معرفی
James D. Gaynor is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Northwestern University, affiliated with the International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) and the Paula M. Trienens Institute for Sustainability and Energy. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from the University of Portland (2014), and a joint M.Sc./Ph.D. in Chemistry from the University of Washington (2019). He conducted postdoctoral research at the University of California, Berkeley until 2023.
His research focuses on excited-state and nonequilibrium dynamics in molecules and materials using ultrafast multidimensional spectroscopy. Key areas include quantum coherence, electron-electron correlations, vibronic couplings, and environmental influences on photochemical processes. His experimental toolkit includes high-energy femtosecond lasers, nonlinear optics, attosecond pulse generation, and ultrahigh vacuum systems.
Recent honors include the 2024 RCSA Scialog Fellowship and 2023 APS Early Career Award. His group has attracted grants from Northwestern’s Materials Research Science and Engineering Center and collaborations with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Notable publications explore attosecond four-wave mixing spectroscopy, core-exciton dynamics in NaCl, and vibronic coupling in solar cell dyes.
James advises a dynamic group of graduate students (e.g., Gerrit Christenson, Matthew Lai) and undergraduates (e.g., Eva Bermont, Andrew Li), supported by postdoctoral researchers like Dr. Pankaj Seliya. His work bridges fundamental physics and applied energy science, aiming to control photochemical processes at electronic timescales.
