George C. Schatz, Professor
Department of Chemistry
Northwestern University

E-mail: schatz@chem.northwestern.edu
Phone: 847-491-5657

BS, Clarkson University
PhD, California Institute of Technology

Research Associate, Masachusetts Institute of Technology
Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellow, 1980-1982
Teacher-Scholar Award,Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundtion - 1981-1986
National Fresenius Award (of Phi Lambda Upsilon) - 1983
Fellow, Japan Society for Promotion of Science - 1986
Fellow, American Physical Society - 1987
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science - 1999
Max Planck Research Award -- 1993
Senior Editor, Journal of Physical Chemistry

Research Areas
The Schatz group has broad interests in the area of materials theory as it applies to nanotechnology. An area of significant interest concerns the optical and structural properties of nanoparticles and nanoparticle aggregates. Much of this work is concerned with the classical electrodynamics of light interacting with noble metal nanoparticles, including the description of absorption and scatting spectra, and nonlinear optical properties. Here they have developed numerical methods for describing the spectra of nanoparticles of arbitrary shape and size, and aggregates ranging from dimers to micron dimensions.

A second area of interest is the description of DNA-linked nanoparticles, especially concerning the hybrization of DNA. They have developed a new meso-scale molecular dynamics approach that greatly simplifies the dynamics of DNA melting, enabling us to determine melting curves from first principles, including the dependence on base-pair composition, and the effect of nanoparticle linking on melting temperatures and widths.

A third area of interest concerns dip-pen nanolithography. They have developed a new diffusion model which describes the motion of the ink molecules after they are deposited, including the effect of pen motion and deposition rate on pattern formation. Detailed molecular dynamics studies of dip-pen functions are also in progress.

Related Publications
"Nanosphere lithography: Surface plasmon resonance spectrum of a periodic array of silver nanoparticles by UV-vis extinction spectroscopy and electrodynamic modelling", T. R. Jensen, G. C. Schatz and R. P. Van Duyne, J. Phys. Chem., B103, 2394-2401(1999).

"DNA-linked metal nanosphere materials: FFT solution for the optical response", A. A. Lazarides and G. C. Schatz, J. Chem. Phys.112, 2987-2993(2000).

"What controls the optical properties of DNA-linked gold nanoparticle assemblies?", J. J. Storhoff, A. A. Lazarides, R. C. Mucic, C. A. Mirkin, R. L. Letsinger, and G. C. Schatz, J. Amer. Chem. Soc., 122, 4640-50 (2000).

"Optical Properties of Metal Nanoparticles and Nanoparticle Aggregates Important in Biosensors", Anne A. Lazarides, K. Lance Kelly, Traci R. Jensen and George C. Schatz, Theochem, 529, 59-63 (2000).

"A model for simulating dynamics of DNA Denaturation", Karen Drukker and G. C. Schatz, J. Phys. Chem. 104, 6108-11 (2000).