Shining Light on Nanotech: Single Particle Studies Topic for USU's Olsen Lecture Oct. 9

The future of bioimaging, biosensing and neuroengineering may rely on emerging understanding of single plasmonic nanostructures. Such structures can be used to visualize biological processes at a cellular and molecular level without causing damage to cells.

University of Notre Dame chemist Gregory Hartland is pioneering use of optics to examine properties of these structures, including development of novel techniques to perform time-resolved and steady state spectroscopy experiments on single particles. He will present “Ultrafast Spectroscopy of Single Plasmonic Nanostructures" as featured speaker for the Utah State University Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry’s 2024 Richard Olsen Lecture series. All are welcome to his talk at 4 p.m. Oct. 9, in the Eccles Science Learning Center, Room ESLC 046, on the Logan campus.

“Dr. Hartland’s research includes study of the propagation of surface plasmon polaritons in metal nanostructures, charge carrier trapping and diffusion in semiconductor nanowires, chemical reactions in nanomaterials and the effects of viscosity at the nanoscale,” says Yi Rao, USU associate professor of analytical and physical chemistry and co-host of the Oct. 2024 lecture, with USU faculty colleague Tuan Trinh. “His work bridges varied scientific and engineering disciplines, so we invite scholars from across USU’s colleges and departments to hear his timely talk.”

Hartland is a Notre Dame Collegiate Professor and director of graduate studies in Notre Dame’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He served as senior editor of the American Chemical Society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry, and was recently named deputy editor of the society’s Journal of Physical Chemistry C. Harland is an ACS Fellow, a Royal Society of Chemistry Fellow and an American Association for the Advancement of Science Fellow.

Hartland’s appearance is the 15th lecture of the Richard Olsen Lecture Series, which was established in 2006 by the late USU Emeritus Professor Richard Olsen and his wife, LiVina Hymas Olsen.

Olsen, who joined USU’s faculty in 1967, passed away in 2012.

The lectureship honors Olsen’s parents, Kenneth Beal Olsen and Sarah Young Olsen, who, Olsen said, “made many things possible.”

Olsen said the lectureship was also established in appreciation to the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and to Utah State for providing him the opportunity to pursue his professional goals of teaching and research in the field of organic chemistry.

For more information about the lecture, contact USU’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at 435-797-1619.