The use of biomass as a feedstock for fuels and chemicals has been a long-standing challenge and opportunity for the chemical and basic materials industries. In order to unlock the value of biomass, it is necessary to first deconstruct its structural polymers, cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin, into low molecular weight...
Nonlinear optical (NLO) effects are used universally in modern day telecommunication and form the foundation of emergent photonic technologies. Twisted intramolecular charge transfer (TICT) chromophores, composed of a donor and acceptor fragment connected by a twisted bi-aryl bridge, combine large molecular NLO response with properties such as transparency in the...
Bimetallic polymerization catalysis represents a small, though active, area of research due largely to the interesting properties observed in the resulting product polymers, including higher molecular weight, increased comonomer incorporation, and enhanced tacticity. Current work is focused on furthering an understanding of the active catalytic species that give rise to...
Segregation of granular materials with different particle properties (e.g.,~size and density) is a ubiquitous phenomenon in nature and industry. In this thesis, different segregation mechanisms are studied in steady granular heap flows. Flow kinematics and segregation in transient granular flows are also explored. ', '\t', 'First, this thesis studies segregation...
This dissertation examines the origins and social impact of New York stop-and-frisk law, which authorizes police to stop, question and frisk people without a warrant or probable cause to believe crime was committed. Several observers associate it with a recent history of racial profiling, or conservative policing practices of 1990s...
My dissertation draws on Heideggers interpretation of Kant to argue that Kant overestimates the role that causality plays in structuring our experience. Heidegger suggests that Kants analysis of experience mistakenly universalizes a fraction of our experience: the experience of material things. I defend the merits of this suggestion by offering...
The assembly of nanoscale building blocks into larger ensembles with well-defined architecture has the potential to create entirely new classes of designer photonic and plasmonic metamaterials with unique properties not found in nature. Electromagnetic metasurfaces, or 2D metamaterials, operating at optical wavelengths are of particular interest due to ease of...
This dissertation is a collection of three essays that study (dynamic) incentive provision in multi-agent settings with asymmetric information: delegation of projects in organizations, dynamic matching on a platform, and arbitration between partners in a dispute.', "The first chapter studies dynamic delegation of heterogeneous projects to agents with diverse capabilities....
Mixed oxides including SiO2', 'and supported oxides on SiO2', 'comprise the majority of', 'heterogeneous catalysts employed in the chemical industry. SiO2', '-Al2O3', 'and microporous,', 'crystalline variants called zeolites have been used widely since the 1960s in petroleum', 'processing, commodity chemical production, and fine chemical synthesis [1]. SiO2', 'supported', 'TiOx catalysts...
A vast portion of the Universe is predicted to consist of an as-of-yet undetected, non-luminous form of matter, known as dark matter. Evidence of its existence has been corroborated by various astrophysical observations at many cosmological scales, and its relative abundance has been determined. However, knowledge of its nature and...