Department of Chemistry Highlights

The Chemistry Department at Temple University, a Carnegie Research I Institution, is currently undergoing rapid expansion. We have hired three new tenure-track faculty this year and additional hiring is planned. Research productivity and funding have increased significantly with the creation of new research centers, including the Center for Advanced Photonic Research.

Faculty (20)

  • R. B. Andrade, E. Borguet, H-L Dai (Dean), D. R. Dalton, F. A. Davis, S. A. Jansen-Varnum,
    G. R. Krow, R. J. Levis (Chair), S. Matsika, A. Nicholson, J. Shackman, C. Schafmeister, S. McN. Sieburth, F. C. Spano, R. J. Stanley, D. R. Strongin, D. D. Titus, B. B. Wayland, J. R. Williams,
    S. L. Wunder.

Areas of research

  • Organic Chemistry – Synthetic, medicinal, bio organic, mechanistic
  • Physical Chemistry – Surfaces and interfaces, environmental, strong field chemistry
  • Biochemistry – RNA in gene regulation, DNA repair
  • Analytical Chemistry – Separations, bio analytical, micro fluidics
  • Computational and Theoretical
  • Nanomaterials and Polymer Science

External funding

  • NSF, NIH, PRF, DOE, US Army
  • > $6,000,000/year (total costs)

Publications in peer review journals

  • Last five years (2002-present): > 200

Accelerating growth

  • -Planned expansion of the faculty to 25
  • -Beury Hall is undergoing a $25,000,000 renovation

Graduate program and research

  • -70 Graduate Students
  • -12 Postdoctoral Fellows

Undergraduate majors

  • -Chemistry: 308
  • -Biochemistry: 288

New Faculty

  • 2008
    • Bradford Wayland - Inorganic chemistry, transition metal catalysis, and polymer materials
  • 2007
    • Christian Schafmeister – Design and synthesis of molecular machines
    • Jonathan Shackman – Micro fluidics and bio analytical chemistry of neurotransmitters
    • Hai-Lung Dai – Spectroscopy and dynamics of reactive gas phase molecules, surfaces and interfaces
  • 2006
    • Rodrigo Andrade – Natural products and bio organic/medicinal chemistry
  • 2004
    • Eric Borguet – Nano-interfacial science, ultra fast dynamics
  • 2003
    • Spiridoula Matsika – Theory of nonradiative transitions in biological molecules
  • 2002
    • Robert Levis – Adaptive laser control, strong field chemistry
    • Allen W. Nicholson – Ribonucleuses, RNA processing and gene regulation
  • 2001
    • Scott McN. Sieburth – Bioregulatory small molecules and synthetic methods

Awards and Events (2006-2007)

  • Eric Borguet received a Visiting Fellowship by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. Eric also gave an invited talk at the 2007 International Conference on Electrified Interfaces in Hokkaido, Japan and was selected as a U.S. Young to the 2007 IUPAC General Assembly and Congress in Torino, Italy.
  • Hai-Lung Dai delivered a Plenary Lecture at the Symposium on Frontiers of Materials, Photo and Theoretical Molecular Sciences in Okazaki, Japan, March 2007. He gave 3 invited lectures at the International Theoretical Institute Workshop on Water in Biology, Chemistry and Physics in Trieste, Italy, April 2007. He was the Keynote Speaker of the Symposium on 21st Century Science Education: Preparing Teachers and Students for the Future at the Chemical Heritage Foundation.
  • Franklin A. Davis received the American Chemical Society 2006 Cope Scholar Award and was also awarded the Philadelphia John Scott Award, 2006.
  • Robert Levis gave multiple invited talks including "Control of Multicomponent Systems with Strong Fields: New Paradigms for Sensing" Physics of Quantum Electronics, January 2007 and "Photonic Reagents: Strong Field Laser Pulses for Controlling Chemical and Physical Phenomena" at DAMOP, June 2007. He was also awarded the 2007 ACS Philadelphia Section Award.
  • Scott McN. Sieburth gave an invited talk “Silicon as a Central Drug Design Element” at the Umea University Swedish Medicinal Chemistry Symposium in Umea, Sweden, April 2006.
  • Frank Spano gave an invited talk “Modeling the Photophysics of Oligothiophene Thin Films: Excitons, Phonons and Defects” at the 383rd Wilhelm und Else Heraeus Seminar, The Physics of Highly Ordered Organic Interface Layers in Physikzentrum Bad Honnef,Germany, January 2007.