Northwestern Chemistry

Through Interdisciplinary Work, Advanced Imaging Reveals Hidden Thermoelectric Structure A multi-disciplinary team of researchers linked atomic-scale features to efficient heat-to-electricity conversion, offering insights that could help recover energy lost as waste heat in industrial and...

Mercouri Kanatzidis, Vinayak David and collaborators across
@northwesterneng.bsky.social, uncovered hidden atomic structures in a thermoelectric material—key to turning waste heat into electricity and powering real-world applications. #Collaboration #ResearchImpact

🔗 bit.ly/4sBDKhq

Discovery thrives when we come together. 🧪💜
In 2025, the connections we built across the department showcased the strength and collaborative spirit of our community. From all of us at #NUChemistry, we wish you a joyful and restorative holiday season.

#HappyHolidays #Chemistry #Collaboration

NU-9 halts Alzheimer’s disease in animal model before symptoms begin Study uncovers a new Alzheimer’s trigger — and a way to stop it

What if Alzheimer’s could be stopped before symptoms appear? Northwestern’s NU-9, invented by Rick Silverman, targets early toxic amyloid beta. Study shows it may prevent brain damage. #Alzheimers #NU9 #Neuroscience

Discover More: bit.ly/495Xxgd

#NUChemistry is proud to share that Omar K. Farha is a 2025 National Academy of Inventors Fellow. With 17 patents and as founder & CSO of Numat Technologies, his innovations are shaping real-world solutions.

Congratulations, @omarfarha.bsky.social 🎉💜!

👉 bit.ly/4rQqF3v

There’s real energy when Northwestern scientists come together! Faculty connected and celebrated at the Biochemistry–Chemistry Holiday Party—a reminder that collaboration starts with relationships. #Collaboration #Chemistry #Biochemistry

@omarfarha.bsky.social

Happy Thanksgiving from @nuchemistry.bsky.social !
Our innovative and collaborative research is made possible by our amazing community. Today we’re thankful for the colleagues, students, alumni, and partners who make NU Chemistry what it is. #NUChemImpact #Grateful

🍁 The #NUChemistry Fall Newsletter is out! 🍁
Catch up on recent press, research highlights, event recaps, faculty & student awards, and photos from recent department events.

🔗 bit.ly/3XbFUFW

#NUChemImpact #ResearchImpact

🍁 The #NUChemistry Fall Newsletter is out! 🍁
Catch up on recent press, research highlights, event recaps, faculty & student awards, and photos from recent department events.

🔗 bit.ly/3XbFUFW

#NUChemImpact #ResearchImpact

Each Tuesday, faculty come together over lunch to share research, spark ideas, and build cross-disciplinary collaborations. It looks like our #NUChemistry 1/4 zips are becoming part of the tradition. 💜

Who is wearing their 1/4 zip to tomorrow's faculty lunch? 🙋
#Collaboration #FacultyExcellence

🎉 Congratulations to the 15 #NUChemistry faculty named 2025 Highly Cited Researchers by @clarivate.com!

Their work in medicine, water purification, energy & cancer research continues to shape discoveries that impact lives worldwide.

#FacultyExcellence #HighlyCited2025 #Chemistry

Manganese is Lyme disease’s double-edge sword New vulnerability discovered in the bacteria that causes the disease

🚨 New clue in the fight against #LymeDisease!

Research by #NUChemistry’s Brian Hoffman and Uniformed Services University uncovers a surprising weakness in the Lyme-causing bacterium — its dependence on manganese.

🔗 news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025...

Congrats to Chair @omarfarha.bsky.social, named one of @crainschicago.bsky.social 2025 Notable Leaders in Sustainability! 🌿

His leadership across #NorthwesternChemistry and Numat Technologies is driving innovation in carbon capture and clean energy.

🔗 www.chicagobusiness.com/awards/omar-...

Purple pride goes global! 💜

Chair @omarfarha.bsky.social is taking #NUChemistry energy beyond campus — building collaborations, celebrating innovation, and inspiring connections.

📸 Tag @nuchemistry.bsky.social to join the fun!

Tomorrow! 🎉 Prof. Richard Kaner (UCLA) joins #NorthwesternChemistry to receive the 2025 Fred Basolo Medal hosted by @omarfarha.bsky.social

Don’t miss his talk: “Energy Storage and Other Applications of Graphene.” - 4:30 p.m. | Tech LR3

#InorganicChemistry #EnergyStorage

"Growing up, chemistry was the science of wizardry." Peter Carlson, PhD Student in Chemistry

Peter Carlson is a PhD student in the Dept of Chemistry @ Weinberg College of Arts & Sciences, investigating how a molecule’s electrons interact w/ its atomic structure during a chemical reaction using ultrafast laser spectroscopy: www.tgs.northwestern.edu/about/our-pe...

