My primary responsibilities are teaching general chemistry (lecture and labs) and conducting research with undergraduates at Siena College, a liberal arts college near Albany, NY. I am a theoretical and computational chemist, meaning I solve chemistry problems (focusing on those involving light-molecule interactions, such as spectroscopy, fluorescence, and photochemistry) by deriving appropriate theoretical constructs and calculating the resulting quantities (with my own code or commerical packages). I also hold a secondary appointment at University at Albany, where I teach graduate-level physical chemistry courses.


What am I interested in? You can check out my CiteULike library to see what things I'm (planning on) reading.


Prior to these teaching positions, I was a postdoctoral researcher with Alex Xue at the College of Nanoscience and Engineering, University at Albany (SUNY). There, I was explaining the photon statistics of single molecules and other nanometer sized objects, where the quantum nature of matter is important. I implemented an apparently neglected technique from the quantum optics literature, called the "Monte Carlo wave function" algorithm for simulating quantized matter interacting with quantized light. This is the only way to obtain a simple dynamical picture of a single quantum system exchanging energy with its environment. The results from many simulations can be synthesized into traditional statistics and correlation functions, and full distributions can be computed unlike recently derived analytical formulas. My simulations of course showed agreement with the standard "pi pulse" picture of two-level atom dynamics, but also predict a rich structure in some of the fluorescent photon statistical measures.


Graduate School

I was a graduate student at the Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department of Cornell University, working with Greg Ezra on the quantum and semi-quantum mechanics of rigid rotating molecules in electric fields. I completed my dissertation in the summer of 2005. Generally, my coursework concentrated on chemical physics (quantum mechanics, statistical mechanics, thermodynamics, classical dynamics) and applied mathematics (including differential geometry and computational physics).

Teaching

For Spring 2010, I will again be teaching Computational Chemistry (see below).


In Spring 2009, I designed and taught a brand new graduate level course on statistical thermodynamics. The primary text was Molecular Driving Forces by Ken Dill and Sarina Bromberg, a unique approach to the subject emphasizing simple "lattice model" calculations to support understanding of far-flung phenomena. The course started with a standard theoretical introduction to classical thermodynamics used in Herbert Callen's Thermodynamics text. All students completed a short research project or paper dissection relevant to their interests based on the course content.


In Spring 2008 I designed and taught a brand new graduate level course on Computational Chemistry at UAlbany. This course brings chemistry graduate students (none of them conducting research in pure physical or theoretical chemistry) quickly up to speed in quantum mechanics to understand electronic structure calculations applied to chemical problems. It is a hands-on course, first using Maple for elementary work, and then Gaussian 2003 via the WebMO interface for more complicated calculations. All students completed a computational project applied to their dissertation research field.


Starting Fall 2008, and through the present, I have been teaching general chemistry at Siena College to classes of no more than 35 students. (Labs: no more than 16). It's great!


In Fall 2007, I taught General Chemistry at UAlbany with 350 students, with complete responsibility for course design, lecturing, and examinations. (Have you ever taught 350 students at once? Your first time teaching a whole college course? I actually liked it (once I realized I was running a one-man theatrical production, not just "teaching") but I prefer smaller classes where I get to know my students, to better serve them.)


While at Cornell, I taught several flavors of introductory chemistry (entry-level, standard pre-med, and accelerated), as a teaching assistant, for five semesters. I also graded and assisted in graduate quantum mechanics and statistical mechanics courses. The Department recognized my quality teaching with an award in 2002.


Also, during Spring 2004 I participated in a program to teach a few lessons in a nearby high school. I chose to teach about "Useful Chemistry" at Newfield High School.

Publications

  1. Y. Xue and W. W. Kennerly, "Quantum trajectory analysis of single-photon control from a single-molecule source",
    J. Chem. Phys.128, 054104 (2008).
  2. Y. Xue and W. W. Kennerly, " Control of Single-Photon Emission from a Two-Level Single-Molecule Source: A Quantum Trajectory Analysis",
    in Conference on Coherence in Quantum Optics, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2007), paper CSuA49.
  3. C. A. Arango, W. W. Kennerly, and G. S. Ezra, "Semiclassical IVR approach to rotational excitation of nonpolar diatomic molecules by nonresonant laser pulses",
    Chem. Phys. Lett. 420, 296–303 (2006).
  4. W. W. Kennerly, "Molecules rotating in electric fields by quantum and semi-quantum mechanics"
    Ph.D. Dissertation, Cornell University, (2005).
  5. C. A. Arango, W. W. Kennerly, and G. S. Ezra, "Quantum and classical mechanics of diatomic molecules in tilted fields",
    J. Chem. Phys. 122, 184303 (2005).
  6. C. A. Arango, W. W. Kennerly, and G. S. Ezra, "Quantum monodromy for diatomic molecules in combined electrostatic and pulsed nonresonant laser fields",
    Chem. Phys. Lett. 392, 486–492 (2004).

Extracurriculars

Alpha Chi Sigma, Backpacking, bowling, orienteering