Cornell chemists tackle climate change
Cornell University, The College of Arts & Sciences, August 7, 2025
As the need to find climate change solutions becomes ever more urgent, Cornell chemists are leading the way with innovative and far-reaching discoveries, including better electric batteries, carbon capture technologies, renewable plastics and improvements in solar cells.
Ju-an Zhang and Zhuofan Shen win Bauer Scholarship Award for AY 2024-2025
May 2025
The Bauer Scholarship Award is given to graduate students (going into their final year of study at Cornell) who have demonstrated scientific and educational excellence as well as communication skills. This award provides them with the opportunity to give a research presentation at their alma mater, covering travel expenses, a two-day hotel stay, and a per diem for a trip that has to be made before the end of May the following year. The format for the research presentation will be determined by the host institution and can range from a group meeting to a departmental talk.
Reducing plastic’s environmental impact with machine learning
Cornell Chronicle, March 17, 2025
Cornell chemistry researchers have found ways to reduce the environmental impact of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) – found in milk jugs, shampoo bottles, playground equipment and many other things – by developing a machine-learning model that enables manufacturers to customize and improve HDPE materials, decreasing the amount of material needed for various applications. It can also be used to boost the quality of recycled HDPE to rival new, making recycling a more practical process.
Altan Kocatulum passed his A-exam
December 2024
Congratulations to Altan!
Robert Mercogliano passed his A-exam
August 2024
Congratulations to Rob!
Jalen Harris passed his A-exam
August 2024
Congratulations to Jalen!
Dr. Hsin-Yu Ko appointed Assistant Professor at University of North Texas
August 2024
Our postdoctoral researcher Dr. Hsin-Yu Ko has accepted a faculty position as an Assistant Professor at University of North Texas. Congratulations to Hsin-Yu!
Ju-an Zhang wins the Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize for AY 2023-2024
May 2024
The Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize was established by the parents of Howard Wachter, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology who died after a long and courageous fight against cancer in 1975. This prize is normally awarded to our best 3rd year graduate students in Physical Chemistry (broadly defined), taking into consideration the quality of the prospective awardee's work and potential contribution to the profession, although consideration will also be given to exceptional 4th year graduate students. To reflect Howard Wachter's own interests as a graduate student, special consideration will be given to students interested in Theory.
Ju-an Zhang wins ACS Cornell Section Graduate Teaching Award for AY 2023-2024
May 2024
The Teaching Award is given to graduate students who are recognized as outstanding Teaching Assistants (TAs) in our undergraduate classes.
Zhuofan Shen passed his A-exam
December 2023
Congratulations to Zhuofan!
Ju-an Zhang passed his A-exam
November 2023
Congratulations to Ju-an!
New research introduces ‘freedom of design’ for molecules
Cornell University, The College of Arts & Sciences, September 19, 2023
Robert A. DiStasio Jr., associate professor of chemistry and chemical biology in the College of Arts and Sciences, and collaborators at the University of Luxembourg and Argonne National Laboratory conducted an extensive computational study of this space and have introduced a novel concept, called “freedom of design,” that can be used to identify molecules with targeted physical and/or chemical properties. The concept has important implications in the fields of rational molecular design and computational drug discovery.
Zach Sparrow passed his B-exam
April 2023
Congratulations to Zach!
Energy center receives $12.6 million in renewed funding
Cornell Chronicle, August 25, 2022
Cornell’s Center for Alkaline-Based Energy Solutions (CABES) has received renewal funding of $12.6 million for a four-year period to continue its work developing advanced fuel cell technologies in alkaline media.
Brian Ernst passed his B-exam
July 2022
Congratulations to Brian!
Zach Sparrow wins Bauer Scholarship Award for AY 2020-2021
May 2021
The Bauer Scholarship Award is given to graduate students (going into their final year of study at Cornell) who have demonstrated scientific and educational excellence as well as communication skills. This award provides them with the opportunity to give a research presentation at their alma mater, covering travel expenses, a two-day hotel stay, and a per diem for a trip that has to be made before the end of May the following year. The format for the research presentation will be determined by the host institution and can range from a group meeting to a departmental talk.
Zach Sparrow wins Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize for AY 2020-2021
April 9, 2021
The Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize was established by the parents of Howard Wachter, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology. This prize is normally awarded to our best 3rd year graduate students in Physical Chemistry (broadly defined), taking into consideration the quality of the prospective awardee's work and potential contribution to the profession. To reflect Howard Wachter's own interests as a graduate student, special consideration will be given to students interested in Theory.
Jalen Harris awarded a Computational Science Graduate Fellowship from the Department of Energy
April 5, 2021
The group would like to congratulate Jalen Harris for recently being awarded a Computational Science Fellowship from the Department of Energy. These are highly prestigious fellowships and are only awarded to a small number of graduate students each year. Jalen is co-advised by Nicole Benedek (MSE) and Robert DiStasio (Chemistry).
