Current Research in My Lab
I have research projects available in areas of instrument development, environmental analysis, and chemical ecology and phytochemistry. I welcome both graduate and undergraduate students into my lab to work on these projects. If you are a student interested in them send me an email!
Instrumentation and Electronics
The primary focus of my research is the development of new instrumentation. Some current and past projects are listed below. These projects involve a lot of designing, building, programming, and trial and error.
A 4-wavlength Photoacoustic Spectrometer for Aerosols (past)
A NIR broadband cavity enhanced spectrometer
A low-cost cavity ringdown spectrometer built with fused-deposition modeling (3D-printing)
A low-cost photoacoustic spectrometer
Low-cost Aerosol Sensors: We build low cost (~$100), battery-powered, portable nephelometeric sensors for hyper-local monitoring of particulate matter concentration and personal exposure in Western North Carolina. An example of the device's response to woodsmoke is shown in the figure below.
DOBSUN: An Arduino-based Dobson meter and sun photometer
Plants, lichens, and Ecology (and infrared spectroscopy!)
FT-IR and Chemometric Analysis to ID Lichens: This project involves the development of a rapid, non-destructive method to identify lichen species using infrared spectroscopy and chemometric analysis. Below is a cluster (HCA) diagram generated from ATR-FTIR spectra of Usnea lichens.
Determination of Non-structural Carbohydrates in Southern Appalachian Conifers via FT-IR and Chemometrics: This project aims to develope a more rapid method to quantify non-structural carbohydrates in conifer needles using infrared spectroscopy. Below is preliminary data showing IR spectra of dried conifer needles (top) and the principal component analysis of those spectra, showing clear separation by species/genus.
Determination of microplastic type in river waters using FT-IR: We are using FT-IR to identify microplastics and chemometrics collected from the Tuckasegee River in Jackson County, NC. The image below shows example spectra of microplastic standards and PCA of microplastic standards.