Donor–Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts as Intrinsically Photoswitchable Dynamic Covalent Bonds Combining dynamic covalent bonds with photoswitches allows the kinetics and thermodynamics of exchange to be controlled with light. However, this two-component strategy introduces synthetic and compatibility challenges. Here, we present a single-component strategy using donor–acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASAs) as both the photoswitch and the dynamic covalent bond. DASAs isomerize from “open” to “closed” forms with light and heat, respectively. We discovered that open DASA isomers undergo dynamic covalent exchange of their amine donor via two pathways, reversible dissociation and conjugate transamination. Exchange can then be arrested upon irradiation to form the closed DASA isomer, offering a handle to gate dynamic behavior. Consequently, incorporating DASAs as cross-linkers in PDMS-based networks yields covalent adaptable networks (CANs) with viscoelastic behavior that can be tuned by light. We also identify degradation pathways that limit the reversibility of this system under extended heating. Overall, DASA exchange represents a synthetically accessible platform for photocontrolled soft materials. More broadly, this work introduces DASAs as a new class of intrinsically photoswitchable dynamic covalent bonds and lays the foundation for the discovery of other stimuli-gated dynamic bonds that combine reactivity and responsiveness in a single molecular unit.

🚨New research from @kalowlab.bsky.social:

“Donor–Acceptor Stenhouse Adducts as Intrinsically Photoswitchable Dynamic Covalent Bonds”

Read more in @jacs.acspublications.org: pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....

Congratulations to James Gaynor, named a 2025 Packard Fellow for Science and Engineering! 🚨

Molecular coating cleans up noisy quantum light Strategy boosts spectral purity by 87%, paving the way for quantum technologies

Molecular precision meets quantum light. 🔦

Mark Hersam's team improved the spectral purity of quantum light by 87% — a key step toward more reliable #quantum communication and computing. #NUChemistry #QuantumComputing
@nuinquire.bsky.social

news.northwestern.edu/stories/2025...

And of course our amazing grad students who revived this show in 2024!

1990's images with Eberhard Zwergel!

1940's with L. Carroll King!

🎃 The #NUChemistry Halloween Demo Show is back!

A tradition dating to the 1940s, revived by our amazing grad students—for the 2nd year in a row! 👩‍🔬🧪

📅 Oct. 30 | 🕕 6–7 PM | 📍 Tech LR3
👻 Costumes encouraged + prizes!
🔗 Register: bit.ly/4nrwYIa

Great historical photos in comments!

#HalloweenShow

Show your NU Chemistry pride! 💜🧪

The Fall Merch Shop is open through Oct 24—with fan favorites and new fall styles.

🎁 Perfect holiday gifts for Wildcats everywhere!

👉 bit.ly/NUChemMerch

Vital Research Feinberg School of Medicine professor Jeffrey Savas has been funded by a U.S. Department of Defense grant to advance his work in hearing loss; circadian rhythm expert Fred Turek at the Weinberg Colleg...

🚀 Tomorrow’s technology starts at #NUChemistry

Prof. Teri Odom is exploring #polaritons — hybrid carriers made of light and matter — that could transform secure, energy-efficient #communication.
#NUChemImpact #ResearchImpact

magazine.northwestern.edu/features/res...

Thrilled to see Farha Group member Duaa Ansari’s stunning science imagery featured in 'Nautilus' for her submission to the NUANCE “Art of Science” contest! 🧪🎨
#Chemistry #Art @omarfarha.bsky.social

🔗 nautil.us/a-nano-sized...

Congrats Courtney Smoljan on being named 'Distinguished Graduate Researcher; by NU Chemical and Biological Engineering!

Her work shows how the collaborative spirit at #Northwestern — between omarfarha.bsky.social and randallsnurr.bsky.social — drives innovation.

#GradExcellence #NUChemistry

Truly honored to have Phil Baran visit us for the Bender Lecture Series at Northwestern.

Two inspiring talks and many fun stories. ⚡️
@nuchemistry.bsky.social

First ‘perovskite camera’ can see inside the human body New detector promises to lower the cost and increase the quality of nuclear medicine

🚨 Medical imaging just got a #perovskite upgrade.

Mercouri Kanatzidis + team built the first perovskite detector for SPECT scans.

“Perovskites revolutionized solar energy—now they could do the same for nuclear medicine.” – Kanatzidis #MedicalImaging #NUChemistry #ResearchImpact

bit.ly/4641qBX

Congratulations to Guanyu Lu, inaugural Fraser Stoddart Fellow in the Dayne Swearer Group, on his first lead-author paper in ACS Nano.

A milestone for both Guanyu and the fellowship.

Read the full paper: bit.ly/4gfgtvS

@dayneswearer.bsky.social
@nuchemistry.bsky.social

Optically Addressing Circularly Polarized Vibrations in Molecules Circularly polarized (CP) vibrations are the nuclear-motion analog of CP light, emerging in molecules with non-Abelian point-group symmetry that support orthogonal and degenerate vibrational normal mo...

✨ New from Roel Tempelaar's team in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters: exploring how circularly polarized molecular vibrations could one day store and control info at the nanoscale. #Theory #Chemistry (@pubs.acs.org)

pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...