Professor Wilse G. Robinson is supported by a grant from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry Program to use picocosecond laser spectroscopic techniques to probe the structure and dynamics of water as it exists in confined volumes. Studies will be conducted on interfacial water at the water/air interface, water in contact with hydrophopic and hydrophilic surfaces, and water in close proximity to ions. Robinson will also use fluorescence probing techniques to study water in biological systems including water contained in ion channels, near membrane walls, and inside reversed micelles. %%% These studies will provide fundamental insight into the behavior of water, the most important solvent, in the vicinity of ions, at interfaces between phases, and in biological systems.
