Department of Chemistry

The University's annual Three Minute Thesis competition challenges graduate students and postdocs to summarize their research with just three minutes and one slide.

University of Rochester chemists are working on changes to existing batteries to provide clean energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind doesn’t blow.

Two University faculty members—William Jones of the Department of Chemistry and Xi-Cheng Zhang of the Institute of Optics—have received prestigious Humboldt Research Awards.

For more than 30 years, researchers have been creating quantum dots—nanoscale semiconductors with remarkable properties. But quantum dot synthesis has occurred largely by trial and error. Thanks to the work of two Rochester chemists, that may be about to change.

A pathway that enables embryonic cells to develop into different organs can be reactivated by cancer cells. A cyclic peptide has been found that can block the activation of this pathway, and is also less likely to trigger resistance in cancer cells.

Back in 1959, early in his career as a Kodak chemist, Donald Batesky was lead author of a paper in the Journal of Organic Chemistry. Now the 85-year-old research associate is lead author again, for discovering a technique that had been overlooked for years.

Chemical engineering major Tianhao Yu ’19 has a unique job this summer: testing organic light-emitting diodes that may help improve the screen displays of devices such as cell phones and televisions.

Chemistry major Austin Bailey ’18 (T5) has spent his summer developing a special polymer to attach other molecules to nanotubes, and his work could have significant applications for creating renewable energy sources.

Ignacio Franco, assistant professor of chemistry and physics, has been selected as a winner of the OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award for fall 2017 by the American Chemical Society.

Most chemists have studied quantum dots for their basic properties. But new research by Rochester scientists points to potential applications in the synthesis of pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agro-chemicals.