Welcome to the Willets Lab at Temple University
The Willets lab is interested in how structural and compositional heterogeneity at the nanoscale impacts light-matter interactions and electrochemical behavior of nanomaterials. Much of our research focuses on plasmonic nanoparticles, which interact with resonant electromagnetic excitation to generate strongly enhanced electromagnetic fields at their surface (the basis of surface-enhanced spectroscopies, such as surface-enhanced Raman, or SERS) and decay either radiatively or nonradiatively, producing energetically-excited (or “hot) charge carriers and local heating. Our research focuses on understanding how heterogeneity in nanoparticle structure affects these various plasmon excitation and decay pathways for applications that span from sensing to energy conversion. We use a variety of techniques including fluorescence, Raman, single molecule imaging, super-resolution imaging, electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and electrochemistry to understand how nanoscale interfacial heterogeneity affects a range of applications including sensing, energy harvesting and transfer, and surface reactivity. Visit our research and publication pages to learn more. |
Lab News
March 20, 2023. The Willets lab welcomes Dr. Vignesh Sundaresan (Ph.D. 2018) and Dr. Yun Yu (postdoc 2016-2019) back for a visit. March 9, 2023. Abby and Sanjay successfully mentor two science fair teams to 2nd and 3rd place finishes at the George Washington Carver Science Fair. Visit our outreach page to learn more! December 13, 2022. Nat successfully defends her Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Molina! December 9, 2022. Joe successfully defends his Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Monaghan! December 7, 2022. The Willets lab welcomes our two newest first year graduate students, Hind and Deepika! November 7, 2022. Our paper on calcite-assisted localization and kinetics (CLocK) microscopy is published in J. Phys. Chem. Lett. July 29, 2022. The Willets Lab hosts 8 high school students for a fun day of nanoparticle synthesis, single particle imaging, and AFM. July 28, 2022. Our Phase I CCI for Single Entity Nanochemistry and Nanocrystal Design is funded. Looking forward to some exciting science! July 27, 2022. The Willets lab hosts the Wustholz lab from William and Mary for a week of scientific collaboration. June 16, 2022. Sanjay is selected to give a talk at the Noble Metal Nanoparticles Gordon Conference. Nice job Sanjay! June 1, 2022. Kallie is appointed as an Associate Editor at ACS Nano. May 20, 2022. The Willets lab visits Freire Charter School for our annual "Adventures in Silver" activity. April 20, 2022. Nat and Mint's paper on the perils of ITO substrates is accepted at ChemElectroChem. April 4, 2022. Big day for the Willets lab! Zac receives an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship, and Nat and Joe receive Dissertation Completion Grants! November 1, 2021. Phil and Abby's paper on DNA thermometry is published as part of the W.E. Moerner Festschrift in J. Phys. Chem. B. October 27, 2021. Kallie's book chapter on emerging trends in super-resolution imaging enabled by lasers is published online. August 4, 2021. Our collaborative NSF DMREF program with David Masiello and Stephan Link is renewed. July 23, 2021. The lab runs a full day activity on "Adventures in Nanochemistry" at Freire Charter School's inaugural Summer Science Camp. May 25, 2021. Our collaborative paper with the Link and Masiello groups is accepted at Nano Letters. May 20-21, 2021. Our lab visits Freire Charter School for our annual "Adventures in Silver" activity. This year we did both an in-person and a virtual lab to accommodate the hybrid classroom. May 1, 2021. After a long wait due to COVID, the Willets lab welcomes our new undergrad, Gabe Delong! December 8, 2020. The Willets Lab welcomes our two newest members: Zac O'Dell and Sanjay Sridhar! July 1, 2020. Kallie is promoted to full professor. June 1, 2020. Our NSF supplement for our DMREF project on nanoscale heating is funded. May 28, 2020. Our NSF grant on silver nanoparticle electrochemistry is funded. May 7, 2020. Congratulations to undergrad Jenn