Metal Clusters and Their Reactivity

Zhixun Luo received his Ph.D. degree in 2009 from Prof. Jiannian Yao's group at the Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (ICCAS). In July 2009, he then joined in Prof. Castleman's group at Pennsylvania State University, with a focus on investigations exploring stable cluster species as well as cluster reactivity. After four years of postdoctoral research in Penn State, he returned to ICCAS as a Professor of physical chemistry and joined the State Key Laboratory for Structural Chemistry of Unstable and Stable Species. Dr. Luo is interested in exploring the physical/chemical properties of matter of finite dimension, elucidating through cluster research methods. The research interests in his group include structures and properties of atomic & molecular clusters/aggregates, as well as their assemblies into materials.

Shiv N. Khanna is a Commonwealth Professor of Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), having been a Visiting Associate Professor at Northeastern University (1983-1984) and a scientific collaborator at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland (1980-1983). He served as Chair of the Physics Department during 1995-1998. Dr. Khanna is internationally recognized for his work on clusters (groups containing few atoms) and nanoscale materials. One of his significant contributions is the "superatoms" where he and co-workers discovered that selected clusters can take on the chemical behavior of atoms in the periodic table and that materials with novel characteristics could be developed using such clusters, named "superatoms," as building blocks. His current work focuses on forming materials where clusters serve as the building blocks. He has co-authored more than 300 research publications in refereed journals and has edited six monographs. Dr. Khanna has been a recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education in Virginia. This is the highest honor bestowed by the Commonwealth of Virginia. Dr. Khanna is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He has been the recipient of the University Distinguished Scholarship Award of the VCU. He has also twice been the recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award from the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU.