Members - The Crespo Group

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Carlos Crespo

B.S., University of Puerto Rico, San Juan Campus, 1995
Ph.D., University of Puerto Rico, San Juan Campus, 2002
NIH Postdoctoral Fellow, The Ohio State University (2002-05)
Research Associate of Chemistry, The Ohio State University (2005-06)
Dr. Crespo is co-director of the Center for Chemical Dynamics in the Department of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University and member of the Ohio Supercomputer Center, The Ohio State University, and the Mississippi Center for Supercomputer Research, Jackson State University.

Crespo Group

The Crespo Group enjoys summers in Cleveland.

Christian Reichardt completed his dissertation on the subject of the ultrafast photodecomposition of aromatic peroxoesters in the group of Prof. J. Troe at the Max-Planck-Institut fuer biophysikalische Chemie in Goettingen (Germany), earning him the degree of Dr. rer. nat. from the Georg-August Universitaet Goettingen. His diploma at that same University treated the nanosecond kinetics of vibrational cooling of stilbene in various bath gases. His studies of chemistry were done at the University of Goettingen but included an ERASMUS semester at the Universitat Autonoma in Barcelona (Spain) and a practical internship at the BASF AG. Privately he enjoys reading historic and fantasy fiction and playing board and card games.
As a postdoctoral scholar his research focus has shifted to the health related degradation processes of pollutants (nitro polycylic aromatic compounds) and photolesions of DNA in the ultrafast time regime. This research is based upon transient spectroscopy in the UV/Vis and IR spectral regions and thereby makes use of his other main research interest which is in nonlinear optical processes and femtosecond laser systems.

Olexandr (Alex) Isayev completed his Ph.D. thesis title “Theoretical study on nitroaromatic and related compounds: properties, reduction and decomposition” in 2008 in Jackson State University. Alex research interests focus on connecting ab initio electronic structure methods with thermodynamic and kinetic properties of matter. He uses state-of-the-art electronic structure methods in combination with a wide variety of techniques from quantum mechanics to molecular dynamics, to solve relevant problems in chemistry, biophysics, and materials science.

Aaron Vogt

R. Aaron Vogt is a graduate student studying the photo dynamics of nitro poly-cyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the environment. His research concentrates on unraveling the photophysical properties of nitronaphthalenes, quantifying their transformation rates and identifying their major photoproducts. Aaron earned his B.S. in biochemistry and began graduate school at Eastern Michigan University before moving to CWRU in August of 2007.

Chengwei research is focused on studying the photochemistry and dynamics of DNA-protein monomer complexes in solution. Chenwei earned his B.S. in inorganic chemistry at Lanzhou University (formerly Lanchow University) in northwest China. Soccer is his favorite game.

Leah is an undergraduate student working with Amy Sage focusing on the photochemistry of Salbutamol. She is in her Junior year and plans to acquire a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry as well as minors in Astronomy and Physics. Leah received a generous fellowship from Case Western Reserve University's SOURCE (Support of Undergraduate Research and Creative Endeavors) office enabling her to spend the summer of '08 in Cleveland doing research.
Leah enjoys cooking, reading, and camping in her spare time. Leah is also the group's friendly neighborhood webmaster.

Saeed is currently a Junior at Case Western Reserve University and pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Biochemistry as well as a minor in Philosophy. Interests include playing basketball, fantasy sports and spending leisure time on his French veranda in the Caribbean.
He is currently doing undergraduate research for Professor Crespo, specifically studying photochemistry of nitro-polycylic aromatic hydrocarbons under Aaron Vogt and investigating DNA interactions with certain nitro-explosives and their derivatives.

Kim is a senior undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University and hopes to complete his degree in Chemistry by December 2008.

Brad is a senior undergraduate student at Case Western Reserve University planning to graduate in May 2009 with a B.S. in Chemistry and B.A. in Economics. He enjoys playing and watching basketball and other sports. A little known fact about him is that he owns more Christian rap than anyone you know.

Courtney is a high school student working with Leah Dodson and Amy Sage. She is in her senior year at Revere High School in Bath, Ohio and plans to major in Chemistry in college. She volunteers over the summer in the Crespo Lab and hopes to continue in the future.
In her spare time, Courtney is a member of the American Elite Senior Dance Team and competes Nationally. She also is involved in her high school music program participating in musicals and a competitive choir.

Amy Sage: Postdoctoral Scholar (02/2008-12/2008). Amy studied the steady-state photophysical properties of selected pharmaceutical compounds in aqueous environments.
Currently Amy is a postdoctoral researcher at Kent State University, Department of Chemistry, working in the group of Prof. Shanhu Lee.

Jeff worked with Leah on the pharmaceutical project as an undergraduate and graduated with a degree in Chemistry in May of 2008.
Jeff is currently working for the Department of Pharmacology for the Case Western School of Medicine. In his spare time, he likes to take long walks on the beach.