Cherie R. Kagan

Associate Professor
Department of Electrical and Systems Engineering
Department of Materials Science and Engineering

 

254, Levine Hall

(215) 573-4384

(215) 573-2068

kagan@seas.upenn.edu

BSE University of Pennsylvania, 1991
BA University of Pennsylvania, 1991
PhD Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996

 

Background

Cherie earned both a B.S.E. in Materials Science and Engineering and a B.A. in Mathematics from the University of Pennsylvania in 1991. In 1996, she received her Ph.D. in Electronic Materials from MIT. Her thesis work focused on the self-assembly of close packed solids of semiconductor nanocrystals and the unique electronic and optical properties that arise from cooperative interactions between neighboring nanocrystals. In 1996, Cherie went to Bell Laboratories as a Postdoctoral Fellow where she built a scanning confocal Raman microscope to study the mechanistics of hologram formation in multicomponent photopolymers. In 1998 she joined IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center where she most recently managed the “Molecular Assemblies and Devices Group.” In January, 2007 Cherie joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania’s Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering and Materials Science and Engineering as an associate professor. In addition she assumed the position as the Director of the University’s Nanofabrication facility.

Cherie was selected by the American Chemical Society Women Chemist Committee in 2002 as one of 12 “Outstanding Young Woman Scientists who is expected to make a substantial impact in chemistry during this century.” She was featured by the American Physical Society in “Physics in Your Future” and in 2000 chosen by the MIT Technology Review TR10. In 2005, she received IBM’s Outstanding Technical Achievement award. She is on the editorial board of American Chemical Society’s journal “Nano Letters” and serves on the Materials Research Society’s Board of Directors and the NSF advisory board for the US Summer School in Condensed Matter and Materials Physics.

 

Research Summary

Our research explores the chemical and physical properties of molecular, supramolecular, and nanostructured materials and assemblies and their potential applications in electronic, optoelectronic, and sensing devices. Molecule-surface and molecule-molecule interactions drive molecular organization. We exploit these chemical interactions to construct functional supramolecular and nanocrystal assemblies. Electrical measurements, optical spectroscopies, electrochemistry, and scanning probe and electron microscopies are used to probe the structure-function relationships of molecular assemblies and their interfaces with zero-, one-, and two-dimensional inorganic surfaces. These experiments provide a basis for understanding intermolecular, intramolecular, and interfacial (organic-inorganic) charge and excitonic transport and interactions. These insights are used to guide the rational design of molecular and nanostructured devices ranging from transistors to solar cells to photonics to chemical and biological sensors.

Our labs are equipped for chemical synthesis and assembly, cw and ultrafast spectroscopies with high spatial resolution, electrical measurements, and the complete fabrication of molecular and nanostructured materials in devices. Micron and nanoscale device fabrication is carried out in Penn’s Wolf Nanofabrication Facility and structural characterization is performed in Penn’s Regional Nanotechnology Facility.

Our group is interdisciplinary with students from the Departments of Electrical and Systems Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemistry. We have collaborations with groups in the Schools of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Arts and Sciences, and Medicine and through Penn’s Laboratory for the Research on the Structure of Matter and Penn’s Energy Research Group.