News

. . . .
2022
March 5, 2024 Tessa is interviewed for the ``Inside the Laboratory'' series at Spectroscopy Magazine.
November 28, 2023 Congratulations to Eleanor for passing their Original Research Proposal!
November 21, 2023 Kyra Pulver and Emily Campbell join the group as new graduate students. Welcome, Emily and Kyra!
November 13, 2023 Tessa gives an invited presentation ``Second Harmonic Investigations of Bacterial Membrane Complexity'' at the Eastern Analytical Symposium in Plainsboro, NJ.
October 28, 2023 Marea presents her research, "Employing second harmonic scattering for new membrane insights in living bacteria" at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) in Durham, NC
August 16, 2023 Eleanor presents "Investigation of tetracycline’s impact on the bacterial membrane with second harmonic scattering" at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA
July 24, 2023 Calhoun lab potluck with special guests from the Heberle and Bailey groups!
June 6, 2023 Tessa gives an invited presentation ``Antibioitic Insights from Living Bacterial Membranes with Second Harmonic Scattering'' at the 2023 International Conference on Nonlinear Optics at Interfaces in Rome, Italy.
May 23, 2023 Eleanor presented the research talk "Monitoring Molecule-Membrane Interactions with Second Harmonic Scattering" to the department as part of the 3rd Year Students Research Symposium.
April 29, 2023 Brandon presents a poster at the Department of Chemistry Undergraduate Research Symposium.
April 14, 2023 Eleanor gives both an oral and poster presentation at the 2nd annual Community of Scholars Biomembranes Symposium here at UT.
April 6, 2023 Calhoun Lab Day Out at Top Golf and Main Event!
April 4, 2023 Marea, Hannah and Anna's manuscript "Facilitating flip-flop: Structural tuning of molecule-membrane interactions in living bacteria" has been accepted for publication in Biophysical Journal
March 30, 2023 Tessa presents "What can Second Harmonic Generation Teach Us about Bacterial Membranes?" for the Chemistry Department at the University of Alabama.
March 29, 2023 Marea presents "Second Harmonic Generation: An Investigation of Molecule-Membrane Dynamics Across Living Bacterial Species" at the ACS National Meeting in Indianapolis, IN
March 15, 2023 Congratulations to Grant for passing his Candidacy Research Proposal!
December 16, 2022 Tessa hoods Redwan at Graduation!
November 14, 2022 Brendan Miklos joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Brendan!
November 8, 2022 Tessa gives an invited presentation ``What can second harmonic generation teach us about bacterial membranes?'' at the Southwest Regional ACS meeting in Baton Rouge, LA.
November 3, 2022 Eleanor, Marea, and Grant's invited perspective article ``Monitoring Membranes: The Exploration of Biological Bilayers with Second Harmonic Generation'' has been accepted for publiation in Chemical Physics Reviews !
October 28, 2022 Halloween group potluck including costumes!
October 21, 2022 Congratulations to Marea for passing her Original Research Proposal!
August 24, 2022 Mikala Blackmon joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
August 3, 2022 Marea presented a research talk "Dynamics Between Small Molecules and Living Bacterial Membranes Probed by Second Harmonic Generation" to the department as part of the 3rd Year Students Research Symposium.
July 29, 2022 Redwan successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Light Matter Interactions: A Study of Soft Materials Using Linear and Nonlinear Spectroscopy." Congratulations, Dr. Hassan!
June 14, 2022 Redwan, Brandon and James's manuscript "Small Molecule Sorting: A Fluorescence Study of Microemulsions" and cover image have been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry B
June 1, 2022 Anna Curtus from East Tennessee State University and Julianna Cox from Mississippi Valley State University join us as REU students for the summer. Welcome, Anna and Julianna!
May 16, 2022 Sadhana Bhat joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Sadhana!
April 11, 2022 Congratulations to Eleanor for passing her Candidacy Research Proposal!
