News
June 2024: Ephs at DAMOP!
We kicked off Summer 2024 at the annual DAMOP conference (in Fort Worth, TX this year). Former thesis student Cooper Stuntz presented a poster on Au-containing molecules that we suspect are promising candidates for electron EDM measurements. See the poster here!
As always, many Ephs attended DAMOP. (L-R): Justin Brown '05, Ashay Patel '18, Nathaniel Vilas '17, Ben, Josh Grossman '96, Cooper Stuntz '24, Charles Yang '24, John Lacy, and Nathan Schine '13. Julia Cline '15 was at DAMOP but couldn't be located for the photo :-(
May 2024: We're externally funded!
We just heard exciting news that we will receive an Undergraduate New Investigator grant from the American Chemical Society's Petroleum Research Fund (ACS PRF)!
This support will allow us to perform laser spectroscopy of nature's simplest gold-carbon bonds, in molecules such as AuC, AuCC, and AuCCH. These molecules are relevant to gold catalysis, hopefully providing insight into "greener" methods to synthesize important materials.
April 2024: Defense Day!
Cooper gave a great talk to cap off his senior honors thesis, sharing the exciting progress he made investigating the electronic structure of coinage metal carbides and building the molecular beam source that we will use to study these molecules. You can read more about this in Cooper's thesis, here.
Next up, Cooper is off to start a PhD in physical chemistry at Princeton University!
December 2023
Stable laser alert!
Just before leaving to study abroad in Australia, Kendall Rice '25 got her laser-locking code up and running! Check out that automated detuning scan in action!
October 2023
Exciting day in lab: Nicole Albright '25 started to set up our new spectrometer and confirmed that white light can be dispersed into a rainbow! Seems like that Isaac Newton fellow was on to something...
Also: Augenbraun Lab members continue to show up in the Williams Record, including Kendall Rice '25 leading the Williams College Soccer Club to victory over Amherst(!!), and Phaedra Salerno '27 advocating for vegan options for the day's most important meal (dessert).
August 2023
Let there be light... Cooper Stuntz '24 helped boot up our lab's first continuous-wave dye laser!
We wrapped up summer research with a poster session in Schow. Cooper and Kendall did an awesome job presenting their work on lasers, vacuum systems, and computational modeling!
Not shown is all the expertise they gained in dusting, organizing, and meteorology... I guess that breadth is just what makes working in a laser lab so fun!
July 2023
And we're in: we've placed our first dye laser on the optics table, signaling the start of work in the Augenbraun lab!
Very exciting to be starting this journey with research students Cooper Stuntz '24 and Kendall Rice '25! Cooper will also be working on a senior honors thesis in the lab during the coming academic year.
June 2023
Check out this article about student volunteer firefighters, featuring the lab's very own Kendall Rice '25!