George Chumanov

Dr. George Chumanov received BS/MS and PhD degrees in Physics in the area of optics, spectroscopy, and quantum electronics. His PhD research focused on the spectroscopy of biomolecules including Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) of amino acids and proteins. He did postdoctoral training with Dr. Theresa Cotton at Iowa State University focusing on SERS of photosynthetic reaction centers and other transmembrane proteins. He took a position of Staff Scientist at Ames Laboratory of the US Department of Energy in 1993 where his research expanded to include photoinduced electron transfer phenomena at interfaces and plasmonic nanoparticles. His current interests are broadly defined as the synthesis and analytical applications of nanostructures including plasmonics, the development of new analytical methods, the application of various spectroscopic techniques to biomolecules, electron and scanning probe microscopy methods. He is very passionate about doing research as well as training students, and, in his free time, enjoys sports, mountain climbing, biking, gardening, and brewing.