March 21, 2022 Marea presents "Monitoring the tunability of small molecule-membrane interactions in living bacteria with second harmonic scattering" at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA
March 21, 2022 Tessa presents "Localization and Dynamic Patterns in Microemulsions" at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA
March 17, 2022 Our Calhoun Lab Day out for this semester included a trip to the climbing wall! Check out some pictures HERE.
January 24, 2022 Jackson McLemore and Brandon Shaw join the group as undergraduate researchers. Welcome!
2021
December 19, 2021 Tessa gives an invited presentation at the Pacifichem virtual conference.
December 9, 2021 Tessa hoods Brandon at Graduation!
December 6, 2021 Grant Foley joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Grant!
September 28, 2021 Tessa presents at the AIP Publishing Horizons: Photonics in Chemical Physics virtual conference.
September 21, 2021 Lindsey, Marea and Eleanor's manuscript "Phosphate ions alter the binding of daptomycin to living bacterial cell surfaces" has been accepted for publication in ACS Infectious Diseases
September 14, 2021 Our R35 proposal "Probing How Living Bacterial Membranes Control Small Molecule Uptake" has been selected for funding by the NIH National Institute of General Medical Sciences!
September 2, 2021 Tessa presents "New Insight into Living Bacterial Membranes via Second Harmonic Generation" for the Saykally group meeting at UC Berkeley.
August 23, 2021 Tessa, Redwan, and Marea give oral presentations at the ACS Conference in Atlanta, GA.
August 16, 2021 Alexis Sanwick joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Alexis!
July 28, 2021 Brandon successfully defends his dissertation entitled "Total Internal Reflection: Applications in Nonlinear Microscopy and Fluorescence Anisotropy." Congratulations, Dr. Colon!
June 28, 2021 We finally got a chance to do another Calhoun Lab Day Out filled with food, bowling, laser tag, and arcade games! Winnings were spread throughout the group with Redwan and Brandon in bowling, Eleanor in laser tag, and Marea in the arcade.
June 23, 2021 Tessa presents at the Telluride Research Science Center "Complexity in the Chemistry and Physics of Lipid Membranes" Workshop
June 16, 2021 Congratulations to Marea for passing her Candidacy Research Proposal!
May 25, 2021 Hannah Castillo joins us from Andrews College as an REU student for the summer. Welcome, Hannah!
May 13, 2021 Our proposal "Small Molecule Uptake and Transport in Living and Model Bacterial Membranes" has been selected for funding by the National Science Foundation!
2020
December 11, 2020 Congratulations to Redwan for passing his Original Research Proposal!
November 12, 2020 Marea and Brandon's invited perspective article ``Leaving the Limits of Linearity for Light Microscopy'' has been featured on the cover of the Journal of Physical Chemistry C ! (Link)
November 11, 2020 Eleanor is awarded 5th place in the ACGS Halloween costume (Link)!
November 11, 2020 Eleanor Page joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Eleanor!
October 1, 2020 Lindsey's manuscript using second harmonic generation to reveal the impact of phosphate ions on the binding of the antibiotic, daptomycin, to living baterial cells is now available on ChemRxiv.
September 22, 2020 Marea and Brandon's invited perspective article ``Leaving the Limits of Linearity for Light Microscopy'' has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry C !
August 19, 2020 Brandon gives an oral presentation about his research as part of the ACS Virtual Conference.
August 17-20, 2020 Tessa is a co-organizer/host of the ACS symposium "Addressing Chemical Complexity with Nonlinear Optical Microscopy." Check it out here: https://calhoun.utk.edu/ACS2020.html
August 1, 2020 Tessa is promoted to the rank of associate professor with tenure.
July 21, 2020 Lindsey successfully defends her dissertation entitled "Using Second Harmonic Generation to Study Gram-Positive Bacterial Membranes." Congratulations, Dr. Miller!