Luu on her graduation!! April 17, 2020. The lab ran a Twitter contest for who could make the best Table of Contents (TOC) graphic (a nice coronavirus distraction!). Congratulations to Joe for his winning entry! March 4, 2020. The Willets lab visits Freire Charter School for our annual "Adventures in Silver" with a *new* spectroscopy activity. December 2, 2019. The Willets lab welcomes our newest member, Tipsiri "Mint" Pungsrisai. Welcome to the lab, Mint! October 22, 2019. Joe wins a College of Science and Technology Outstanding Teaching Assistant (TA) Award. Great job Joe! October 8, 2019. Our collaborative review on the future of SERS is named as an ACS Editors' Choice article. September 3, 2019. Kallie is proud to be one of 59 (!!) contributors to a massive perspective article on the present and future of SERS that was just accepted in ACS Nano. August 26, 2019. The Willets lab welcomes our newest undergrad researcher, Aya Saleh! August 2, 2019. The Willets lab bids farewell to undergrad Spencer on his final day in the lab. Good luck with your new job, Spencer! July 30, 2019. Our collaborative paper with the groups of David Masiello and Stephan Link is accepted at ACS Nano. June 5, 2019. Kallie's Perspective on super-charging superlocalization microscopy is published in ACS Nano. May 28, 2019. The Willets Lab visits Freire Charter School for an activity on identifying unknown compounds. See our outreach page for details and photos! May 9, 2019. Congratulations to our graduating seniors, Jeff Williams and Spencer Yeager! April 17, 2019. Spencer receives the the Richard Asher Paclin Memorial Award and Jen receives the Abraham and Ruth Clearfield Scholarship. Congratulations to our undergrads! March 6, 2019. Jet and Taryn's collaborative paper with David Masiello's group on surface ligand reorganization due to plasmon-induced heating is accepted at J. Phys. Chem. Lett. February 26, 2019. Yun's collaborative paper with Xiaoxing Xi's group on measuring the energy distribution of plasmon-generated hot holes is accepted in ACS Nano. February 25, 2019. The Willets lab bids farewell to our first Temple Ph.D. student, Vignesh, as he heads to a postdoc with Paul Bohn at Notre Dame. Best of luck Vignesh! January 25, 2019. The Willets lab bids farewell to Yun Yu, as he moves on to a postdoc at UC Berkeley. Good luck Yun and thanks for all of your hard work! January 2, 2019. The Willets lab welcomes a new undergraduate researcher, Jen Luu! December 14, 2018. Our updated chapter on SERS is published in the second edition of the Handbook of Organic Materials for Electronic and Photonic Devices. December 5, 2018. The Willets lab welcomes two new first year students, Abby Crawford and Bianca Paranzino! December 4, 2018. Vignesh receives the Francis Case Fellowship Award in recognition of his outstanding research. Congratulations Vignesh! November 20, 2018. Vignesh successfully defends his Ph.D. Congratulations Dr. Sundaresan! November 5, 2018. Our collaborative paper with the Dobereiner lab on arylpyrrole functionalized polymers is accepted in Macromolecules. October 30, 2018. The Willets lab visits Freire Charter School to run our annual Adventures in Silver activity. October 4, 2018. Kallie's review on the role of SERS in electrochemistry is accepted in Current Opinion in Electrochemistry. September 28, 2018. Bonnie and Spencer participate in the Undergraduate Research Program poster session. Congratulations on your excellent posters! July 30, 2018. The Willets lab has a postdoc research opportunity on using super-resolution imaging to study coupling between plasmonic nanoparticles and molecular emitters. Click here for details. July 16, 2018. Vig and Joe's paper on monitoring multiple simultaneous electrochemical reactions is accepted at ChemElectroChem as part of a special issue on Single Entity Electrochemistry. July 11, 2018. Our NSF proposal on "Super-resolution imaging of plasmon-molecule interactions" has been recommended for funding! July 1, 2018. The Willets lab says farewell to Padmanabh, Aaron, and Alli. Thanks for all of your hard work and good luck with everything! Click here to visit our News Archive |
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