News/Events
Summaries of past news and events for RNMSL.
More recent thoughts and contributions from Dr. Rocha can be found on his new blog page.
News
2017
Mar 2017 - ESWRT cover article published this month - check it out.
Feb 2017 - The SWCNT separations using ionic salts was published online this month. Read it here.
Feb 2017 - Dr. Rocha recently presented an updated seminar entitled "High purity carbon-based nanomaterials for next-generation environmental, electronics, and energy applications" for the RIT School of Chemistry & Materials Science graduate student Colloqium series at the end of February.
Feb 2017 - Our ESWRT paper was selected to be featured as the cover article for its upcoming full issue publication.
Jan 2017 - Our paper entitled "Highly Effective Adsorption of Organic Aromatic Molecules from Aqueous Environments by Electronically Sorted Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes," was posted online as part of the ESWRT Emerging Investigators Series.
Jan 2017 - After some minor revisions, our work on SWCNT separations with ionic salts will be a part of a special In Memoriam issue of the ECS Journal of Solid State Science and Technology dedicated to Sir Harry Kroto.
2016
Dec 2016 - Dr. Rocha's collaboration with Drs. Reginald Rogers (RIT Chem. Eng.) and Anthony Dichiara (UWashington Env. and Forest Sci) was accepted for publication in the Royal Society of Chemistry's Environmental Science: Water Research & Technology journal.
Nov 2016 - Dr. Rocha received additional funding from the RIT Office of the Provost to continue working with a successful Junior Faculty Mentoring program with fellow chemistry and chemical engineering faculty.
Sept 2016 - Dr. Rocha recently completed a project entitled COMMENT: Communication and Outreach through Mentored Media Engagement and Networking Teams through RIT's NSF AdvanceRIT Connect Grants program. The COMMENT team successfully hosted four different guest speakers in addition to running workshops on social media engagement, public perception of science, and crowd-sourced research funding.
Aug 2016 - RIT OPV-REU student Riccardo Torsi, from Boise State University, recently completed his summer research project with the RNMSL. His work was successfully presented in an oral talk at the 2016 RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium.
April 2016 - Several RNMSL undergraduate student researchers, led by Ben Catalano and Greg Curtin, had their abstract accepted for presentation at the upcoming 252nd ACS National Meeting & Exposition in Philadelphia, PA. The project entitled "Building up Boron Nanomaterials: From B to B24 and Beyond," highlights our groups extensive work in determining small boron-based molecules and nanoclusters.
2015
May 2015 - Congratulations to the latest RNMSL graduates - Ryan, Anthony, Bilal, and Alyssa (BS Chemistry) and Dustin Woods (MS Chemistry).
April 2015 - Dr. Rocha was awarded funding through RIT's NSF-sponsored AdvanceRIT Connect Grants Program. The project led by Dr. Callie Babbitt in connection with fellow co-PIs Drs. Kara Maki and Matthew Hoffman is entitled COMMENT: Communication and Outreach through Mentored Media Engagement and Networking Teams.
2014
Oct 2014 - This year was an exciting year of contraction and expansion. Many of my original students have now completed their degrees. Thankfully we found many new students interested in working in the area of nanomaterials, physical chemistry, and materials science. Also, many first year Chemistry students demonstrated their interest and abilities including Ben Catalano, John Cofield, Greg Curtin, Sabrina Hogan, and Daniel Honeycutt joining the group. Additionally, two second year students, Amber Kudla and James Lamb started working with RNMSL this past Spring.
Aug 2014 - Following the overwhelming success of Dr. Rocha's course in Computational Chemistry, it is scheduled to be offered again in 2014. Some advanced undergraduate and graduate students have already signed up and enrollment is expected to approach 10 again, not counting other faculty participants also attending the course. We will utilize the campus site-license of Gaussian 09W acquired and installed in Spring 2014.
Aug 2014 - Ryan Capasse and Bilal Zeghum successfully presented their research at the annual RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium.
May 2014 - The RNMSL congratulates and celebrates the graduations of Lenny (MS Chemistry), Rakan (MS Mat. Sci. Eng.), and Mikhail (BS Chemistry) this Friday (5/23) and Saturday (5/24)!
May 2014 - Lenny and Rakan both successfully defended their MS theses research during the early weeks of May! Congratulations to them both on their upcoming graduation!
Dr. Rocha's invitation to speak during RIT's School of Physics & Astronomy's Colloqium series was been postponed to Fall 2014.
Apr 2014 - Dr. Rocha welcomed Bilal Zeghum, a junior Chemistry major, as a member of the RNMSL team. He will join Dustin and Ryan for Summer research.
