Welcome to the Bischak Lab at the University of Utah!

We are an interdisciplinary lab that investigates dynamic chemical and structural processes in materials important for clean energy and healthcare applications. We use advanced scanning probe, electron, and optical microscopies to uncover these dynamic processes and molecular design principles to control materials properties.

We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher with experience in atomic force microscopy of soft materials, metal halide perovskite synthesis and characterization, and/or lab automation. Please email Connor here with a summary of research interests, CV, and 2 letters of recommendation.

We are currently looking for graduate students and undergraduate researchers. Please contact us here if you are interested.

News

• 11/6/2024 - Emily’s paper was just published in ACS Energy Letters!
  We show how alloying inorganic cations, organic cations, and halides impacts the phase transition temperature of 2D perovskites. Congrats to Emily for publishing the first group paper led by and undergraduate. Read the paper here.

• 8/8/2024 - Pacific Northwest American Vacuum Society Emerging Leader Award!
  Connor won the PNWAVS Emerging Leader Award at the Surface Analysis and Annual PNWAVS Symposium. Huge thanks to the PNWAVS. It was a great first trip to PNNL!

• 6/14/2024 - Seth’s paper was just accepted in the Journal of Materials Chemistry C!
  We show that disordered regiorandom P3HT undergoes a disorder-to-order transition upon repeated electrochemical cycling followed by thermal annealing. Read the paper here.

• 6/4/2024 - The group wins a Scialog Award!
  We thank the Research Corporation and the Beckman Foundation for this award toward automating chemical laboratories. Read more here.

• 5/24/2024 - Garrett’s paper was just accepted in Advanced Functional Materials!
  In a collaboration with the Noriega group, we use photoluminescence spectroscopy to show that ions dope ordered and then disordered regions of organic mixed conductors. We also find that photoluminescence is much more sensitive to the initial stages of ion insertion than other common methods. Read the paper here.

• 5/8/2024 - Emily Dalley was selected as a 2024-2025 University of Utah Beckman Scholar! Congrats Emily!

• 4/18/2024 - Jyorthana Muralidhar joins the group as a postdoctoral researcher and was awarded a Wilkes Postdoctoral Fellowship!

• 4/17/2024 - Congrats to Award-Winning Group Members
  Arnel, Kierra, Delaney, Sofia, Emily, Leo, and Perry all won awards at the Departmental Award Ceremony! Congrats!

• 3/20/2024 - Had a great time at Spring ACS in New Orleans. Great presentations by Garrett, Arnel, Delaney, and Kierra.

• 3/11/2024 - Huge Congratulations to Leo Bloxham who won the Research Scholar Award from the University of Utah College of Science!

• 1/12/2024 - Bischak lab celebrates new members and a great semester at the Utah Jazz game!

• 1/8/2024 - Welcome new group members!
  Graduate students Perry Martin and Jolene Keller have joined the lab along with undergraduates Delaney Miller and Sofia Perez.

• 11/28/2023 - Congratulations to Seth for a great talk at the 2023 Fall Materials Research Society Meeting in Boston, MA!

• 11/8/2023 - Congratulations to Seth for passing his oral exam!!

• 10/4/2023 - Huge congratulations to Garrett for passing his pre-oral exam and becoming a PhD candidate!

• 8/3/2023 - Congrats to Emily and Kierra for presenting posters at the Undergraduate Research Symposium!
  This concludes Emily’s SPUR and Kierra’s NSF REU, but both will be rejoining our lab this fall as UROP Awardees!

• 7/21/2023 - Congratulations to Rand for graduating with a masters degree!
  We will miss him, but we wish him the best of luck at UCSD!

• 6/30/2023 - Seth’s paper was accepted in Chemistry of Materials!
  We show using a combination of X-ray scattering, spectroelectrochemistry, and nanoscale infrared imaging that ions preferentially reside in crystalline regions of organic mixed conductors. Huge congrats to Seth! Find the paper here.

• 6/28/2023 - Summer BBQ at Connor’s House
  We celebrated everyone’s accomplishments at a group BBQ at Connor’s house

• 6/1/2023 - 2023 ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award
  Connor won a 2023 ORAU Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award. This research award provides seed money for junior faculty members that often result in additional funding from other sources.

• 5/16/2023 - First group paper out in JACS!
  Our first paper is out in the Journal of the American Chemical Society! Congratulations to Rand, who led this effort! We show that we can tune the temperature of structural phase transitions in 2D perovskites by alloying organic cations.

• 4/20/2023 - Huge congratulations to Seth Jackson for passing his pre-oral exam and becoming a PhD candidate!

• 4/15/2023 - Great trip to the Materials Research Society Spring Meeting in San Francisco!
  Our group attended the Spring 2023 Materials Research Society Meeting. Rand, Seth, Garrett, and Arnel all presented posters on their work. Congratulations again to Rand for winning a Best Poster Award! We even had time to explore the city and enjoy a Giants baseball game!

• 3/7/2023 - Our group has received a Research Incentive Seed Grant from the College of Science and Vice President for Research (VPR) Office to fund our work on Light-Controlled Ion Transport through Organic Semiconductors.
  Thank you to the College of Science and the VPR office for their support of our research!

