Jacob Black

Jake grew up in Littleton, Colorado on the edge of the great Rocky Mountains. Opting to leave this virtual paradise and explore the rest of the country, Jake attended Villanova University just outside Philadelphia, PA. While there he discovered his passion for chemistry and conducted research under the tutelage of Professor Kevin P. C. Minbiole, synthesizing antibacterial amphiphiles. At Yale, Jake joined the lab of Professor Ziad Ganim and now works on the development of new optical tweezers methods for performing single molecule infrared spectroscopy on transition metal catalysts. While not pondering the mysteries of the natural world, Jake enjoys the great outdoors, drinking beer, regretting not going to the gym, not regretting playing video games, pseudointellectual philosophical discussion, and buying new books to really fill out his bookshelf.