Michael Ruggiero

Woman holding a baby in a hallway

For a budding young chemist, I couldn’t think of a better role model than @aet-ice.bsky.social! Baby loves her visits to #Hutch @urochester.bsky.social

Seconded. Can’t believe I “didn’t like” steak for 18 years.

Experimentally Mapping the Molecular Pathways and Intermolecular Forces that Drive Elasticity in Flexible Crystals Elastically flexible molecular crystals are an emerging class of advanced materials, driving innovation in fields ranging from electronics to medicinal applications. At the fundamental level, bulk mat...

This paper is very cool - might be the coolest result of my career. We bent a flexible crystal, did some low-frequency confocal spectroscopy, and directly visualized intermolecular strain spectroscopically. @urochester.bsky.social @chemrxiv.org #THz #BendyCrystals

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

Guy in front of a screen on a stage

Woman on a state giving a talk

Group members Will Stoll and Johanna Kölbel crushed their talks at #IRMMW2025 today in Helsinki. Great work team! @urochester.bsky.social

‘CrystalGPT’ set to enhance how chemists design crystals in silico Model for predicting molecular crystal properties is readily adaptable to specific tasks, even with limited data

Nice work @graemeday.bsky.social and @aicooper.bsky.social - you made it easy for me to comment on! Cool stuff 😎
www.chemistryworld.com/news/crystal...
@chemistryworld.com

McGuirk is just a permanent Telluride resident these days. Have fun!

Journal cover with a double well potential and lots of flair

Congrats to @urochester.bsky.social PhD student Will Stoll on having his artwork featured on the most recent issue of JCTC @acs.org @gagliardilaura.bsky.social! Led by the great Davide Mitoli, and our very own Maria Petrov’s first paper. Nice work team! #THzDoesItBetter

Four people at lunch

Lunch with three titans of #inorganic chemistry. #chemsky @matsonlab.bsky.social @urochester.bsky.social

People in front of mountains and blue skies

Just getting back to the real world after an epic week at #Telluride talking all things related to the organic solid state. Thanks to the organizers for including me - Pance, Tomce, Pierangelo, and the great Steph @leelabnyu.bsky.social #ChemSky

Dave Matthews

The knicks are reliving the 90s why shouldn’t I

A group of students in a piazza in Italy

The IRES CRYSTAL Dynamics crew living the Italian life! First week down, first scientific results already trickling in…I think we’re in store for a special summer 🇺🇸🇮🇹🍝 #THzDoesItBetter @urochester.bsky.social

Students outside of building

Students outside of building they has a UniMore sign

Two men

Two people at an airport

And they’re off! After 18 months of planning, our inaugural NSF IRES cohort is in Italy! Stay tuned for lots of updates as these students kickoff a productive summer studying dynamic crystals and phonons! 🇺🇸🇮🇹 @urochester.bsky.social

Local coordination geometry within cobalt spinel oxides mediates photoinduced polaron formation Understanding the photophysics of transition metal oxides is crucial for these materials to realize their considerable potential in applications such as photocatalysis and optoelectronics. Recent stud...

New publication out in @chemicalscience.rsc.org 🎉 and our first collaborative work with the always-great Knowles Group @urochester.bsky.social. Phonons and electronics go hand-in-hand, looking forward to more exciting solid-state spectroscopy coming soon 😉

pubs.rsc.org/en/content/a...

Exploring the Interplay of Lattice Dynamics and Charge Transport in Organic Semiconductors: Progress Towards Rational Phonon Engineering Organic semiconductors (OSCs) have garnered significant attention due to their potential in flexible, lightweight, and cost-effective electronic devices. Despite their promise, the assembly of organi...

Just published in @angewandtechemie.bsky.social Check out this mini-review on the intersection of lattice dynamics and electronics in organic semiconducting materials. Free to read! Great teamwork! @urochester.bsky.social

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Hey @rsc.org members - voting opens today for elected positions in the #RSC. I am pleased to have been nominated to serve on the Faraday Council (physical chemistry).

Check your email for voting instructions (go here and enter your code www.mi-vote.com/secure/rsc

Solving the Cellulose I Polymorphic Structural Riddle: Disorder in Hydrogen Bond Networks Activates Diagnostic Terahertz Dynamics Cellulose is a common polymer found in natural sources, with the potential to be used in a wide variety of green and technologically-relevant applications. Despite years of effort, the precise 3D stru...

Trying to understand the nature of (static) crystalline disorder? Look to the terahertz region! In this #ChemRxiv preprint, we have understood the relationship between (dis)order and phonons in cellulose, revealing new structural insights. #THzDoesItBetter

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

How does a referee comment that blasts authors for using AI for writing - without evidence beyond “I don’t like this paragraph” - get through to authors? How can such accusations of ethical misconduct be levied without proof?

