Dr. Francisco has been awarded a Presidential Young Investigator Award through The Experimental Physical Chemistry Program to perform spectroscopic studies of energy transfer and molecular photodissociation dynamics. The studies which Dr. Francisco is performing on reactive intermediates have an important bearing on atmospheric chemistry, biochemistry, combustion and surface chemistry. In his research, Dr. Francisco uses a variety of laser techniques, such as laser photolysis coupled with laser-induced fluorescence, emission, and multiphoton spectroscopy to obtain information on how the structure and reactivity of molecules correlate. A novel aspect of his research is the intimate interplay of theory and experiment for the detection and characterization of polyatomic free radiacls. Theoretical methods are used to predict the structure and other spectroscopic properties of ground and excited states which are then used to guide experiments designed to detect and characterize these gas phase radicals using high resolution laser spectroscopic techniques.
