Dr. Charles D. Sherrill has been awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Chemistry. Dr. Sherrill received the doctoral degree from the University of Georgia under the supervision of Professor Henry Schaefer. Dr. Sherrill will continue research at the University of California at Berkeley under the sponsorship of Professor Martin Head-Gordon. The postdoctoral research will focus on the investigation of nonadiabatic energy flow between molecules and metal surfaces. The approach will take into account nuclear-electronic coupling to investigate nonadiabatic effects on gas-surface sticking, diffusion, and high energy scattering. Also of interest is the process of laser-induced desorption of gas molecules from metal surfaces, which involves nonadiabatic energy transfer from conduction electrons to vibrational modes of the adsorbate. Studies are aided by high-quality experimental data on laser-induced desorption now available. The Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Chemistry Program is viewed as an important infrastructural program designed to broaden the knowledge and experience of new Ph. D.s and attract them into meaningful careers in contemporary chemical research and teaching.
