Professor Tomče Runčevski

Southern Methodist University

Kinetic and Thermodynamic control of Condensed Organic Matter

Abstract: The structure of materials dictates their physicochemical properties. Solidification of organic materials (in their crystalline and/or amorphous state) can be a thermodynamically or a kinetically driven phenomenon. In this presentation, we will discuss modern experimental techniques to explore the thermodynamically stable forms of organic materials as potential minerals on Titan, Saturn’s moon. Next, we take advantage of kinetic control to quench new organic materials with tailored properties (such as advanced fitness supplements, deep eutectic solvents, and antibiotic glasses). Finally, we explore post-synthetic modification to destroy the crystalline integrity of metal-organic frameworks and layered hydroxides, to produce defected materials with novel properties, absent in the ordered matter.

Bio: Tom Runčevski was born in Macedonia where he finished his undergraduate studies in chemistry in 2011. He did his PhD at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany, with Prof. Robert E. Dinnebier. He graduated in 2014 with honors, and he was awarded with the Otto Hahn Medal of the Max Planck Society. After one year postdoctoral stay at the MPI, he joined UC Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley Nat Lab in 2015, as a postdoctoral researcher with Prof. Jeffrey R. Long. In 2018, he started his independent career the Southern Methodist University, as an assistant professor of chemistry. Recently he received the NSF CAREER and ACS PRF awards.