Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart

Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart is an American radiochemist specializing in the chemistry and physics of transuranium elements. He holds the Gregory R. Choppin Chair in Chemistry at Florida State University, and is the Director of the Center for Actinide Science & Technology, an Energy Frontier Research Center funded by the Department of Energy.

Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart
Other namesThomas Albrecht-Schmitt (former)
Alma materNorthwestern University
Known forChemistry and Physics of Lanthanides and Actinides, Late Actinide Chemistry, especially with berkelium, californium, einsteinium, and fermium
Spouse(s)Jasmin Schönzart (geochemist)
AwardsACS Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry, 2019, ACS Nobel Signature Award for Graduate Education in Chemistry, ACS Southern Chemist Award
Scientific career
Institutions
  • Florida State University
  • University of Notre Dame
  • Auburn University

Education and career

Thomas Albrecht-Schönzart received his undergraduate education in chemistry at Southwest Minnesota State University, during which time he also performed research at Texas A&M with J. P. Fackler on gold chemistry and Ron Caple on organometallic chemistry at the University of Minnesota-Duluth via REU-NSF programs.[1] He received his doctorate in inorganic chemistry in 1997 from Northwestern University under James Ibers where he studied the synthesis, structures, and reactivity of transition metal polychalcogenides. Following a postdoctoral position at the University of Illinois in 1998 with J. R. Shapley on metal-fullerene chemistry, he became an assistant professor at Auburn University later that year, transitioning to associate professor in 2002 and full professor in 2007. While at Auburn, he built a large program dedicated to understanding the chemistry and physics of f-block compounds. He opened the first new transuranium laboratory in decades in the U.S. while at Auburn, and continued this theme as the Frank M. Freimann Chair at the University of Notre Dame from 2009 to 2012. He moved to Florida State University in 2012 to become the first Gregory R. Choppin Chair in Chemistry.[1]

Research

Albrecht-Schönzart currently operates a research group at the Florida State University as the Gregory R. Choppin Chair in Chemistry.[2] In 2016 he received federal funding from the US Department of Energy through the Office of Basic Energy Sciences as part of the Energy Frontier Research Center program to establish the Center for Actinide Science & Technology (CAST), a multi-institution research center dedicated to "advanc[ing] our understanding of how electronic structure and bonding control the properties of radioactive materials," with focus on alleviating the environmental impacts of nuclear power and the Cold War.[3][4]

His research focuses on the use of synthetic, crystallographic, and spectroscopic techniques and quantum chemical simulation to better understand the nature of bonding and physical properties in lanthanides and actinides complexes. Albrecht-Schönzart is particularly known for his research on the chemistry of highly radioactive and scarce heavy actinides such as berkelium and californium.[5][6]

Awards and honors

In 2019 Albrecht-Schönzart was awarded the Glenn T. Seaborg Award in Nuclear Chemistry for outstanding contributions to nuclear and radiochemistry at the American Chemical Society meeting in Orlando, Florida.[7] The focus of this award was his group's discovery of a fundamental break in the chemistry of actinides that begins at californium. His group is responsible for the majority of transuranium single crystal structures and was the first to apply the use of microdiffraction techniques to compounds of these elements. His team was also the first to report the single crystal structure of a berkelium compound. He was in 2015 elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry for contributions including his pioneering work on californium.[8] In 2018, Albrecht-Schönzart was elected a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science[9] and was the preceptor for the ACS Nobel Signature Prize for Graduate Education in Chemistry. He has delivered a number of important endowed lectures throughout the world including the Gerhard and Lisolette Closs Memorial Lecture at the University of Chicago and the George Fischer Baker Lecture at Cornell University.

References
  1. "Exploring Chemistry at the Furthest Reaches, Thomas Albrecht-Schmitt Revels in the Unknown | Energy Frontier Research Centers Community Website". www.energyfrontier.us. Retrieved 2020-12-09.
  2. "Dr. Albrecht-Schmitt, Thomas E." Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  3. "EFRC Center for Actinide Science... | U.S. DOE Office of Science (SC)". science.osti.gov. 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  4. "Center for Actinide Science & Technology". 3 October 2019. Retrieved 9 December 2020.
  5. Albrecht-Schmitt, Thomas (September 2014). "Californium gleaming". Nature Chemistry. 6 (9): 840–840. doi:10.1038/nchem.2035. ISSN 1755-4349.
  6. White, Frankie D.; Dan, David; Albrecht‐Schmitt, Thomas E. (2019). "Contemporary Chemistry of Berkelium and Californium". Chemistry – A European Journal. 25 (44): 10251–10261. doi:10.1002/chem.201900586. ISSN 1521-3765.
  7. "Glenn T. Seaborg Award for Nuclear Chemistry". American Chemical Society. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  8. "Three FSU chemistry researchers elected fellows of prestigious chemistry society". Florida State University News. 2015-07-30. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  9. Haughney, Kathleen (November 27, 2018). "Two FSU researchers named fellows of American Association for the Advancement of Science". Florida State University. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
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