• Ph.D. degree in Chemistry at Cambridge University in 1968 and Ohio State University's first Eminent Scholar in 1984.

• The chairman of the OSU International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy.

• Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Molecular Spectroscopy and editorial boards for the following journals: Journal of Chemical Physics; Review of Scientific Instruments; Journal of Physical Chemistry; Journal of the Optical Society of America...

 

Few things affect your quality of life more than the air you breathe and the temperature of your immediate environment. Since more than 80% of the energy used in the industrialized world today is still derived from fossil fuels, these two quantities are not unrelated. Most organic molecules injected into the troposphere are degraded via oxidative processes involving free radical intermediates, and many of these intermediates are the same as the ones involved in the combustion of fossil fuels. Modern spectroscopic techniques like laser induced fluorescence (LIF) and cavity ringdown spectroscopy (CRDS) allow the detection, monitoring, and characterization of chemical intermediates involved in both atmospheric and combustion-related oxidation of organic molecules. Relevant species that we have studied include the alkoxy (RO) and peroxy (RO₂) families (R=C_nH_2n+1) of radicals as well as the nitrate radical NO₃. Specifically we will describe results from LIF experiments on the near-UV electronic spectra of CH₃O, C₂H₅O, and i-C₃H₇O and their analysis. Related CRDS experiments and analyses of the Ã-X̃ electronic transition in the near-IR of RO₂ radicals and NO₃ will be discussed. Both CH₃O and NO₃ are examples of chemical intermediates whose spectroscopy involves one electronic state subject to Jahn-Teller interactions. The spectral effects of Jahn-Teller interactions will be discussed as will the relationship of spectral observations and electronic structure calculations.