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Sibener Group News

July 16th, 2024
Congratulations to Caleb Thompson for completing their doctoral thesis defense "Distinguishing the Role of Structure, Vibrational Dynamics, and Composition in Electron-Phonon Coupling of Nb(100) Surfaces"

June 5th, 2024
Congratulations to Sarah Willson for completing her doctoral thesis defense "Growth of Niobium-Tin Films on Niobium Oxide Surfaces for Superconducting Radiofrequency Cavity Applications"

May 16th, 2024
Congratulation to Sarah Willson for winning the chemistry department’s Albert J. Cross Prize for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Departmental Citizenship!

May 16th, 2024
Congratulations to Joshua Wagner for being awarded the chemistry department’s Gustavus F. and Ann M. Swift Memorial Fellowship for Excellence in Research!

May 10th, 2024
Congratulations to Josh Wagner for winning the top prize at the Faraday Discussion on New Directions in Molecular Scattering in Edinburgh, Scotland for his poster presentation on oxygen interactions with graphene!

April 16th, 2024
Congratulations to Steve whom has been admitted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (FRSC)! https://chemistry.uchicago.edu/news/steven-j-sibener-elected-as-fellow-of-the-royal-society-of-chemistry-rsc

March 21st, 2024
Congratulations to former graduate student Michelle Brann for being selected to attend the 2025 Lindau Nobel Laureate Meeting dedicated to Chemistry, as well as her selection to the ACS CAS Division 2024 Future Leaders Program!

January 1st, 2024
Congratulations to former graduate student Michelle Brann, whom has completed her NRC Fellowship at NIST and is now a postdoc with Karin Öberg’s astrochemistry group in the Astronomy Department at Harvard.

October 7th, 2023
Congratulations to Steve for winning the ACS 2023 Remsen Award! This award was established in 1946 to honor individuals for achieving the highest standards in teaching and research in chemistry, and includes a notable cohort of prior winners: https://acsmaryland.org/remsen-award/. Steve will accept the award in 2024 at Johns Hopkins University.

September 13th, 2023
Congratulations to Josh Wagner for winning first prize at the 2023 AVS Prairie Chapter Annual Meeting for his poster presentation on interfacial reaction dynamics!

July 1st, 2023
Congratulations to former postdoc Dan Killelea upon his promotion to Professor of Chemistry at Loyola University Chicago. Well done Dan!

July 1st, 2023
Congratulations to former undergraduate student Wilson Turner, who will be starting a one-year staff position at SpaceX before starting graduate school at Stanford!

May 24th, 2023
Congratulations to Josh Wagner, whom has been selected to receive the Frances E. Knock/Gladys Leavell Scholarship for his excellence in research. Well done!

May 7th, 2023
Congratulations to former graduate student Dr. Ryan Brown, whom has accepted a staff research position with Northrup Grumman in its Mission Systems sector. Best of Luck, Ryan!

February 7th, 2023
Congratulations to second year graduate student Michael Van Duinen upon passing his Candidacy Exam! Well done!

February 7th, 2023
The Sibener Group welcomes David Wang as its newest undergraduate researcher!

January 25th, 2023
Congratulations to Sarah Willson and Rachael Farber for having their paper selected as a supplemental cover for the Journal of Physical Chemistry C! View cover

2022


December 5th, 2022
The Sibener Group welcomes postdoctoral scholar Dr. Elizabeth Jamka to the group!

December 1st, 2022
The Sibener Group welcomes first year graduate students Van Do and Yue Ma as its newest graduate student members!

November 9th, 2022
Congratulations to Julia Murphy for winning the Nellie Yeoh Whetten National Award for her doctorate research on the dynamics of polymers at the 2022 68th International Meeting of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). Well done!

August 15th, 2022
Congratulations to Julia Murphy for completing her doctoral thesis defense: "Polymers in Motion: Observations of Ordering, Fluctuations, and Coarsening in Block Copolymer Films with Atomic Force Microscopy"

August 3rd, 2022
Congratulations to Josh Wagner, whom has won one of the James Franck Institute Nanoscience Meeting Awards for best presentation. Well done Josh!

