Sarah J. Schmidtke

Sarah J. Schmidtke, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, joined the faculty at Wooster in the summer of 2006. Her areas of professional interest include photochemistry, spectroscopy, chemical kinetics, and computational chemistry. Sarah's current research combines spectroscopic and computational methods to analyze the photochemistry of liquid phase systems, particular those that support hydrogen-bonding interactions. Sarah teaches courses in Physical Chemistry, Introductory Chemistry, and guides Independent Study.

Prior to her appointment at the College, she received her B.S. in Chemistry and Mathematics from Marquette University (2000). Sarah completed her Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry at the University of Minnesota (2005) in the laboratory of Dr. David Blank, supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. She spent one year as a visiting assistant professor at Trinity University prior to her arrival at Wooster. In Sarah's spare time she enjoys cooking, gardening, music, fitness, and learning different genres of dance.

Link to Schmidtke Home Page

Recent Publications:

Sarah J. Schmidtke, Ph.D. Dissertation, "Physical Properties and Dynamics of Hydrogen Bonding and Proton Transfer Compounds." University of Minnesota, 2005.

Sarah J. Schmidtke, David F. Underwood, and David A. Blank. "Probing excited-state dynamics and intramolecular proton transfer in 1-acylaminoanthraquinones via the intermolecular solvent response." J. Phys. Chem. A, 2005, 109(32), 7033-7045.

Sarah J. Schmidtke, David F. Underwood, and David A. Blank. "Following the solvent directly during ultrafast excited state proton transfer." J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2004, 126(28), 8620-8621.

Sarah J. Schmidtke, Laura A. MacManus-Spencer, Jamie J. Klappa, T. A. Mobley, Kristopher McNeill, and David A. Blank. "2-(2'-Pyridyl)pyrroles: Part I. Structure and energetics of Pyridylpyrroles, their Dimers, Complexes and Excited States." Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6(15), 3938-3947.

Laura A. MacManus-Spencer, Sarah J. Schmidtke, David A. Blank, and Kristopher McNeill. "2-(2'-Pyridyl)pyrroles: Part II. Spectroscopic Investigations of Pyridylpyrrole Alcohol Complexes." Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2004, 6(15), 3948-3957.

Jamie J. Klappa, Sarah Geers, Sarah J. Schmidtke, Laura A. MacManus-Spencer, and Kristopher McNeill. "Pyridylpyrrolides as alternatives to cyclometalated phenylpyridine ligands: Synthesis and characterization of luminescent zinc and boron pyridylpyrrolide complexes." Dalton, 2004, 6, 883-891.

Invited Lectures and Papers/Posters Presented at Professional Meetings:

"Solvent dynamics accompanying ultrafast proton transfer in 1-acylaminoanthraquinones." St. Cloud State Department of Chemistry Departmental Seminar, St. Cloud, MN. October 18, 2004.

"Probing the solvent dynamics during ultrafast ultrafast excited state proton transfer in 1-acylaminoanthraquinones." 2nd International Conference on Coherent Multidimensional Vibrational Spectroscopy, Madison, WI. Poster Presentation. August 15-17, 2004.

David F. Underwood, Sarah J. Schmidtke, David A. Blank. "Direct observations of the ultrafast solvent response in condensed phase chemical dynamics." Abstracts of Papers, 227th ACS National Meeting, Anaheim, CA, March 28-April 1, 2004.

Sarah J. Schmidtke, David F. Underwood, David A. Blank. "Dynamics of ultrafast proton transfer in 1-acylaminoanthraquinones." Abstracts of Papers, 225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 23-27, 2003.