Featured Alumni Dr. Jan Musfeldt
Jan Musfeldt, who got her PhD degree in Chemistry (Physical
Chemistry with certification in Chemical Physics) in 1992,
is now an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee,
Knoxville. Jan has a multidisciplinary background, getting
her undergraduate degree in Chemical Engineering at the
University of Illinois in 1987 and actually carrying out
her graduate work in David Tanner’s lab in the physics
department. This broad approach continued with her postdoc studies, at the Departement
de Physique, Universite de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Quebec.
She then joined the Department of Chemistry, State University
of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY, where she was
a 1996 NSF CAREER Award Recipient.
In 2001 she moved to Tennessee and has
set up a lab for the study of materials chemistry using
infrared spectroscopy. Her research focuses on the investigation
of optical and magneto-optical properties of model low-dimensional,
molecular, and nanoscale solids with the overarching goal
of understanding the consequences of spin-lattice-charge
coupling, microscopic strain, magnetic field, and chemical
substitution on local structure and functionality. Specific
efforts concentrate on elucidating mechanisms for the magneto-dielectric
effect and exploiting the complex phase diagrams of frustrated
materials to increase the high frequency response, probing
unusual manifestations of spin-lattice-charge-orbital coupling,
"beyond Heisenberg", and hydrogen bonding effects
in chemically-related magnetic materials, elucidating charge
and spin ordering patterns in bulk vs. nanoscale materials,
and quantifying connections between local and bulk properties
of engineering interest such as negative thermal expansion
or solid state lubrication. These structure-property issues
are at the interface between the traditional fields of solid
state chemistry and condensed matter physics. They are also
at the heart of our ability to understand, design, and control
advanced materials.
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Jan has strong research collaborations
at several National Laboratories. These include Argonne
National Lab, Brookhaven National Lab, Oak Ridge National
Laboratory, and the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
(where she is a regular visitor). Her research has strong
external support from the National Science Foundation (through
the Division of Materials Research), the U.S. Department
of Energy (Materials Science Division, Basic Energy Sciences),
and the Petroleum Research Fund sponsored by the American
Chemical Society.
You can see her web site at:
http://web.utk.edu/~musfeldt/
Jan and her husband, David Bernholdt (who also is a UF graduate),
live in Knoxville and enjoy travel, scuba, and hiking.
Content Updated: 2009
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