Biography:
Dr. Vincent J. Esposito is currently an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Chapman University. Vincent obtained his Bachelor's degree in chemistry from the University of South Carolina. There, he worked with Dr. Susan Richardson studying disinfection by-products in drinking water. During his undergraduate studies, Vincent spent a summer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) working with the Dynamic Response of the Environments at Asteroids, The Moon, and moons of Mars (DREAM2); a part of SSERVI. There, under the direction of Dr. Bill Farrell, he studied the dynamics of the solar wind implantation into the Lunar surface.
Following his undergraduate studies, he earned his PhD. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Pennsylvania. He was co-advised by Dr. Marsha Lester and Dr. Joseph Francisco. During his graduate studies, Vincent used computational methods to study the rotational, vibrational, and electronic spectroscopy of small, metal-bearing molecules of astrochemical interest as well as their photochemical pathways. Additionally, he studied the reaction dynamics and photochemistry of Criegee intermediates via experimental and computational methods.
As a NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellow, Vincent focused on the infrared (IR) spectroscopy of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), work he continues today in collaboration with the Astrophysics & Astrochemistry lab at Ames. His research focuses on incorporating anharmonicity in the IR absorption and emission spectra of PAHs. With the recent launch of JWST, new high spatial and spectral resolution IR observations in expanded wavelength ranges necessitates more accurate computational predictions to assist in analysis of these data. The ultimate goal is to populate The NASA Ames PAH IR Spectra Database (PAHdb) with anharmonic data for PAHs of different sizes as well as PAHs that include astronomically-relevant substituents.
Vincent's major publications can be found on the Astrochemistry Laboratory's Publications Pages.
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