Research

The NSF CCI Center for Chemistry of the Universe will establish a new collaborative research community that combines chemists with expertise in state-of-the-art instrumentation for chemical dynamics research with a group that has pioneered the field of astrochemistry through laboratory work, astronomical observation, and theoretical modeling.

Together these groups will work to move chemistry to the center of international efforts to understand the fundamental chemical processes that produce the first molecules in the interstellar medium.

The two major research areas of the Center are Molecular Spectroscopy and Reaction Dynamics.

 

Molecular Spectroscopy

Investigating Potential Interstellar Species via Laboratory Spectroscopy

High-Speed Broadband Spectroscopy for Chemical Identification

The Molecular Target for Initial Experiments: MgC2

Rotational Spectroscopy using Telescopes

 

Rotational Dynamics

Theoretical Modeling

Search for a New Type of Stellar-Driven Photochemistry on Grain Surfaces and in Ices

Free Radical Chemistry on Surfaces: Thermal Activation of Stored Energetic Species

Reactions in Helium Nanodroplets