July 8, 2020 Redwan gave an oral presentation on his research to the department as part of the 3rd Year Students Research Symposium
April 27, 2020 Brandon and Redwan's paper using transient absorption microscopy in a total internal reflection geometry has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Physical Chemistry A as part of the virtual special issue on Time-Resolved Microscopy!
April 16, 2020 Brandon presents his research on "Total Internal Reflection Transient Absorption Microscopy: An On-line Detection Method for Microfluidics" in the UTK Chemistry departmental seminar.
January 24, 2020 A great Calhoun Lab Day Out to start the year! Tessa and Redwan had bowling victories while Lindsey and Marea celebrated wins in laser tag.
2019
December 15, 2019 Congratulations to Brandon for passing his Original Research Proposal!
November 15, 2019 Congratulations to Lindsey for passing her Original Research Proposal!
November 13, 2019 Marea Blake joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Marea!
November 1, 2019 Brandon is a winner of the department's Board of Visitor's Poster Competition!
October 23, 2019 Brandon presents his research at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) in Savannah, GA and Tessa gives a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at Utah State University.
October 21, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Utah.
October 7, 2019 Tessa gave an invited talk and Lindsey and Brandon presented posters at the Southeast Ultrafast Conference in Durham, NC.
September 16, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry at the University of Notre Dame.
September 13, 2019 Lindsey's paper using second harmonic generation to study membrane probes in gram-positive bacteria has been accepted in Biophysical Journal!
August 21, 2019 James Russell joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, James!
August 8, 2019 Brandon Woitas successfully defended his Master's thesis. Congratulations, Brandon!
August 2, 2019 Brianna's paper using electronic sum frequency generation microspectroscopy to directly probe surface trap states in CdSe quantum dots has been accepted in Nano Letters!
August 1, 2019 We had a great time at the Calhoun Lab Day Out! Congrats to Kevin for his putt-putt win while Tessa and Brandon C. took home wins in bowling and MarioKart.
June 24, 2019 Congratulations to Redwan for passing his Candidacy Research Proposal!
May 21, 2019 Brandon Colon gave an oral presentation on his research to the department as part of the 3rd Year Students Research Symposium
April 22, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Southern California
April 17, 2019 Lindsey gives an oral presentation about her research at the OSA Biophotonics Congress in Tucson, AZ
March 31, 2019 Tessa speaks about "Probing the interaction of small molecules with living cell membranes using second harmonic generation" at the ACS National Convention in Orlando, FL
March 8, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Georgia
February 25, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University
February 21, 2019 Lindsey presents her research on "Probing membrane dynamics in living bacterial using second harmonic generation" in the UTK Chemistry departmental seminar
February 20, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
February 19, 2019 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at Duke University
January 9, 2019 Kevin Mendes joins the group as a graduate student, and Tori Stromberg joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
2018
November 11, 2018 Brianna's paper on "Probing Ligand Removal and Ordering at Quantum Dot Surfaces Using Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy" has been accepted in the Journal of Colloid & Interface Science!
November 9, 2018 Lindsey is a winner of the department's Board of Visitor's Poster Competition!
October 24, 2018 Tessa is an invited speaker and Lindsey gives an oral presentation at the SciX Conference in Atlanta, GA
October 16, 2018 Tessa presented a seminar in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison
August 22, 2018 Madeline Bellers joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Madeline!
August 14, 2018 Tessa is an invited speaker and Lindsey presents a poster at the Southeast Ultrafast Conference in Atlanta, GA
August 2, 2018 Kevin successfully defends his thesis entitled "Transient Absorption Microscopy: Instrumentation and Application to Amphotericin B"!
June 29, 2018 The EFRC proposal "Breakthrough Electrolytes for Energy Storage" that we are collaborating on was chosen by the Department of Energy for funding!
May 24, 2018 Sergio Axel Perez Cruz joins us from Berea College as an REU student for the summer. Welcome, Axel!
May 10, 2018 Tessa hoods Brianna at Graduation!
