The ability to control reaction outcomes with optical cavities will have profound implications for the chemical industry and thus for society. QuEST will shape this nascent field by training future leaders, ensuring that they are well-prepared to communicate their science to a broad audience and that they reflect the diversity of the general population.
Graphic representative of the type of outreach materials used as a poster. A full transcript of materials can be made available upon request.
Accelerating Innovation
We are developing actionable protocols for implementing future polariton-chemical reactions to the general community of non-experts. Part of this plan involves bringing data analysis and predictive computational tools to the larger scientific community. We have created a new theoretical approach to calculate polariton quantum dynamics that can be easily incorporated into any trajectory-based dynamics calculation, or additionally to any trajectory-guided wavepacket-based method. We created a Github repository for the appropriate code that thus makes current and future theoretical modeling software products resulting from QuEST accessible.
We are also partnering with the American Institute for Manufacturing Integrated Photonics (AIM Photonics) to explore how to perform polariton based chemistry on a massively parallel scale, enabling scale up to quantities useful for future pharmaceutical industrial partners.
Broadening Participation in STEM
QuEST hosts summer research experiences geared toward students who historically have had significant life challenges in obtaining their education. These students have contributed to the scientific goals of QuEST through active research on QuEST objectives, and participation in biweekly meetings. Former QuEST undergraduate alumni indicated that their experiences with QuEST propelled them to pursue graduate studies and played a key role in their acceptance to top PhD granting institutions. QuEST is fortunate to have as a participating institution the University of Texas at San Antonio, who is a leader in our efforts in this area.
Winter Conference
QuEST students (far left and far right) learn from RMSC trainer (middle) to design interactive activities about resonance at the winter conference in 2023.
Winter Conference
Photo of a graduate student presenting his work at the winter conference to increase his professional development by presenting to an expert audience.
Chemical Society
Faculty associate, Zach Tonzetich (middle), with two of his students holding awards for best presentation at a chemical society meeting.
Summer REU
UTSA's Undergraduate Student Cheyenne Valles presents her research poster during the summer of 2023.
Science Communication to the Public
QuEST wants to better educate the general public about what quantum science entails and why it is so exciting and potentially transformative for society. In a partnership with the Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC), students and postdocs received two hours of training from staff at the RMSC specifically geared toward designing tabletop demonstration activities for the general public. The demonstration kits specifically were designed to address concepts of energy states, photoexcitation, and oscillator coupling. These prototype kits were tested in the field in Rochester in 2022 and 2023.
Partner Organizations
The Rochester Museum and Science Center (RMSC) and National Informal STEM Education Network (NISE) are partners in QuEST.
