Jacob Dean
Associate Professor, Chemistry Southern Utah University
Biography
One direction of Dean's research group is exploring molecular design principles found in natural light-harvesting molecules/proteins within biological contexts such as photosynthesis and photoreception. Nature has spent a significant amount of "optimization" time in developing molecules and molecular aggregates which collectively perform a particular function at oftentimes impressively high efficiency. Spectroscopy can be used to understand the key interactions or particular molecular frameworks which give way to that function. These studies have applications in artificial light-harvesting and photoswitching.
Another research direction in Dean's group is laser spectroscopy of cold, isolated molecules in the gas phase at near 2 K temperatures to precisely measure the structure, electronic transitions, and nuclear motion activated by UV light of a molecule of interest. This lab utilizes a mass spectrometer coupled to a supersonic expansion to enable both UV-vis and IR spectroscopy of cold samples while simultaneously measuring the masses of any fragments or dissociation products resulting from excitation.
Media
Industry Expertise
Areas of Expertise
Education
Texas A&M University
B.S.
2009
Purdue University
Ph.D.
2014
Accomplishments
CAREER Award
2023-2028
National Science Foundation
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
2015-2017
Princeton University
Postdoctoral Research Scholar
2014-2015
University of Toronto
Links
Media Appearances
Research projects and grant funding at SUU
KUTV online
2023-10-17
Students can get a hands on experience when it comes to science programs at SUU. Dr. Jacob Dean discussed how research project and grant funding has helped students get a better experience and learn with hands on lessons.
SUU Chemist Dr. Jacob Dean Awarded Prestigious NSF CAREER Grant
SUU News online
2023-09-18
Associate Professor of Chemistry at Southern Utah University, Dr. Jacob Dean, has been awarded the prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Program (CAREER) grant. This grant supports early-career faculty with the potential to become academic role models in research and education. Dr. Dean secured the top honor of $500,000 over five years to support his research in enhancing light harvesting efficiency in organic materials.
Articles
Intramolecular Charge Transfer and Ultrafast Nonradiative Decay in DNA-Tethered Asymmetric Nitro- and Dimethylamino-Substituted Squaraines
The Journal of Physical Chemistry A2023
Molecular (dye) aggregates are a materials platform of interest in light harvesting, organic optoelectronics, and nanoscale computing, including quantum information science (QIS). Strong excitonic interactions between dyes are key to their use in QIS; critically, properties of the individual dyes govern the extent of these interactions.
Characterizing Mode Anharmonicity and Huang–Rhys Factors Using Models of Femtosecond Coherence Spectra
The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters2022
Femtosecond laser pulses readily produce coherent quantum beats in transient–absorption spectra. These oscillatory signals often arise from molecular vibrations and therefore may contain information about the excited-state potential energy surface near the Franck–Condon region.
Striking the right balance of intermolecular coupling for high-efficiency singlet fission
Chemical Science2018
Singlet fission is a process that splits collective excitations, or excitons, into two with unity efficiency. This exciton splitting process, unique to molecular photophysics, has the potential to considerably improve the efficiency of optoelectronic devices through more efficient light harvesting.
Tuning Singlet Fission in π-Bridge-π Chromophores
Journal of the American Chemical Society2017
We have designed a series of pentacene dimers separated by homoconjugated or nonconjugated bridges that exhibit fast and efficient intramolecular singlet exciton fission (iSF).
Vibronic Enhancement of Algae Light Harvesting
Chem2016
Light harvesting is the crucial first step in photosynthesis and operates at extraordinary efficiencies granted by the specific molecular architectures of antenna proteins. Cryptophyte algae utilize antennas with pigments that absorb in the middle of the solar spectrum, where plants and most algae lack absorptions, allowing them survival flexibility in a green world.
