In this award, funded by the Experimental Physical Chemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, Professor Dieter Bingemann of Williams College, together with his undergraduate student researchers, will study the lifetimes of heterogeneities in glassy materials near their glass transition temperature with single-molecule methods. In addition, Prof. Bingemann will make single-molecule experiments remotely accessible to a broad range of students, including ones at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts, through cyber-enabling equipment in his research laboratory at Williams College.
Glasses are technologically important materials, with uses in foods, pharmaceuticals, and plastics. Despite their ubiquity, there are aspects of their behavior which still remain poorly-understood. Prof. Bingemann and his undergraduate researchers are conducting experiments which hope to answer some of the mysteries of glass behavior. The cyber-enabling of the single-molecule research equipment in the Bingemann laboratory will bring this technology to a much broader student audience than would otherwise possible.
