C.A. Schmuttenmaer
Professor Charles A. Schmuttenmaer
August 5, 1963 - July 26, 2020
B.S., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1985
Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1991
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Rochester, 1991-1993
Background:
Charles A. Schmuttenmaer was born in Oak Park, Illinois in the USA. He received a B.S. degree in chemistry from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 1985, and a Ph.D. degree in chemistry from the University of California, Berkeley in 1991. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rochester. In 1994, he joined Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, where he was a Professor of Chemistry until the end of his life, passing on July 26, 2020 at age 56. He was pioneer in development and applications of terahertz (THz) spectroscopy. Prof. Schmuttenmaer was a member of the American Chemical Society, the American Physical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He was inducted as a Fellow of the AAAS in 2015, a Fellow of the APS in 2016, and a Fellow of the RSC in 2019.
His research interests included novel applications of time-resolved THz spectroscopy (TRTS) and THz time-domain spectroscopy (THz-TDS). In particular, he exploited the unique features of TRTS to characterize the efficiency of electron injection in dye-sensitized photoelectrochemical cells (DSPECs), as well as transient photoconductivity in semiconductors, metal orgnaic frameworks (MOFs), quantum dots, nanoparticles, and nanotubes. He was a founding member of the Yale Green Energy Consortium. A second major research area involves THz-TDS coupled with high level ab initio quantum chemical calculations and to probe and understand the low-frequency collective vibrational modes of a variety of matierlas including organic molecular crystals. A primary goal is to experimentally measure and theoretically compute the optical activity of these low-frequency modes.
Research Interests:
Experimental Physical Chemistry and Chemical Physics: THz spectroscopy; Solar energy; Sub-picosecond time-resolved photoconductivity; Nanoscale properties and phenomena; Low frequency modes in organic molecular crystals; Electron transfer and proton transfer; Solvation and energy relaxation in liquids; Laser spectroscopy.