May 26th, 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Josh Wagner for winning the Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Service Award!

May 23rd, 2022
Congratulations to undergraduate student Wilson Turner, who spent 2 years in our group, for winning a prestigious Astronaut Scholarship for the 2022-2023 academic school year!

May 13th, 2022
Congratulations to Michelle Brann for completing her doctoral thesis defense: “Condensed Phase Adsorption and Reactivity: Extraterrestrial Ices, Isotopic Enrichment, Olefin Oxidation, and Nerve Agent Simulants"

April 1st, 2022
The Sibener Group welcomes first year student Helena Lew-Kiedrowska as its newest undergraduate member!

March 28th, 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Michelle Brann, whom has won and accepted an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the remote sensing group at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD!

March 25th, 2022
Congratulations to undergraduate student Wilson Turner, who spent 2 years in our group, for winning a prestigious Goldwater Scholarship!

March 21st, 2022
Congratulations to postdoctoral scholar Rachael Farber whom has accepted appointment as Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department at the University of Kansas! Well done Rachael!

March 4th, 2022
Congratulations to graduate student Julia Murphy, whom has won and accepted an NRC Postdoctoral Fellowship to join the polymer group at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD!

February 14th, 2022
The Sibener Group welcomes first year students Genevieve Ansay and Eric Zheng as its newest undergraduate members!

February 1st, 2022
Congratulations to Blake Hance and Jasper Brown, whom have passed their second year candidacy exams in the Department of Chemistry.

January 20th, 2022
Congratulations to Ali McMillan for completing her doctoral thesis defense: “Surface Stability, Phonon Band Structure, and Vibrational Dynamics of the Nb(100) Surface Oxide Reconstruction”

2021


December 3rd, 2021
Congratulations to Sarah Brown for completing her doctoral thesis defense: “Organic Self-Assembled Monolayers: Chemical and Structural Responses to Temperature, Light, and Reactive Gas Species”.

December 1st, 2021
The Sibener Group welcomes first year graduate student Michael Van Duinen as its newest graduate member!

November 29th, 2021
Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Wilson Turner whom has been selected to receive the 2021 ACS Undergraduate Award in Physical Chemistry for the University of Chicago!

October 27th, 2021
Congratulations to Michelle Brann, whom has won one of the 2021 AVS National Graduate Research Awards at AVS 67. Well done Michelle!

October 1st, 2021
The Sibener Group welcomes postdoctoral scholar Dr. Mark Muir to the group!

June 4th, 2021
Congratulations to Sibener Group graduate student Michelle Brann whom has been awarded two of this year’s prestigious awards from the chemistry department: the Albert J. Cross Prize for Excellence in Research, Teaching, and Departmental Citizenship, as well as the Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Service Award. Great news, Michelle!

June 4th, 2021
Congratulations to former Sibener Group graduate student Gaby Avila-Bront, whom has won an NSF CAREER Award for her research in the chemistry department at the College of the Holy Cross, MA. Well done, Gaby!

June 3rd, 2021
Congratulations to former Sibener Group graduate student Miriam Freedman, whom has been promoted to Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State. Well done Miriam!

March 20th, 2021
Congratulations to Michelle Brann for being awarded a fellowship from the Illinois Space Grant Consortium! This consortium is part of NASA’s National Space Grant and Fellowship Program, which was established by Congress in 1989 in all 50 states. Well done Michelle!

March 2nd, 2021
Congratulations to second year graduate students Stephen Hansknecht and Joshua Wagner upon passing their Candidacy Exams! Well done!

February 26th, 2021
Congratulations to postdoctoral scholar Rachael Farber, who was featured in a Member Spotlight Article from the AVS on the front page of the February 2021 "Beneath the AVS Surface” newsletter of the society! View link

February 1st, 2021
Congratulations to former Sibener Group graduate student Miriam Freedman, now on the faculty at Penn State, whom has won the 2021 Early-Career Award in Experimental Physical Chemistry from the ACS Division of Physical Chemistry! View link

February 1st, 2021
Congratulations to former Sibener Group graduate student Gaby Avila-Bront, whom has been promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in the chemistry department at the College of the Holy Cross, MA. Terrific news, Gaby!

January 8th, 2021
Congratulations and best wishes to postdoctoral scholar Jacob Graham whom will start his new position with NASA later this month. He will join the Planetary Environments Lab at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland!

January 4th, 2021
Congratulations and best wishes to Tim Grabnic whom will start his new position with ZS Associates this month in San Francisco!

2020


December 11th, 2020
Congratulations to undergraduate Wilson Turner whom has been selected as a Liew Family College Research Fellow for the 2020-2021 Academic Year!

December 11th, 2020
Congratulations to Tim Grabnic for completing his doctoral thesis defense: “Visualizing Reactions at Surfaces: Exploring Reactive Surface Dynamics Utilizing a Novel Combination of Supersonic Molecular Beams and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy”

November 25th, 2020
The Sibener Group welcomes two new members: First year graduate students Blake Hance and Jasper Brown!

July 30th, 2020
Congratulations and best wishes to former postdoctoral scholar Professor Ken Nicholson whom has accepted appointment as Chair of the Department of Chemistry at Northeastern Illinois University!

July 30th, 2020
Congratulations and best wishes to graduate student Ross Edel whom has accepted a postdoctoral position with Professor Steven George in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder!

July 29th, 2020
Congratulations and best wishes to graduate student Jeff Sayler whom has accepted an offer for a research staff position at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder as a Contamination Control Engineer for spacecraft flight systems.

June 11th, 2020
Congratulations to Sibener Group members for winning graduate awards: Sarah Brown for winning the Otto H. and Valerie Windt Memorial TA Training Teaching Fellowship, and Joshua Wagner for receiving the Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry.

January 29th, 2020
Congratulations to graduate students Alison McMillan and Sarah Brown whom have been selected to receive two of this year’s highly competitive Scholarship Awards from the Midwest Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.

January 23rd, 2020
Congratulations to Becca Thompson for completing her doctoral thesis defense: “Adsorption, Diffusion, and Reaction in Condensed Films: Nerve Agent Simulants, Extraterrestrial Ices, and Olefin Oxidation”

January 1st, 2020
Congratulations to graduate student Becca Thompson for her new position as Assistant Professor at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas. Becca will join the faculty Summer 2020.

2019


December 15th, 2019
The Sibener Group welcomes two new members: First year graduate students Joshua Wagner and Stephen Hansknecht!

December 1st, 2019
The Sibener Group welcomes first year undergraduate Wilson Turner to the group!

November 1st, 2019
Congratulations to Darren Veit for completing his doctoral thesis defense: “Low-Temperature Scanning Tunneling Microscopy and Scanning Tunneling Spectroscopy Study of Hydrogen and Nitrogen Doped Nb(100) Crystals”

October 23rd, 2019
Congratulations to Becca Thompson and Ross Edel for winning two of the five named national awards at the 66th Annual American Vacuum Society (AVS) Meeting for their doctoral research! Becca won the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award, while Ross won the Dorothy M. and Earl S. Hoffman Scholarship, both for their “outstanding achievement in vacuum science and technology”. Well done!

October 11th, 2019
Congratulations to Ross Edel for completing his doctoral thesis defense: “Oxidation of Semiconductors and Semimetals by Supersonic Beams of O2 with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Visualization”

August 1st, 2019
Congratulations to Becca Thompson for co-Chairing a terrific 2019 Gordon Research Seminar for the Dynamics at Surfaces Gordon Research Conference! Congratulations to Julia Murphy who was elected as the next co-Chair for the 2021 Gordon Research Seminar for the Dynamics at Surfaces Gordon Research Conference! Congratulations to Michelle Brann, Sarah Brown, Rachael Farber, Julia Murphy and Becca Thompson who all presented poster presentations that stimulated lots of discussion at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on Dynamics at Surfaces!

July 31st, 2019
Congratulations to Rachael Farber for her invited young investigator presentation at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference. Her presentation on work that she and Darren Veit accomplished attracted a Tweet from Alina Bruma @AlinaBruma1 for the American Institute of Physics: "Wonderful talk by Rachel Farber, @UChicago on STM studies of the growth and suppression mechanisms of Nb hydrides for next generation Superconducting RF accelerators and light sources.#GRC AIP @AIP_Publishing is present at this conference to spot great research topics!"

July 27th, 2019
Congratulations to Michelle Brann who gave an invited graduate student talk at the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on her work done jointly with Becca Thompson!

June 25th, 2019
Congratulations to Julia Murphy whose poster presentation “Combined SECM-AFM for Characterization of Water Filtration Membranes”, coauthored by Jon Raybin, was awarded first prize honors at the first annual Advanced Materials for Energy-Water Systems (AMEWS) EFRC meeting at Argonne!

June 6th, 2019
Congratulations to several Sibener Group members for winning graduate and undergraduate awards: Sarah Willson for winning the Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry, Ellen Purdy for winning the Frances E. Knock Prize for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry, Tim Grabnic for winning the Eugene Olshansky Memorial Fellowship, Becca Thompson for winning the inaugural Otto H. and Valerie Windt Memorial TA Training Teaching Fellowship

May 29th, 2019
Congratulations to Ellen Purdy whom has received the Suzanne Deal Booth Summer 2019 Conservation Research Internship at the Art Institute of Chicago!

May 15th, 2019
The Sibener Group welcomes two new undergraduate members: First year students Laura Duffy and Sammy Allaw!

May 13th, 2019
Congratulations to graduate student Becca Thompson whom has been awarded a special Windt Graduate Student Award in her capacity as Chair of the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar on Dynamics at Surfaces!

May 13th, 2019
Congratulations to graduate student Michelle Brann whom has been awarded the Windt Graduate Student Travel award to help present her research at the 2019 Gordon Research Conference on Dynamics at Surfaces!

April 12th, 2019
Congratulations to Jeffrey Sayler on his doctoral defense! “Scanning Tunneling Microscopy Study of the Reaction of Alkanethiolate Self-Assembled Monolayers with Atomic Hydrogen”.

February 14th, 2019
Congratulations to Sibener Group undergraduate researcher Ellen Purdy whom has been awarded a prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholar! Please see article

January 24th, 2019
Congratulations to Jonathan Raybin on his doctoral defense! “Defects and Dynamics in Block Copolymer Thin Films: A Study of Polymer Pattern Evolution with Enrivonmentally Controlled Atomic Force Microscopy”.

2018


December 1st, 2018
The Sibener Group welcomes two new members: First year chemistry graduate students Sarah Willson and Caleb Thompson!

November 5th, 2018
Congratulations to graduate students Julia Murphy and Michelle Brann whom have been selected to receive two of this year’s highly competitive Scholarship Awards from the Midwest Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists.

October 8th, 2018
Congratulations to graduate Jeff Sayler whom has been awarded the Windt Graduate Student Travel award to help present his research at the 2018 National Meeting of the AVS

October 8th, 2018
Congratulations to Jacob Graham whom has been awarded the Kharasch Travel Award for Postdoctoral Scholars to help present his research at the 2018 National Meeting of the AVS

October 7th, 2018
Congratulations to Julia Murphy for winning the best presentation award at the 2018 Women in Science Conference at Notre Dame. Julia attended the meeting as a representative from UChicago's Women in Chemistry group

September 6th, 2018
Congratulations to graduate student Tim Grabnic for winning the graduate student poster presentation competition at the 2018 Annual Prairie Chapter Meeting of the AVS. His poster, coauthored with graduate student Ross Edel, was entitled “Oxidation and Ablation of HOPG Using Supersonic Beams of Molecular Oxygen Combined with STM Visualization”.

May 14th, 2018
Welcome to Dr. Rachael Farber, the Sibener Group's newest postdoctoral scholar. Rachel received her doctorate in Physical Chemistry at Loyola University Chicago. She has won several national prizes for her doctoral research, invlufinh both the 2017 Morton Traum Award in Surface Science and the Nellie Yeoh Whetten Award from the AVS.

May 2nd, 2018
Congratulations to graduate student Alison McMillan, whom has been awarded this year's Helen Sellei-Beretvas Graduate Fellowship in Chemistry

March 1st, 2018
Congratulations to Dr. Ryan Brown, former Sibener Group graduate student, who has accepted appointment as Assistant Professor at Clarkson University’s Department of Chemistry.

2017


December 31st, 2017
Congratulations to second year graduate students Michelle Brann, Alison McMillan, and Julia Murphy upon passing their Candidacy Exams! Well done!

November 8th, 2017
Congratulations to graduate students Tim Grabnic and Ross Edel whom have been selected to receive two of this year’s highly competitive Scholarship Awards from the Midwest Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists. Great news!

October 27th, 2017
Congratulations to Kevin Nihill and Jacob Graham upon publication of their pioneering Physical Review Letter: “Separation of Isotopes in Space and Time by Gas-Surface Atomic Diffraction”. This article was selected as an Editor’s Suggestion, and notably was accompanied upon publication with an APS Viewpoint Article “Viewpoint: Atom Scattering Picks Out the Heavyweights”. Last year there were about 100 articles selected for such American Physical Society Viewpoints, these selected from more than 18,000 published articles in APS journals!

Additional Press on Isotope Enrichment and Separation:
October 23rd, 2017 - UChicago Chemists Introduce Novel Method to Separate Isotopes (UChicago News)
October 31st, 2017 - Separation by Scattering: Scientists Take On An Isotope Challenge (Physics Central Physics Buzz)
November 7th, 2017 - New Era of Isotope Separation: From Quantum Sieving to Supersonic Gas Beam (Labroots)

October 25th, 2017
Congratulations to Kevin Nihill on his doctoral defense! “Atomic and Molecular Beam Scattering: Characterizing Structure and Dynamics of Hybrid Organic-Semiconductor Interfaces and Introducing Novel Isotope Separation Techniques”. Kevin will start his postdoctoral position at MIT in January.

September 12th, 2017
Congratulations to graduate student Darren Veit for winning the 3rd place poster award at the 2017 Prairie Chapter Annual Meeting of the AVS for his presentation entitled "Oxygen Dissolution, Surface Oxide Reconstructions, and Nanohydride Precipitates on Nb-(100)"

September 12th, 2017
Belated congratulations to Professor Ken Nicholson, former Sibener Group postdoctoral scholar, whom has been granted tenure in the Department of Chemistry at North Eastern Illinois University!

August 28th, 2017
Congratulations to graduate student Becca Thompson whom has been elected Chair of the 2019 Gordon Research Seminar associated with the Gordon Research Conference on Dynamics at Surfaces.

June 19th, 2017
Congratulations to Professor Jong-in Hahm, former Sibener Group graduate student, whom has been promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Georgetown University!

May 17th, 2017
Congratulations to Professor Miriam Freedman, former Sibener Group graduate student, whom has been granted tenure in the Department of Chemistry at Penn State University!

May 17th, 2017
Congratulations to Professor Daniel Killelea, former Sibener Group postdoctoral scholar, whom has been granted tenure in the Department of Chemistry at Loyola University of Chicago!

May 12th, 2017
Congratulations to graduate student Becca Thompson for being awarded The Edith Barnard Memorial Fellowship in Chemistry.

