Prize Recipient

Marissa L. Weichman
University of California, Berkeley

"Slow Photoelectron Velocity-Map Imaging and Infrared Photodissociation Spectroscopy of Cryo-Cooled Molecular and Cluster Anions."

Marissa Weichman earned her B.S. in chemistry in 2012 at the California Institute of Technology. She then moved to UC Berkeley to complete her Ph.D. work in chemistry under Professor Daniel Neumark as an NSF graduate research fellow. In her Ph.D. research, Dr. Weichman used slow photoelectron velocity-map imaging spectroscopy to elucidate the electronic and vibrational structure of exotic neutral species via photodetachment of the corresponding cryogenically cooled anions. Systems of particular interest included atmospheric and astrochemically relevant molecular species, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon radicals, transition metal oxide clusters, and the transition states and transient reactive complexes of bimolecular reactions. Part of Dr. Weichman`s thesis work was also carried out in collaboration with the
research group of Prof. Knut Asmis at the Fritz Haber Institute (FHI) in Berlin, Germany, using the FHI free electron laser to perform infrared photodissociation spectroscopy experiments on cold metal oxide cluster anions and their reactive complexes. Dr. Weichman completed her Ph.D. in 2017, and subsequently joined the research group of Dr. Jun Ye at JILA/CU Boulder as a NIST/NRC postdoctoral research fellow. In her current work, Dr. Weichman is working to develop cavity-enhanced frequency comb spectroscopy techniques to perform sensitive, broadband, and high-resolution direct infrared absorption spectroscopy of large gas phase molecules.

2018 Selection Committee Members: Robert Gordon (Chair), Scott Anderson, Laura Gagliardi, Tim Zwier