• 3/6/2023 - Our group has received a grant from the Macromolecular, Supramolecular, and Nanochemistry (MSN) Program at the National Science Foundation to fund our work on Coupled Ionic-Electronic-Structural Dynamics in Organic Mixed Conductors.
  Thank you so much to the NSF and University of Utah Department of Chemistry for the support and guidance.

• 1/20/2023 - Arnel presents his research to Governor Cox and state lawmakers at the Research on Capitol Hill event!
  Undergraduate researcher Arnel Besic presented his research to state lawmakers at the annual Research on Capitol Hill event.

• 1/9/2023 - Congratulations to undergraduate researchers Arnel Besic and Leo Bloxham for becoming Wilkes Scholars!

• 1/7/2023 - Advanced Light Source User Executive Committee in-person meeting
  Had a great time finally meeting the other members of the ALS UEC in person at our first in-person meeting in years!

• 12/21/2022 - Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR) Participation
  Our group is participating in the Summer Program for Undergraduate Research (SPUR). Click here for more information!

• 12/7/2022 - Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Leo Bloxham for becoming a UROP Scholar!

• 12/7/2022 - University Teaching Grant Awarded!
  Our group was just awarded a University Teaching Grant for Developing an Inquiry-Based Physical Chemistry Laboratory Course! A huge thanks to graduate students Rand Kingsford and Seth Jackson, who developed a 3D printed spectrometer for the course!

• 11/20/2022 - Small Faculty Grant Awarded!
  Our group was just awarded a Faculty Small Grant to boost our research on structural phase transitions in 2D perovskite materials. Thank you to the University of Utah for the support!

• 10/27/2022 - Gatan Cathodoluminescence Detector Installed!
  We are very excited that the Gatan Monarc Pro cathodoluminescence detector has been installed in the Utah Electron Microscopy and Surface Analysis Laboratory. Our group led the effort to bring this detector to campus through the Research Instrumentation Fund (RIF).

• 9/24/2022 - Invited Speaker at the NanoScientific Symposium Americas
  Connor has been invited as a speaker at the NanoScientific Symposium Americas to discuss the group’s work on nanoscale infrared imaging.

• 9/9/2022 - First group BBQ!
  We had a our first group barbeque at Connor’s house.

• 8/22/2022 - Welcome Franka!
  Our group is excited to welcome Franka Gaedeke, a masters student at the University of Branschweig, as a visiting researcher for six months.

• 8/4/2022 - Dreyfus Foundation 2022 Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Award!
  Our group is excited to receive a Dreyfus Foundation 2022 Machine Learning in the Chemical Sciences and Engineering Award to study structure-function relationships in organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors. Thank you to the Dreyfus Foundation and congratulations to the other awardees!

• 8/4/2022 - Congratulations Arnel!
  Arnel Besic, an REU undergraduate student in the group, presented his poster at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. Congratulations to Arnel for becoming a UROP Scholar again!

• 7/20/2022 - Congratulations Orion!
  Orion Xiao, our group’s summer intern from the Waterford School, presented a poster today on his summer research.

• 6/16/2022 - ACS PRF Grant!
  Our group has received our first grant from the ACS Petroleum Research Fund. We are excited to use this funding to pursue a new research direction in the lab.

• 4/14/2022 - Congrats to Rand and Garrett who both won teaching awards!
  Garrett received the Teaching Assistant of the Semester Award and Rand won the Craig & Linda Lee Curie Club Graduate Teaching Award.

• 4/5/2022 - Congrats to Arnel on his acceptance in the NSF-REU program in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah!
  Arnel Besic will spend the summer researching ion injection into organic mixed ionic-electronic conductors in the Bischak Lab.

• 1/19/2022 - Atomic force microscope is installed!
  Our Vista One AFM from Molecular Vista was installed!

• 1/11/2022 - New graduate and undergraduate members!
  Seth, Garrett, and Rand have officially joined the group as graduate students and Celeste joined the group as an undergraduate researcher

• 12/9/2021 - Congratulations to undergraduate researcher Arnel Besic for becoming a UROP Scholar!

• 12/2/2021 - Connor is elected to the User Executive Committee of the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

• 10/13/2021 - Connor is a ACS PMSE Future Faculty Scholar

  He will be presenting at the 2022 ACS Meeting in San Diego.

• 10/5/2021 - Seth and Garrett join the group as rotation students

  Seth and Garrett, both graduate students in the Department of Chemistry, join the group as the first rotation students.

• 10/4/2021 - Arnel joins the group as an undergraduate researcher

  Arnel, an undergraduate student chemistry major, joins the group!

• 9/1/2021 - Zihan and Rand join the group as rotation students.

  Zihan and Rand, both graduate students in the Department of Chemistry, join the group as the first rotation students.

• 4/14/2021 - Connor Presents at Spring MRS 2021

  Connor is presenting research on structural phase transitions upon ion intercalation in conjugated polymers at the 2021 Spring Materials Research Society Meeting. Check out a sneak peek:

• 4/9/2021 - Connor joins the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah

  Connor officially joins the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah and will be starting in the fall of 2021!