May 5th, 2017
Congratulations to Ross Edel whom has been awarded a 2017 Windt Graduate Student Travel Award

May 5th, 2017
Congratulations to Kevin Nihill whom has been awarded a 2017 Windt Graduate Student Travel Award

May 5th, 2017
Congratulations to Tim Csernica whom has been chosen to receive The Norman H. Nachtrieb Memorial Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Studies of Chemistry for 2017

May 5th, 2017
Congratulations to Becca Thompson whom has been chosen to reveive The Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Service Award for 2017

May 5th, 2017
Congratulations to Ali McMillan whom has been chosen to receive The Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award in General Chemistry for 2017

March 21st, 2017
Congratulations to Kevin Nihill and Zack Hund for having their paper selected as a Journal of Chemical Physics 2016 Editor's Choice Award! Their paper was chosen as one of the most innovative and influential articles published in JCP for 2016.
"Experimental and Theoretical Study of Rotationally Inelastic Diffraction of H2(D2) from Methyl-Terminated Si(111)"
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/10.1063/1.4961257

February 6th, 2017
Congratulations to Grant Langlois on his doctoral defense!
"Time-Resolved Surface Dynamics: Directed Reactivity, Extraterrestrial Ices, and Nerve Agent Simulants"

January 4th, 2017
Congratulations to first year graduate student Michelle Brann, who has accepted appointment as an Associate to the Committee on Younger Chemists of the American Chemical Society for 2017. This is a joint committee of the Council and Board of Directors of the ACS.

January 3rd, 2017
Congratulations to graduate student Tim Grabnic, who has passed his second year candidacy exam in the Department of Chemistry.



2016


December 20th, 2016
Steve is pleased to announce that he has accepted appointment to the Editorial Advisory Board of The Journal of Chemical Physics.

November 30th, 2016
The Sibener Group welcomes a new member: first-year graduate student Julia Murphy!

November 9th, 2016
Grant Langlois wins one of the elite 2016 American Vacuum Society (AVS) National Graduate Student Research Awards for his doctoral studies on the chemistry of molecules embedded in ice.

November 3rd, 2016
Congratulations to graduate student Becca Thompson, who has won the 2016 Midwest Society of Cosmetic Chemists Graduate Scholarship for her work on ice chemistry, clathrates, and adsorbate oxidation kinetics.

November 1st, 2016
Congratulations to graduate student Sarah Brown, who has has passed her second year candidacy exam in the Department of Chemistry.

October 1st, 2016
The Sibener Group welcomes a new member: first-year graduate student Allison McMillan!

October 1st, 2016
The Sibener Group welcomes a new member: first-year graduate student Michelle Brann!

September 26th, 2016
New $22.6M NSF Science and Technology Center Announced, the Center for Bright Beams. Click the following link for more information:
https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2016/09/26/collaboration-seeks-enhance-accelerator-technology-lower-costs/

September 8th, 2016
Congratulations to Ross Edel for winning the First Prize Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award at the 2016 Prairie Chapter Meeting of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). His poster was entitled "Temporally and Spatially Resolved Oxidation of Si(111)-(7x7) Using Kinetic Energy Controlled Supersonic Beams in Combination with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy."

July 25th, 2016
Congratulations to Professor Sibener for being elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS). Steve was cited for his contributions to science and the profession as well as for his contributions to the ACS community:

Contribution to the science profession: Recognized for seminal studies of gas-surface interactions utilizing supersonic molecular beams and scanning probe microscopy with theory and simulations to elucidate the fundamental, underlying atomic-level chemistry and dynamics of interfaces.

The ACS community:Recognized for leadership in chemistry education for students and the public, including creating content for interactive and web-based museum exhibits that showcase chemistry and molecular reactivity to more than 1 million people annually.

July 18th, 2016
Congratulations to Sibener Group alumna Dr. Wenxin Li for her new position as staff scientist at GLOBALFOUNDRIES.

June 24th, 2016
Congratulations to Professor Sibener for being elected a Fellow of the American Vacuum Society (AVS) "for contributions in the quest of developing a molecular-level understanding of surface chemistry through the study of structures, motions, and reactions at solid surfaces."

