Virginia Larson Email & Phone Number

Denver, Co, Us

Golden, Colorado, United States

Researching liquid alkaline water electrolysis with H2NEW, with a focus on understanding the degradation mechanisms over long-term catalysis and the impact of electrolyte impurities.

With Prof. Nicolai Lehnert, Chemistry Department• Researching earth-abundant transition metal molecular complexes for water splitting• Synthesizing sensitive thiol ligands and cobalt complexes, preparing thin film electrodes and evaluating catalysts using electrochemical techniques• Collaborating internationally on reactive first row transition metal-oxygen species.• Gaining expertise in a variety of techniques including mass spec.; paramagnetic, 2D, and fluorine nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR); electrochemistry; X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS); nuclear vibrational resonance spectroscopy (NRVS); magnetic circular dichroism (MCD); resonance Raman and density functional theory calculations (DFT)

• Taught students problem-solving skills and chemistry concepts• Mentored graduate student instructors to improve teaching skills• Taught organic chemistry students proper technique and safety in lab

Chemistry lab course teaching assistant• Assisted professors in updating course material• Helped students in lab understand and perform experiments

• Organized the chemicals and equipment• Distributed materials to and prepared solutions for lower-level chemistry labs

REU; Environmental Summer Research Program in Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science With Dr. Michael Haley, Chemistry Department• Synthesized a new isomer in the fluorenofluorene family of large, conjugated hydrocarbons using air free Schlenk synthesis techniques.• Analyzed compounds using proton, carbon, and boron NMR.

Lando/NSF Summer Research Program With Dr. Ian Tonks, Chemistry Department• Synthesized multistep organic molecules following literature procedures using several organic techniques and characterized products via proton NMR• Worked in a glove box to prepare air sensitive organo-titanium complexes

Doctor Of Philosophy - Phd, Inorganic Chemistry

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemistry