Leroy E. Laverman

Senior Professor of Teaching
Joint Appt: College of Creative Studies

Office Hours

Monday (12-2pm, PSBN 1643C)

Contact Phone

(805) 893-5265

Office Location

1643C PSB-N

Specialization

Chemical Education

Physical Chemistry

Bio

Dr. Laverman entered the Department of Chemistry at UCSB in 1994 as a graduate student and worked in the laboratory of Dr. Peter Ford studying mechanisms of reactions of nitric oxide (NO) with metalloporphyrins and heme proteins. During studies as a graduate student Dr. Laverman became involved in efforts to improve the undergraduate laboratory curriculum in analytical chemistry, physical chemistry and instrumental analysis. Since earning his Ph.D. in 1999 Dr. Laverman has been employed in the department as an instructor and continues to work on improving the undergraduate lab curriculum. Recently Dr. Geoff Strouse and Dr. Laverman were awarded funding from the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation in order to improve upper division chemistry laboratory curriculum.

Research

Current Research

We are pleased to announce that the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation (www.dreyfus.org) has awarded a grant of $30,000 to Dr. Geoff Strouse and Dr. Leroy Laverman under the "Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences" project. This grant was augmented by matching funds from the College of Letters and Sciences for an additional $17,000. This money will be used to purchase modern instrumentation for the upper division laboratory courses and to provide summer support for the development of new integrated laboratory experiments. We plan to add fluorescence, UV-Visible, Raman and time resolved emission capabilities to our growing arsenal of instrumental methods.

Several instruments will be purchased and/or built with the funding provide by the Dreyfus Foundation. We have recently purchased a UV-visible spectrometer and a fluorimeter and are currently building Raman and time resolved emission/absorption spectrometers.

Publications

Selected Research Publications

"Synthesis and Analysis of a Heteroleptic Coordination Compound" Laverman, L.E., Misic, A. and Strouse, G.F. J. Chem. Ed. manuscript in preparation

"Probing the 'Particle in the Box' by Synthesis and Luminescence Properties of Semiconductor Quantum Dots" Laverman, L.E., Strouse, G.F. and Buratto, S.K. J. Chem. Ed. manuscript in preparation.

"Mechanistic studies of NO reactions with water soluble iron(II), cobalt (II) and iron(III) porphyrin complexes in aqueous solution: Implications for biological activity" L. E. Laverman and P.C. Ford. J. Am. Chem. Soc., in press.

"Photoreaction and photophysical mechanisms of transition metal complexes: Insights from high pressure studies." P. C. Ford & L.E. Laverman. Chpt. 7 in the book "High Pressure Chemistry" ed. R. van Eldik, in press.

"The Synthesis of the ligand 1,5-bis[2-(3,5-dimethyl-1-pyrazolyl)ethyl]-amine-1,10-phenanthroline) and of its ruthenium(II) and rhenium(I) complexes. Binuclear species with Cu(I) and Cu(II) and some photophysical properties" M. Riklin, D. Tran, X. Bu, L.E. Laverman & P.C. Ford. J. Chem. Soc., Dalton Trans. 2001, 12, 1813-1819.