Raymond Dessy

Professor Emeritus

Research Interests

The excitation of surface plasmons by light is denoted as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) for planar surfaces or localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) for nanometer-sized metallic structures. LSPR of Au nanoparticles is present in some plant leaf structures (e.g., Swainsona formosa, Sturt Desert Pea), and in many algal species (e,g., Spyrogyra, and some cyanobacteria), when the soil or aqueous media contain Au ions. The NPs are created by intra-cellular reduction via the naturally occurring plant or cyanobacteria carbohydrates. Often the NPs augment photosynthesis by fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET). The research is supported by a Dreyfus Senior Scientist Mentor Award, and involves undergraduate students from a variety of colleges and departments.

We are also interested in the history of the Blues, renaissance wind instruments, graduate student networking, and various photographic microscopy techniques.

URLs to Web sites with open-access to various articles the lab has produced may be reached via links posted on the Selected Publications tab.