Emily A.

Weiss
Emily A. Weiss is the Mark and Nancy Ratner
Professor of Chemistry and director of the Photo- Emily A. Weiss
Sciences Research Center at Northwestern University. Alma mater Northwestern University (PhD)
Her research considers the optical and electronic Princeton University (BSc)
properties of nanostructures, including hybrid organic– Scientific career
inorganic quantum dots. She was a two-time finalist in Institutions Northwestern University
the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
Thesis The influence of molecular
structure and environment on the
mechanism of photo-induced
Early life and education charge transfer in organic
systems (https://search.library.no
Weiss earned her undergraduate degree at Princeton
rthwestern.edu/permalink/f/b6k21
University and graduated in 2000.[1] Whilst she
d/TN_proquest30539532
initially majored in English, Weiss took courses in
0) (2005)
quantum mechanics, and became increasingly
interested in chemistry.[2] She moved to Northwestern Doctoral Mark Ratner, Michael R.
University for her graduate studies, where she earned advisor Wasielewski
her doctoral degree under the supervision of Mark Website Weiss lab (https://sites.northwest
[1]
Ratner in 2005. Weiss joined Harvard University as ern.edu/weiss-lab/)
[1]
a postdoctoral research fellow in 2005. She worked
in the laboratory of George M. Whitesides, studying electron transport through organic Self-Assembled
Monolayers (SAMs). Here she developed new protocols to fabricate nanostructures from metal-polymer
hybrid materials.[1]

Research and career

Weiss was appointed as the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor at Northwestern University in 2008.
She was promoted to professor in 2015, the Dow Chemical Company Chair in 2015 and the Mark and
Nancy Ratner Professor in 2018.[1]

Her research considers the mechanisms of energy conversion in organic and hybrid materials.[2] In
particular, Weiss studies the optoelectronic and properties of functionalised colloidal semiconductor
nanocrystals, known as quantum dots.[3][4] She studies colloidal photocatalysis, and in particular, how
nanoparticle catalysts can be used to access complicated bioactive compounds.[5] These nanoparticles
make use of light to activate surface molecules, which fuse together and form large molecules that can be
useful in biology.[5][6] They outperform the most commonly used complexes as sensitisers for carbon
dioxide reduction.[7]

She is part of the Argonne–Northwestern Solar Energy Research Center and Center for Bio-Inspired
Energy Science. In this capacity Weiss looks to develop new molecular materials through the use of
electron ratchets, which switch systems between two electronic states (one where electrons are evenly
diffuse and one where they produce a net current).[2] She has also developed new designs for photonic
qubits and ultrafast tools for biological imaging.[8]

Awards and honours

Her awards and honours include:

2010 Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers[3]

2013 Northwestern University Distinguished Teaching Award[1]
2013 American Chemical Society Kavli Emerging Leader in Chemistry[9][10]
2015 Kansas State University Phi Lambda Upsilon Distinguished Speaker
2016 Stanford University Distinguished Women in Science Seminar Speaker[11]
2018 American Chemical Society Early Career Award in Experimental Physical
Chemistry[12][13]
2018 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientist Finalist[14]
2019 Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientist Finalist[15]
In 2019 she was included in the National Nanotechnology Initiative's top 30 women in
nanotechnology.[16]

Selected publications
Her publications include:

Weiss, Emily A. (2004-05-05). "Making a Molecular Wire: Charge and Spin Transport
through para-Phenylene Oligomers". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 126 (17):
5577–5584. doi:10.1021/ja0398215 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fja0398215).
PMID 15113229 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15113229).
Weiss, Emily A. (2007-04-11). "Influence of Defects on the Electrical Characteristics of
Mercury-Drop Junctions: Self-Assembled Monolayers of n-Alkanethiolates on Rough and
Smooth Silver". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 129 (14): 4336–4349.
doi:10.1021/ja0677261 (https://doi.org/10.1021%2Fja0677261). PMID 17358061 (https://pu
bmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17358061).
Weiss, Emily A. (2005-08-24). "Conformationally Gated Switching between Superexchange
and Hopping within Oligo-p-phenylene-Based Molecular Wires". Journal of the American
Chemical Society. 127 (33): 11842–11850. doi:10.1021/ja052901j (https://doi.org/10.1021%
2Fja052901j). PMID 16104763 (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16104763).
She is deputy editor of The Journal of Chemical Physics and on the advisory board of Materials
Horizons.[17][18]

