• Studied carboxylic acid reactivity on Anatase TiO2(101) single crystals and deposited nanoparticles by TPD in UHV• Designed and built a heated quartz tube (up to 500℃) ketene source for introducing ketene in situ into UHV to prove ketonization reaction mechanism• Assembled Knudson cell evaporator and deposited MoO3 clusters onto Anatase single crystal in UHV for kinetics study• Observed key reaction intermediates of carboxylic acid on anatase by reflective adsorption FTIR• Identified surface structure, surface species, and orientation of the Anatase TiO2(101) single crystals by LEED• Examined film formation and the morphology and distribution of nanoparticles deposited on substrate by SEM• Developed Python scripts to automate the processing and plotting of large-scale IR scan data (100+ files per day) and TPD data (40+ files of 10 masses per day), reducing the analysis time by 90% compared to Origin Pro• Collaborated within a multidisciplinary team with members from scanning microscopy field to ambient pressure flow reactor field

•Prepared peptides into stock solution and maintained proper storage in -80 freezer•Studied the bacterial killing mechanism using Circular Dichroism by observing the conformation change of peptides upon adding liposomes or metal cations•Studied the stability of antibacterial peptides by measuring oxidation rate in air using Ellman’s assay by UV-Vis spectroscopy in multimode plate reader•Prepared liposomes via freeze-thawing and filter extrusion of chloroform-methanol extracted E. coli polar lipids•Developed SOPs for junior lab technician

• Work on two sophisticated surface analysis ultra-high vacuum chambers with multiple detection techniques (RGA, AES, XPS, MS/TPD)• Integrated data collection from older instruments with modern computer interfaces using LabVIEW for easier and more efficient data processing• Improved sticking coefficient measurement experiments using AES to acquire more precise results and obtain an extra parameter while more than doubling the speed of data collection • Studied the reaction kinetics and dynamics of methane and ethane activation on the Rh catalytic surface• Applied dynamically-biased microcanonical unimolecular rate theory with tunneling to model non-equilibrium experiments to extract transition state properties and to predict the outcomes of other experiments (e.g., thermal equilibrium dissociative sticking coefficients)• Showed that tunneling contributes significantly to the overall reactivity of methane thermal dissociative chemisorption on Rh evaporated films where the surface sites are dominated by defects

• Modified gold electrodes with L-Cysteine• Made the thin-film electrochemical cell• Conducted FT-IR electrospectroscopy test on CO2 reduction on modified electrodes in ionic liquid• Collected, analyzed, and plotted the data by Python and Origin

• Synthesized various compounds (Vilsmier-Haack reaction, Schiff base, Ullman reaction, thiophene terpyridine, Claisen-Schmidt reaction, MOFs) using multiple methods (Schlenk line, ice-bath, heating reflux, solvothermal synthesis in Autoclave)• Separated and purified compounds by recrystallization, GC, HPLC, and Column Chromatography• Adopted multiple methods (TGA, XRD, NMR, IR, UV-Vis) to test the structure and properties of compounds synthesized• Tested the photo-physical properties of a Zn complex in various organic solvent, found the limit of detection of water in organic solvent by UV-Vis, and determined the linear relation of concentration and attenuation