state kinetics and x-ray crystallography.
Seshadri, Ram Professor Research Area(s): Materials Chemistry, Inorganic Chemistry
Research Interests: The research currently being pursued in the Seshadri Group addresses
magnetic phenomena in insulating oxides, half-metallic ferromagnetism, magnetic
nanocomposites, catalytic oxides and carbides, the structure and electronic structure of polar
and semiconducting materials materials (bulk as well as nano), luminescent materials for
solid state lighting, high refractive index materials, and conducting nanowires. Shea, Joan-Emma Professor Research Area(s): Theoretical Chemistry, Biophysics/Biophysical Chemistry
Stucky, Galen Dean Professor Above Scale (b.1936)
Research Area(s): Materials Chemistry, Biotechnology
Research Interests: Organic/inorganic interface chemistry including the molecular assembly
of material systems with integrated nanoscale to macroscale functionalities; the use of
inorganic species and surfaces to define biomolecular assembly and biosystem processes;
conversion of biomethane and stranded natural gas to chemicals and fuels; meso- and
nanostructured photovoltaic and photocatalytic composite systems; gradient materials and
interfaces; and understanding nature's routes to organic/inorganic bioassembly.
Van Koppen, Petra Senior Lecturer with Security of Employment, Lab Coordinator Research Area(s): Chemistry Education
Waite, J. Herbert Professor Research Area(s): Biochemistry, Biomaterials
Research Interests: Biomolecular materials hardened or stiffened by metal ions B.
Bioadhesive strategies based on interfacial coordination complexes.
Watts, Richard James Emeritus (b.1942)
Research Interests: Spectroscopy of transition metal complexes; radiationless transition;
photochemistry of organometallic complexes; photocatalysis; storage of solar energy via
metal complexes; photochemistry of metal-silicon bonded complexes.
Wudl, Fred Professor Emertus (b.1941)
Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry, Materials Science
Research Interests: Organic electronics, organic metals and superconductors, polymer
synthesis, fullerene chemistry.
Zakarian, Armen S. Professor Research Area(s): Bioorganic Chemistry, Organic Chemistry
Zhang, Liming Professor Research Area(s): Organic Chemistry, Catalysis
Departmental Statistical Data:
Full-Time Staff as of Sept. 2013: 37 Part-Time Staff as of Sept. 2013: 0 Post-doctoral appointments as of Sept. 2013:
First Year Graduate Enrollment as of Sept. 2013: 21 Total Graduate Enrollment as of Sept. 2013: 149 Total Graduate Enrollment as of Sept. 2013:
M.S. Degrees Granted 2011-2012:
M.S. Degrees Granted 2012-2013:
Ph.D. Degrees Granted 2011-2012:
Ph.D. Degrees Granted 2012-2013:
149 11 5 30 16