June 1st, 2016
Congratulations to Sibener Group alumna Dr. Miki Nakayama for her new position as staff scientist at EAG following completion of her postdoctoral research at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

May 23rd, 2016
Congratulations to graduate student Grant Langlois for being awarded The Seymour Goodman Fellowship.

May 23rd, 2016
Congratulations to graduate student Jonathan Raybin for being awarded The Charles H. Viol Fellowship.

May 1st, 2016
The Sibener Group offers congratulations and bids farewell to undergraduate Katherine Oosterbaan as she begins her graduate studies in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.

January 11th, 2016
Congratulations to postdoc Bryan Wiggins, who has accepted a position at Intel.



2015


November 24th, 2015
The Sibener group welcomes two new members: first-year graduate students Sarah Brown and Tim Grabnic!

November 4th, 2015
Congratulations to graduate student Kevin Nihill, who has won the 2015 Midwest Society of Cosmetic Chemists Graduate Scholarship for his work on the interfacial dynamics of hydrocarbon-decorated semiconductor interfaces.

November 3rd, 2015
Congratulations to graduate students Becca Thompson and Ross Edel, who have passed their second year candidacy exams in the Department of Chemistry.

October 12th, 2015
Welcome to Dr. Jacob Graham, the Sibener Group's newest postdoctoral scholar. Jacob received his doctorate in Physical Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University working in the lab of Kit Bowen.

July 22nd, 2015
Congratulations to Wenxin Li on her doctoral defense!
"Interactions of Atomic and Molecular Species with Ice and Self-Assembled Monolayers"

July 21st, 2015
Congratulations to Zack Hund on his doctoral defense!
"Atomic Scattering from Methyl-Terminated Si and Ge"

July 2nd, 2015
Professor Sibener is honored with a special Festschrift issue in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C.

Featuring contributions from over 30 colleagues from around the world. Click on each of the links below to be directed to the respective preface article:

A Tribute to Steven J. Sibener

Steven J. Sibener - A Brief Scientific Memoir

Colleagues of Steven J. Sibener

Click on the cover to the left or here to go to the issue.

May 18, 2015
Congratulations to Kevin Nihill, winner of both the Joan Shiu Chemistry Department Student Services Award and the PSD Teaching Award for 2015!

May 1, 2015
Professor Sibener was featured in his role as Director and participant in the university's Institute for Molecular Engineering Water Research Initiative in the Cover Story of the University of Chicago Magazine (May-June 2015) entitled "Thirsty Planet".

March 20, 2015
Congratulations to Bryan Wiggins for being chosen to give a research presentation at the inaugural Rising Stars of Chemistry Symposium at The University of Chicago, June 8, 2015.

March 11, 2015
The Water Research Initiative of the Institute for Molecular Engineering adds a sixth research project to the original five that received funding last year.

January 23, 2015
Professor Sibener discusses global water issues in an interview on GreenSense Radio:



Find out more about the Water Research Initiative here.

January 7, 2015
The Sibener group welcomes two new members: first-year graduate students Becca Thompson and Ross Edel!

January 5, 2015
Professor Sibener (along with IME director Matt Tirrell) is featured as a guest on the WBEZ 91.5 Chicago show "Afternoon Shift," addressing global water scarcity and the University of Chicago's recent efforts to tackle the problem on a molecular level. Listen to the broadcast here. Find out more about the Water Research Initiative here.

January 4, 2015
Professor Sibener is featured in a front-page Chicago Tribune article addressing the University of Chicago's partnership with Israel's Ben-Gurion University of the Negev as part of the University's new initiative on water research. View a plain-text version of the article here. Find out more about the Water Research Initiative here.



2014


October 27, 2014
Professor Sibener presented the Keynote Address at the Inaugural UChicago Undergraduate Research Symposium. The intent of this student organized symposium was to promote interdisciplinary, intellectual discourse among students, staff, and faculty of all disciplines. Steve spoke on the topic of water resource management from around the world and concluded with recent advances from the Sibener Group on the interactions of energetic atoms and molecules with interfacial ice.

