TODAY

                             Center for Excitonics
                          Seminar Series Announcement

The Center for Excitonics will be starting its seminar series in 2009 (http://www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics).  
The Center is sponsoring a series of energy-related lectures from scholars and colleagues in the private
sector who are working in the field.  The first lecture is scheduled in January.  We invite you to join us
and to forward this information on to others who might be interested in attending this and other seminars.

Title:                                Exploring Electron Transfer in Organic Semiconductors
Presenter:                        Prof. Troy Van Voorhis
Organization:                   Department of Chemistry, MIT
Date:                              January 29, 2009
Time:                              3:00 - 4:00pm
Place:                             36-428
Refreshments:                 Yes
URL:                               http://www.rle.mit.edu/excitonics/vanvoorhis-012809.html

Abstract
Electron transfer reactions are the centerpiece of artificial photosynthetic complexes, organic LEDs and essentially all of redox chemistry. In particular, electron transfer rates govern the efficiency of exciton formation and dissociation in organic semiconductors. This talk will highlight ongoing work being carried out in our group aimed at accurately simulating the reaction dynamics in these systems. Specifically, we will focus on the electronic structure problem inherent in describing electron transfer: How do we make connections between a phenomenological picture like Marcus theory and more rigorous electronic structure techniques? How can we model the disorder inherent in organic solids?


Bio
Professor Van Voorhis graduated from University of California, Berkeley in 2001 with a PhD in Chemistry. After two years as a posdoctoral fellow at Harvard, he started as an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at MIT. He became an Associate Professor in 2008.

Professor Van Voorhis' research focuses on the use of theory and modeling  to understand the dynamics of electron motion in complex environments. His primary interests include the fundamental theory of electronic excited states, the description of electron transfer and the simulation of reactions that involve more than one electronic state. These processes are at the heart of several technological applications, including organic LEDs, artificial photosynthesis and molecular electronics.

Professor Van Voorhis held the Paul M. Cook Career Development Chair in Chemistry, is a Sloan Fellow, a David and Lucille Packard Fellow and the recipient of a CAREER award from the National Science Foundation.