Loock Laser Lab jocks and jockettes assemble during the 2019 CCCE conference in Quebec City, Quebec.
Read moreScience Rendezvous 2019 was 'lit'!
The Loock Laser Lab booth made another appearance at the annual Science Rendezvous Kingston on May 11, 2019. This year’s display featured our laser fountain, vanishing beads, a ‘stealth’ computer screen, and the ever-popular blue laser! A big thanks to the many volunteers who helped make this event a success.
More photos are available in our gallery here.
Read moreCongratulations to Adam Pejic (M.Sc. 2019)!
Adam Pejic defended his research thesis “Flow-through plasmonic sensing, based on Silicone-coated nanohole arrays” on April 25, 2019. Adam’s work was co-supervised by Carlos Escobedo (CHEE) and resulted in a close collaboration with members of the Escobedo Group. Adam is a visiting student from Frankfurt, Germany and the research project will count towards his German M.Sc. degree.
Read moreGraduate Students are now accepted into the CREATE MAPS program
Our group has joined a multidisciplinary team of researchers in the departments of Chemistry, Physics and Chemical Engineering to provide the best education to graduate students in the fields of Materials for Advanced Photonics and Sensing, MAPS. Funded through the CREATE program of NSERC our collaboration was awarded $1.6M to provide the interdisciplinary training and optical and material sciences. Please click on the link to the CREATE-MAPS site to learn more.
Read moreNew cover article in Advanced Sustainable Systems →
In our latest cover aarticle in Adv. Sus. Sys Hao Chen, John Saunders, Sogol Borjian and Xiaowei Wu were coating microphotonic tandem ring resonators with tetrasulfide‐functionalized mesoporous silica films to create remarkably sensitive and specific sensors for lead, Pb(II) in water.
Read moreArthur finishes his project at Aurubis in Hamburg
Arthur Stokreef (M.Sc. candidate) celebrates the last day of his measurement campaign at the Aurubis smelter in Hamburg. Thanks to the Aurubis staff for giving us access to their infrastructure and allow us to collect data on their Cu-flash furnace.
Read moreAlumni return to Kingston - Oktoberfest ensues
When group alumni Annika, Sean, Nic and Yoon returned to Queen’s, we caught up over a BBQ with beer, sausages, pretzels and pretzel buns. Apparently our mini-Oktoberfest was approved by three German graduate students (can you spot them?).
Read moreThe Loock Lab does beach day laser tag
Despite the weather forecast changing our plans, the lab still made it out for a fun day of laser tag, all-you-can-eat sushi and a nice walk around Lemoine Point. Enjoying the sunshine from left to right: Dr. Peter Loock, Will Day, Cameron Reid, Amy MacLean, Travis Ferguson, Arthur Stokreef, Adam Bernicky.
Read moreCongratulations to our new graduates!
Five of our members graduated with their B.Sc. this past week. Congratulations to Sarah Denotter, Emily Groper, Cameron Reid, Andrew Williams and Omar Yaman. Cameron Reid (pictured) also picked up some extra hardware, earning both the Medal in Chemistry and the Prince of Wales Prize, given to the top chemistry graduate and top B.Sc graduate overall at Queen's!
Read moreSuccess at Science Rendezvous!
Our laser booth at the Science Rendezvous this year was a big hit! Featured here is a NIR camera, laser fountain and the ever-popular fiber optic lamp. Our volunteers from left to right: Travis Ferguson, Omar Yaman, Will Day, Cameron Reid, Andrew Williams, Adam Bernicky, Amy MacLean, Peter Loock, Si Jia Li.
Read moreLooking sharp at the 2018 Chemistry Banquet
It was time to change out of the lab coat and to mingle with other undergrads, grads and profs at our annual chemistry banquet. Rocking their outfit from left to right: Adam Bernicky, Andrew Williams, Emily Groper, Sarah Denotter, Cameron Reid, Peter Loock, Amy MacLean, and Omar Yaman.
Read moreNew cover article in RSC Soft Matter
A new article co-authored by former graduate students John Saunders, Hao Chen, Weijan Chen and undergraduates Chris Brauer and McGregor Clayton, describes the application of a new interferometric refractometer to one of the most ubiquitous polymers, i.e. silicone. In the article we use a new model based on the Lorenz-Lorentz equation to quantify the amount of organic vapours in the PDMS film and can even characterize the polymer restructuring that occurs when a guest molecule enters the polymer.
Read moreMahtab's visit comes to an end
After 6 months in our lab as a visiting student Mahtab Abtahi returns home. During the farewell lunch she was finally introduced to bubble tea. All the best, Mahtab, we hope to see you again soon!
Read moreCongratulations Dr. Crouse!
Congratulations to Jeff Crouse who successfully defended his PhD thesis
INVESTIGATIONS OF ICE PHOTODYNAMICS: MOLECULAR DYNAMICS STUDIES AND AN APPARATUS FOR SOLID SAMPLE VELOCITY MAP IMAGING
Jeff will take his expertise on theoretical and experimental physical chemistry to the Royal Military college as an instructor in Quantum Chemistry and to the University of Waterloo as a postdoctoral fellow.
Read moreCelebrating Undergraduate Research
Five excellent students from our lab will be presenting their projects today at the annual Queen's Chemistry Undergraduate Poster Session. This departmental tradition allows students completing a 4th year project to present their research to friends and colleagues. Come join us today in the 4th floor lounge to hear more about their work!
Read moreVisit by Jean-Pierre van Helden
It was wonderful to host Prof. Jean-Pierre van Helden (IPT Greifswald and University of Greifswald) when he visited Queen's on August 8th, 2017. Before giving a seminar on cavity-enhanced spectroscopy and its application to plasma science, he had a chance to travel through the 1000 Islands on a scenic boat cruise.
Read moreAn encoded light source speeds up fluorescence measurements
Although traditional 3D fluorescence spectroscopy is a powerful analytical technique, it is also notoriously slow, making it inappropriate for kinetic studies. Our paper presents a much faster way to collect 3D fluorescence measurements, using Hadamard 'barcodes' to encode a white light source and the corresponding fluorescence signal. In this work, we used a submersible fiber-probe to measure both the degradation kinetics of spinach extract in acid, and the thermal degradation kinetics of rhodamine B.
Read moreLoockLaserLab goes paddling
We speculated that "30% chance of rain" means 70% chance of not getting soaked. Luck was against us, but we had fun (including "type-2 fun"), anyway. The all-day adventure ended in a pub - as indeed all good adventures do!
Read moreCatching up at CES 2017
Guess where the Cavity Enhanced Spectroscopy Conference and Summer School was this year? (Hint: windmills in the background..!). Aside from learning a lot of exciting science it was also wonderful to catch up with friends and collaborators. Gianluca Gagliardi looks a lot more composed on this selfie, but he also didn't have to figure out how the camera on the new cell phone worked...
Read moreJoin us at AIO
Our postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Sogol Borjian, is one of this year's program chairs at the 2017 Applied Industrial Optics (AIO) meeting in San Francisco, CA. Two of our group members, Sogol and Amy, will be giving oral presentations at the conference. We hope to see you there!
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