Feb 2014 - The RNMSL will be moving into new lab space in the College of Science's main building - Gosnell Hall - in March!
Feb 2014 - Caleb was recently notified that he was accepted into RIT as a member of the 2014 Freshmen Class and expects to receive a full scholarship through the Rochester City Scholars program.
Feb 2014 - Dr. Rocha and Rakan recently submitted a manuscript to the ACS journal Nano Letters entitled, "Separation of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes with Alkali Metal Ionic Salts." This is the first official work fully completed by RNMSL members.
Jan 2014 - Dr. Rocha was invited to present a seminar to RIT's School of Physics and Astronomy in March.
Jan 2014 - Dustin Woods successfully PASSED his MS Thesis Proposal Seminar! His thesis committee members will include Profs. Chris Collison, Scott Williams, and Gerald Takacs.
2013
Dec 2013 - Dr. Rocha recently completed his first semester offering of a graduate level course in Computational Chemistry (CHMP-753). The course has excellent participation from both graduate and undergraduate students (total of 15), in addition to two active senior faculty members.
Dec 2013 - Lenny and Rakan received confirmation that their abstracts for Oral talks were selected for the 247th ACS Nat'l Meeting next March in Dallas, TX. Dr. Rocha is very excited to assist them in their first national meeting presentations and to be hosting them in his hometown! We're ready for some Tex-Mex and warm weather!
Dec 2013 - Rakan successfully presented his MS Mat. Sci. & Eng. thesis proposal to his committee, including Profs. Chris Collison, Thomas Smith, and Michael Pierce. Rakan is on track to complete his degree in May and is currently awaiting replies from several top-tier graduate programs for his doctoral studies.
Oct 2013 - Dustin C. Woods from Concord University (W. Virginia) joined the RNMSL as an MS Chemistry student. He is currently completing his first semester of course work, and expects to prepare a thesis proposal for defense this Winter.
Sept 2013 - Dr. Rocha and Rakan both received confirmation their abstracts were selected for the 2013 Fall Materials Research Society Meeting in Boston, MA this December.
Sept 2013 - Dr. Rocha was chosen as a featured bio for the upcoming 20th anniversary celebration of the Southern Regional Education Board - State Doctoral Scholars Program and it's partner groups at the Compact Institute for Faculty Diversity's Institute on Teaching and Mentoring.
Sept 2013 - Dr. Rocha was recently invited to present a seminar to the SUNY-Oswego Chemistry Department in October.
July 2013 - Dr. Rocha's abstract for the NT4D 2013 meeting in Tucson was chosen as an invited talk.
July 2013 - Dr. Rocha's abstract for the ACS Indy 2013 meeting was selected for the ACS Presentations on Demand itinerary.
June 2013 - Caleb Whittier, a rising high school Senior at Rochester City School District's School of the Arts, recently joined the RNMSL for Summer research through the ACS Project SEED program.
June 2013 - Dr. Rocha participated with the Technical Planning Committee for the 2013 NanoTechnology for Defense (NT4D) Conference taking place Nov. 4-7 in Tucson, Arizona.
June 2013 - Dr. Rocha and Lenny both received confirmation that their abstracts were selected for the 246th American Chemical Society National Meeting & Exposition to be held in Indianapolis, IN in Sept.
May 2013 - Dr. Rocha was invited to attend the Waters Corporation Chemical Materials Executive Technology Forum at Waters HQ, May 22 - 24, 2013.
Apr 2013 - Leonard Breindel recently PASSED his MS Thesis Proposal Seminar! He received many tough questions from Chemistry & Materials Science faculty, as well as his thesis committee members - Profs. Christopher Collison, Nathan Eddingsaas, and Reginald Rogers.
Apr 2013 - Dr. Rocha was invited to assist the Technical Planning Committee for the 2013 NanoTechnology for Defense (NT4D) Conference taking place Nov. 4-7 in Tucson, Arizona. The Call for Abstracts was recently announced, and the deadline for submission is Jun 5.
Jan 2013 - Dr. Rocha was invited to give seminars at Wellesley College in February and University at Buffalo (SUNY) in April.
2012
Dec 2012 - Dr. Rocha was awarded a small internal seed grant from RIT to initiate early computational chemistry studies of boron/carbon nanomaterial hybrids, as well as develop course material for a new advanced undergraduate elective course in Computational Chemistry.
Dec 2012 - Some of Dr. Rocha's postdoctoral research detailing work using transition metal doped boron-carbon nanomaterials for hydrogen storage was included in a large research article recently published in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C. The work was conducted at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, CO. Hydrogen (H2) is important for many fuel cell related technologies and particularly potential vehicular fuel cell technologies that would require a molecular hydrogen fuel source.