DiStasio wins ACS COMP OpenEye Outstanding Junior Faculty Award
Fall 2020
The ACS COMP OpenEye Cadence Molecular Sciences Outstanding Junior Faculty Award program provides $1,000 to up to four outstanding tenure-track junior faculty members to present their work in COMP division at the Fall 2020 Virtual ACS National Meeting. The Awards are designed to assist new faculty members in gaining visibility within the COMP community.
Electrochemical reaction powers new drug discoveries
Cornell Chronicle, June 29, 2020
A Cornell-led collaboration is flipping the switch on traditional synthetic chemistry by using electricity to drive a new chemical reaction that previously stumped chemists who rely on conventional methods.
Brian Ernst wins Bauer Scholarship Award for AY 2019-2020
May 2020
The Bauer Scholarship Award is given to graduate students (going into their final year of study at Cornell) who have demonstrated scientific and educational excellence as well as communication skills. This award provides them with the opportunity to give a research presentation at their alma mater, covering travel expenses, a two-day hotel stay, and a per diem for a trip that has to be made before the end of May the following year. The format for the research presentation will be determined by the host institution and can range from a group meeting to a departmental talk.
Davis, Delimitrou, DiStasio win Sloan fellowships
Cornell Chronicle, February 12, 2020
Assistant professors Damek Davis, Christina Delimitrou and Robert A. DiStasio Jr. have won 2020 Sloan Research Fellowships from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. The fellowships support early-career faculty members’ original research and education related to science, technology, mathematics and economics. They are among the 126 researchers in the United States and Canada who received two-year, $75,000 fellowships to advance their work. “A Sloan research fellow is someone whose drive, creativity and insight makes them a researcher to watch,” said Adam F. Falk, president of the Sloan Foundation.
DiStasio Receives NSF CAREER Award
Cornell University, The Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, January 17, 2020
Assistant Professor Robert A. DiStasio Jr. has received a five-year Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Chemistry for a proposal entitled "CAREER: Accurate, Reliable, and Routine First-Principles Prediction of the Structure and Stability of Molecular Crystal Polymorphs."
Nine assistant professors win NSF early career awards
Cornell Chronicle, January 16, 2020
Researchers studying the ethical implications of artificial intelligence algorithms, the development of new tools to analyze brain images and the role of fluids in triggering earthquakes are among the nine Cornell faculty members who have received National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development Awards.
Zach Sparrow passed his A-exam
November 2019
Congratulations to Zach!
Brian Ernst and Zach Sparrow win Covestro Teaching Award for AY 2018-2019
May 2019
The Covestro Teaching Award is given to graduate students who are recognized as outstanding Teaching Assistants (TAs) in our undergraduate classes.
Yan Yang wins Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize for AY 2018-2019
April 2019
The Howard Neal Wachter Memorial Prize was established by the parents of Howard Wachter, a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology. This prize is normally awarded to our best 3rd year graduate students in Physical Chemistry (broadly defined), taking into consideration the quality of the prospective awardee's work and potential contribution to the profession. To reflect Howard Wachter's own interests as a graduate student, special consideration will be given to students interested in Theory.
Pore size influences nature of complex nanostructures
Cornell Chronicle, January 14, 2019
The strength of the attraction between molecules in two-dimensional materials, known as van der Waals forces, is dependent on the size of the empty spaces in the material, researchers have found.
Brian Ernst passed his A-exam
November 2018
Congratulations to Brian!
Brian Ernst selected as a CTI Graduate Teaching Assistant Fellow
Cornell University, The Department of Chemistry & Chemical Biology, August 9, 2018
The Center for Teaching Innovation (CTI) Fellows are a select group of graduate student leaders with a demonstrated commitment to teaching. CTI Fellows advance their teaching, assessment, and professional skills while developing and implementing programs and creating resources that foster teaching excellence at Cornell University.
$10.75M grant aids next-gen fuel cell development
Cornell Chronicle, July 18, 2018
Chemistry professor Héctor Abruña will lead a Department of Energy-sponsored Energy Frontier Research Center at Cornell, aimed at developing next-generation, alkaline-based fuel cells.
Researchers sew atomic lattices seamlessly together
Cornell Chronicle, March 8, 2018
The wave-like behavior observed in electron cloud fluctuations challenges the widely held belief that van der Waals interactions, ubiquitous in the natural world, are particle-like in nature.
'Sticky waves': Molecular interactions at the nanoscale
Cornell Chronicle, March 10, 2016
Research from Cornell and the University of Chicago has revealed a technique to “sew” two patches of crystals seamlessly together to create atomically thin fabrics.
The Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology Newsletter C&CB News