September 30, 2014
Recent Sibener Group publication on how molecules become trapped in ice highlighted in the news by the American Institute of Physics via press release.



LINK (links to UChicago news report)

September 10, 2014
Congratulations to Jonathan Raybin for winning the First Prize Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award at the 2014 Prairie Chapter Meeting of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). His poster was entitled "Pattern Control in Diblock Co-Polymers and the Creation of Functional Nanomaterials for Trace Gas Localization and Detection."

May 13, 2014
Congratulations to Tuo Wang on his doctoral defense!
"Conductive Atomic Force Microscopy Study of Single Semiconductor Quantum Dots and Quantum Dot Aggregates"

May 7, 2014
Congratulations to Ryan Douglas Brown on his doctoral defense!
"The Structure, Dynamics, and Surface Vibrations of Methyl-Silicon(111) as Determined by Helium Atom Scattering and Complementary Techniques"

May 2, 2014
Congratulations to Jonathan Raybin for winning this year's Chemistry departmental Joan Shiu Award for Student Service.

April 1, 2014
Congratulations to Dr. Hyung Ju Ryu, who has accepted a position as staff scientist at LG Chem, Republic of Korea

March 11, 2014
Congratulations to Gaby Avila-Bront for her Assistant Professorship at Holy Cross College.

March 11, 2014
Congratulations to Natalie Kautz for her new staff position at the Institute for Defense Analyses.

March 11, 2014
Congratulations to Qianqian Tong for her new staff position at Gas Discovery in Houston.

March 11, 2014
Congratulations to group alum Jim Becker for his new staff position at First Solar in Ohio.

March 4, 2014
Congratulations to Bryan Wiggins whom has been awarded a prestigious Provost's Career Enhancement Postdoctoral Scholarship.

February 12, 2014
Congratulations to Qianqian Tong on her doctoral defense!
"Directed Self-Assembly of Block Copolymer Thin Films: From Fundamental Science to Applications"

January 31, 2014
Congratulations to Gaby Avila-Bront on her doctoral defense!
"Molecular Monolayer Structures Formed on Vicinal Surfaces as Investigated by STM"



2013


November 12, 2013
Congratulations to Zack Hund for winning the Midwest Chapter of the Society of Cosmetic Chemists Scholarship, 2013.

September 4, 2013
Congratulations to Zack Hund for winning the First Prize Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award at the 2013 Prairie Chapter Meeting of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). His poster was entitled "Interfacial Dynamics of a Hybrid Organic-Semiconductor Using Inelastic Helium Atom Scattering & Density Functional Perturbation Theory."

July 1, 2013
Professor Sibener appointed Director of the University of Chicago's Institute for Molecular Engineering Water Research Initiative. LINK

May 13, 2013
Congratulations goes to Sibener Group members winning some of this year's departmental awards: Zack Hund (Joan Shiu Award), Kevin Nihill (Nathan Sugarman Teaching Award), Jonathan Raybin (Physical Sciences Division Teaching Award).



2012


December 4, 2012
Congratulations to Jonathan Raybin for winning a 2013 GAANN Fellowship.

September 6, 2012
Professor Sibener awarded the American Vacuum Society Prairie Chapter Outstanding Research Award, 2012. LINK



2011


September 7, 2011
Professor Sibener awarded the Arthur W. Adamson Award for Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Surface Chemistry, American Chemical Society National Award, 2012. LINK

September 1, 2011
Congratulations to Gaby Avila-Bront for winning the First Prize Graduate Student Poster Presentation Award at the 2014 Prairie Chapter Meeting of the American Vacuum Society (AVS). Her poster was entitled "Guiding the Formation of Single-Handed Enantiomeric Domains Using Kinked and Chiral Stepped Surfaces."

June 9, 2011
Congratulations to Qianqian Tong for being awarded the 2012-2013 Chenicek Fellowship for outstanding work by a graduate student in physical chemistry.