Research

The quality and broad interest of my research has been recognized by making the front cover of the journal “Analyst” when we presented a new way to detect pollution in water, which I included in my teaching. One of my graduate students designed the cover, which is pictured to the left.

The summers 2024 and 2025 were entirely spent in the laboratory to mentor my graduate students and make progress on the main piece of equipment of the laboratory: a unique spectro-opto-electrochemical system for nanoscale exploration. This instrument will combine three techniques: microscopy, spectroscopy, and scanning probe electrochemistry to achieve unprecedented measurements in the field of catalysis and detection. No other example of such an instrument exists in the world, and its fabrication requires a large investment of money, time, and skill acquisition. Notably, I programmed on Labview with direct coding on Field Programable Gated-Arrays. This technology enables real-time computation at a 80 MHz rate. I am currently exploring the AI toolbox for integration of machine-assisted analysis for the massive amount of data we will collect on this system. About two-thirds of the instrument is already built and operational. The decision to build this system was driven by my motivation to create an exceptional research program, at the level of any large R1 institution. I see it as a long-term project and investment for LUC and hope to produce exciting results that will spike the curiosity of students and attract national and international attention.