Super not okay. Esp since I’m the one who wrote the paragraph…

Tacos on a red tray

Got myself some epic tacos within 45 minutes of touching down in SD for #ACSSpring2025. What’s next?!

Community Events Calendar | Hobart and William Smith Colleges

Very excited and honored to be the Hobart and William Smith Colleges' Franks Seminar Speaker today! Looking forward to spending a fun and engaging day at Hobart. #THzDoesItBetter

www.hws.edu/news/calenda...

Two emails this morning, back to back (literally), that we were selected to be featured on journal front covers for two recently-accepted articles.

A sign of a good day in front of me, or is this my total allotment of good things for the day? Stay tuned 😅

Anharmonic Vibrational States of Double-Well Potentials in the Solid State from DFT Calculations We introduce a general approach for the simulation of quantum vibrational states of (symmetric and asymmetric) double-well potentials in molecules and materials for thermodynamic and spectroscopic applications. The method involves solving the nuclear Schrödinger equation associated with a one-mode potential of the type V(Q) = aQ2 + bQ3 + cQ4 (with a < 0 and c > 0) and thus explicitly includes nuclear quantum effects. The potential, V(Q), is obtained from density functional theory (DFT) calculations performed at displaced nuclear configurations along the selected normal mode, Q. The strategy has been implemented into the Crystal electronic structure package and allows for (i) the use of many density functional approximations, including hybrid ones, and (ii) integration with a quasi-harmonic module. The method is applied to the spectroscopic characterization of soft lattice modes in two phases of the molecular crystal of thiourea: a low-temperature ferroelectric phase and a high-temperature paraelectric phase. Signature peaks associated with structural changes between the two phases are found in the terahertz region of the electromagnetic spectrum, which exhibit strong anharmonic character in their thermal evolution, as measured by temperature-dependent terahertz time-domain spectroscopy.

🚨 New Publication in @acs.org #JCTC 🚨 We have calculated vibrational freqs and intensities for double-welled potentials in the solid state, led by Davide Mitoli from Torino, and featuring @urochester.bsky.social graduate students Maria Petrov and Will Stoll. Great work!

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

Anharmonic Vibrational States of Double-Well Potentials in the Solid State from DFT Calculations arXiv abstract link

Anharmonic Vibrational States of Double-Well Potentials in the Solid State from DFT Calculations
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2410.10379
Davide Mitoli, Maria Petrov, Jefferson Maul, William B. Stoll, Michael T. Ruggiero, Alessandro Erba

Guy and baby

Been off #chemsky for a while doing some #realtimechem. What have I missed 😅🫠😢🤦‍♂️😭

Connecting lattice and molecular vibrations to organic crystal properties Understanding dynamic processes in molecular crystals is becoming crucial for the development of next-generation smart crystalline materials. In this context, Zwolenik & Makal [(2025). IUCrJ, 12, 23–3...

Great commentary from the always-great Luca Catalano on a recent report that showcases how the inclusion of anharmonic effects not only explains thermal expansion phenomena, but also improves X-ray structural refinements. Lattice dynamics are everywhere! #chemsky

journals.iucr.org/m/issues/202...

program flyer

Calling all USA-based students looking for a summer research experience! We are pleased to share this opportunity to perform research in ITALY on dynamic crystals! 10-weeks, fully-funded (thanks to the US NSF), and applications are OPEN! Please share widely!

Interrogation of the Intermolecular Forces that Drive Bulk Properties of Molecular Crystals with Terahertz Spectroscopy and Density Functional Theory Identifying and characterizing intermolecular forces in the condensed phase is crucial for understanding both micro- and macroscopic properties of solids; ranging from solid-state reactivity to therma...

New preprint from the group! In this work, we carefully pinpoint how intermolecular forces change when moving from a methyl to trifluoromethyl in inorganic molecular materials. Great work and a nice collab with @rwluddite.bsky.social et al. Read on @chemrxiv.bsky.social

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...

this is a really good infographic to internalize for folks trying to move from academia to industry/private sector roles. Publications on your resume are impressive but not the key reason to be hired or perform well at your role

If you want to make someone’s day, go to your campus library, find a librarian, and ask for help finding an actual, hardcopy, book.

Business school offer of admission

Very excited to get back to school to work towards a MBA at the @urochester.bsky.social Simon School! I’ve come to recognize how skills typically associated with the business sector translate towards running a laboratory in academia, and I'm excited to grow further personally and professionally!

Sourdough bread

Yeastie beasties doing the lords work as winter rolls into town #ChemistsWhoCook