Dec 2012 - The December issue of the MRS Bulletin was focused on Graphene as a next-gen material. Dr. Rocha co-authored one of the contributions, "Carbon nanomaterial commercialization: Lessons for graphene from carbon nanotubes," with his former colleagues and collaborators at SWeNT and OU.
Oct 2012 - After an extensive series of interviews, Dr. Rocha selected the initial RNMSL team of five! The team will include first year graduate students, Rakan Ashour (Materials Science Engineering) and Leonard Breindel (Chemistry), as well as undergraduates Ryan Capasse (Chem. Soph.), Alyssa Dibble (Chem. Jr.), and Mikhail Solomonik (Chem. Soph.).
Oct 2012 - RNMSL website launched! RNMSL is the research laboratory and group of Dr. John-David R. Rocha in the Rochester Institute of Technology's College of Science School of Chemistry & Materials Science. We're interested in utilizing optical spectroscopic techniques to study important fundamental nanomaterial properties and assisting producers and end-users meet on the same page to achieve highly desired next-generation products.
Aug 2012 - Dr. Rocha joined the School of Chemistry & Materials Science in the College of Science at RIT.
Events
2014
May 2014 - Lenny and Rakan successfully defended their MS thesis research projects for completion of their degrees. Lenny's thesis in Chemistry is titled "Development of new instrumentation for the fast kinetic studies of single-walled carbon nanotubes and separation studies using gel chromatography," while Rakan's thesis in Materials Science & Engineering is "Use of alkali metal salts to prepare high purity single-walled carbon nanotube solutions and thin films."
March 2014 - Dr. Rocha showcased his hometown to Lenny and Rakan as they all attended the ACS National Meeting in Dallas. Rakan and Lenny presented their first major oral talks in the ANYL division symposia.
Jan 2014 - Dustin presented his public MS Thesis Proposal on Thursday, Jan 10. He endured intense questions from a large audience of diverse students and faculty. Behind closed doors he pushed through successfully and is excited to get to work on his experimental plan.
2013
Dec 2013 - Dr. Rocha participated as a panelist for the 2013 GEM Consortium GRADLab sponsored by RIT's Kate Gleason College of Engineering.
Dec 2013 - Rakan attended the MRS Fall Meeting in Boston to present both his and Dr. Rocha's posters.
Nov 2013 - Dr. Rocha attended the 2013 NT4D Conference to present a talk entitled, "Understanding Separation and Functionalization Processes of High Purity Semiconducting SWCNTs via Spectrofluorimetric Kinetic Analysis." He was also the Session Chair for the closing session on Materials Synthesis & Scale-up of NanoMaterials to Industrial Scale.
Sept 2013 - Dr. Rocha and Lenny presented work at the American Chemical Society National Meeting & Expo in Indianapolis. Lenny's poster was one of twelve posters from the PHYS section featured during the Sci-Mix poster session, and Dr. Rocha's presentation was recorded for the ACS Presentations- on-Demand website.
Aug 2013 - Ryan, Alyssa, and Mikhail presented their research progress at the 2013 RIT Undergraduate Research Symposium.
July 2013 - Rakan and Lenny presented their research progress at the 5th Annual RIT Graduate Research & Creativity Symposium on July 23.
Apr 2013 - Ryan, Alyssa, and Mikhail presented their research progress at the Rochester-ACS Undergraduate Research Symposium on Saturday, Apr 27. Each of them had a chance to present their work to multiple faculty from institutions around the Rochester area.
Apr 2013 - Leonard presented his MS Thesis Proposal Seminar on Thursday, Apr 25. After a tough round of closed door questions, Lenny emerged SUCCESSFULLY with great direction and preparation for his upcoming Summer research and second year!
Apr 2013 - Dr. Rocha was hosted by Dr. Eva Zurek for a seminar at University at Buffalo - SUNY on Apr 3. He enjoyed a number of great conversations with UB Chemistry students, faculty and staff. Additionally, two RNMSL undergrad students, Alyssa and Mikhail, came along for a day of lab tours and discussions with several UB Computational/Analytical/Materials Chemistry graduate students. A great day was had by all!
Feb 2013 - Dr. Rocha was hosted by Dr. Wilton Virgo for a seminar at Wellesley College on Feb 25. He enjoyed a number of great conversations with Wellesley Chemistry students, faculty and staff, as well as a great scenic Winter drive from Rochester to Wellesley!
Jan 2013 - Dr. Rocha recently hosted Dr. Eva Zurek from SUNY-Buffalo's Department of Chemistry.
2012
Oct 2012 - Dr. Rocha attended the SREB Compact for Faculty Diversity Institute on Teaching & Mentoring Junior Faculty Professional Development in Tampa, FL.