References
1. "Emily A. Weiss | Weiss Lab" (https://sites.northwestern.edu/weiss-lab/people/emily-weiss/).
sites.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
2. "Expedition Solar Energy: Emily Weiss shares the path to her leading role in energy
research | Energy Frontier Research Centers Community Website" (https://www.energyfronti
er.us/content/expedition-solar-energy-emily-weiss-shares-path-her-leading-role-energy-rese
arch). www.energyfrontier.us. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
 3. "Drs. MacIver and Weiss Go to Washington: Northwestern University News" (https://www.no
rthwestern.edu/newscenter/stories/2010/11/maciver-weiss-pecase.html).
www.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
4. "Emily Weiss, Northwestern University" (https://foundry.lbl.gov/2019/12/18/emily-weiss-north
western-university/). foundry.lbl.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
5. "Visible light and nanoparticle catalysts produce desirable bioactive molecules: Simple
photochemical method takes advantage of quantum mechanics" (https://www.sciencedaily.c
om/releases/2019/10/191030170548.htm). ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
6. Jiang, Yishu; Wang, Chen; Rogers, Cameron R.; Kodaimati, Mohamad S.; Weiss, Emily A.
(2019-10-25). "Regio- and diastereoselective intermolecular [2+2] cycloadditions
photocatalysed by quantum dots" (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820707).
Nature Chemistry. 11 (11): 1034–1040. Bibcode:2019NatCh..11.1034J (https://ui.adsabs.ha
rvard.edu/abs/2019NatCh..11.1034J). doi:10.1038/s41557-019-0344-4 (https://doi.org/10.10
38%2Fs41557-019-0344-4). ISSN 1755-4330 (https://search.worldcat.org/issn/1755-4330).
PMC 6820707 (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6820707). PMID 31654049
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31654049).
7. "Emily Weiss: CBES: Center for Bio-Inspired Energy Science - Northwestern University" (htt
ps://cbes.northwestern.edu/people/investigators/emily-weiss.html). cbes.northwestern.edu.
Retrieved 2020-02-01.
8. "Emily A. Weiss: Department of Chemistry - Northwestern University" (https://www.chemistr
y.northwestern.edu/people/core-faculty/profiles/emily-weiss.html).
www.chemistry.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
9. "Toward 'vanishing' electronics and unlocking nanomaterials' power potential" (https://phys.o
rg/news/2014-03-electronics-nanomaterials-power-potential.html). phys.org. Retrieved
2020-01-31.
10. "Science Society Kavli Lecturers | The Kavli Foundation" (https://www.kavlifoundation.org/sc
ience-society-kavli-lecturers). www.kavlifoundation.org. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
11. "Professor Emily Weiss, Northwestern University | Department of Chemistry" (https://chemis
try.stanford.edu/events/professor-emily-weiss-northwestern-university).
chemistry.stanford.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
12. "The Physical Chemistry Division of the American Chemical Society" (http://phys-acs.org/aw
ards/2018.html). phys-acs.org. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
13. "Weiss Awarded 2018 ACS Physical Chemistry Division Early Career Award: Department of
Chemistry - Northwestern University" (https://www.chemistry.northwestern.edu/about/news/2
017/weiss-awarded-2018-acs-physical-chemistry-division-early-career-award.html).
www.chemistry.northwestern.edu. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
14. "Announcing the 2018 Blavatnik National Awards Finalists | Blavatnik Awards for Young
Scientists" (http://blavatnikawards.org/news/items/announcing-finalists-2018-blavatnik-natio
nal-awards-young-scientists/). blavatnikawards.org. Retrieved 2020-01-31.
15. "Finalists of the Prestigious Blavatnik National Awards for Young Scientists Announced |
Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists" (http://blavatnikawards.org/news/items/finalists-presti
gious-blavatnik-national-awards-young-scientists-announced/). blavatnikawards.org.
Retrieved 2020-01-31.
16. "Women's History Month - Celebrating Women in Nanotechnology! | Nano" (https://www.nan
o.gov/womens-history-month). www.nano.gov. Retrieved 2020-02-01.
17. "The Journal of Chemical Physics" (https://aip.scitation.org/jcp/info/editors). aip.scitation.org.
Retrieved 2020-01-31.
18. "Materials Horizons" (https://www.rsc.org/journals-books-databases/about-journals/materials
-horizons/). www.rsc.org. Retrieved 2020-02-01.

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