Prof. Thompson presented some of the group’s work on pH driven assembly of gold nanorods in a virtual symposium at the Spring 2021 National ACS Conference as well as a virtual presentation at The University of Iowa analytical chemistry speaker series. Prof. Thompson joined the newly formed Primarily Undergraduate Nanomaterials Cooperative (PUNC); a group which seeks to support and foster collaborations between PUI nanomaterials faculty. As a part of this group, Prof Thompson contributed to a publication in ACS Nanoscience Au that was published in the fall of 2021.
In the spring of 2021 MaKayla Walker (’22 Chem) joined the nanolab to work on the pH driven assembly of gold nanorods before she went off to an industrial internship for the summer.
In the summer of 2021, the nanolab saw the arrival of Emma Hedgepeth (Bio ’22), Jackie Richardson (Physics ‘23), and Delaney McCormick (’23 BMB). Emma worked on a project in collaboration with Prof. Fong in the bio department exploring the uptake of gold nanoparticles in to freshwater clams, while Jackie worked on synthesizing a polymerizable surfactant to coat the surface of gold nanorods, and Delaney worked on understanding more about the intermediate polyelectrolyte layers on the assembly of gold nanorods coated with poly-lysine.
The group also regularly participated in the weekly PUNC zoom meetings as well as a regional nanomaterials supergroup meeting with faculty from many central PA colleges.
In the spring of 2022 Prof. Thompson finally headed north to Montreal to work with Jean-François Masson’s group at the University of Montreal.