April 17, 2018 Brianna presents at the Ultrafast Bandgap Photonics III Conference as part of the SPIE Defense + Security Symposium in Orlando, FL.
March 30, 2018 Brianna successfully defends her dissertation entitled "Probing the Interfaces of Semiconducting Nanoparticles using Sum Frequency Generation: Instrument Development and Design"!
March 12, 2018 Kevin's paper on the use of a "Compressed Supercontinuum Probe for Transient Absorption Microscopy" has been accepted in Optics Letters!
March 6, 2018 Congratulations to Brandon C. for passing his Candidacy Research Proposal!
March 1, 2018 Lindsey presents at the UTK Women in STEM Symposium.
January 10, 2018 Redwan Hassan and Brandon Woitas join the group as graduate students. Malik Abu Hatab joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome!
2017
November 8-9, 2017 Brianna and Lindsey present their research at the Southeastern Regional Meeting of the American Chemical Society (SERMACS) in Charlotte, NC.
October 26, 2017 Congratulations to Brianna for passing her Original Research Proposal!
October 19, 2017 Tessa was the seminar speaker at the Beckman Laser Institute at the University of California, Irvine.
October 12, 2017 Kevin won a Student Poster Award for his presentation at the SciX Conference in Reno, NV!
September 28, 2017 Tessa was the seminar speaker in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Alabama.
August 23, 2017 Dinesh Velu joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Dinesh!
June 8, 2017 Tessa presents at Photonics North in Ottawa, Canada as an invited speaker.
June 1, 2017 Taylor Lewis joins us from Tiffin University as an REU student for the summer and Grace Sarabia joins the group as a summer researcher. Welcome, Taylor and Grace!
April 6, 2017 Brianna presents at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA.
April 4, 2017 Kevin presents at the OSA Biomedial Optics & Photonics Congress: Optics in the Life Sciences in San Diego, CA.
April 3, 2017 Tessa presents at the ACS National Meeting in San Francisco, CA as an invited speaker.
March 21, 2017 Brianna presents at the UTK Women in STEM Symposium.
March 15, 2017 Congratulations to Lindsey for passing her Candidacy Research Proposal!
January 19, 2017 Tessa presents at the Southeast Ultrafast Conference at Clemson University as an invited speaker.
January 11, 2017 Ryan Hughes joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Ryan!
2016
December 7, 2016 Congratulations to Brittany for successfully defending her Honor's Thesis!
August 17, 2016 Seth Sherrill joins the group as a undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Seth!
June 1, 2016 Brandon Colon joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome Brandon!
May 23, 2016 Joselyn Resto-Santana joins us from the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez as an REU student for the summer. Welcome, Joselyn!
May 4, 2016 Tessa was a panelist on UTK's Graduate School of Education STEM Twitter Panel Discussion.
April 28, 2016 Congratulations to Brianna, Lauren and Brittany for winning awards at Honor's Day! Lauren was a recepient of the Halbert and Anne Carmichael Scholarship, Brittany received a Hach Foundation Scholarship, and Brianna was awarded the Judson Hall Robertson Fellowship in Analytical Chemistry.
April 15, 2016 Brianna presented a poster at the UTK Women in STEM Symposium.
March 25, 2016 We have been awarded an AREA grant from NIH!
January 26, 2016 Our collaborative project led by the Fozo lab in Microbiology has been funded by NIH!
January 14, 2016 Brianna and Kevin presented posters at the Southeast Ultrafast Conference.
January 13, 2016 Brittany Ramsey joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Brittany!
2015
October 15, 2015 Tessa was the seminar speaker in the Department of Biochemistry and Cellular and Molecular Biology at UTK.
August 19, 2015 Lindsey Miller becomes a first year graduate student in the group!
August 19, 2015 Ashley Bloom and Lauren Finney join the group as undergraduate researchers. Welcome, Ashley and Lauren!
July 29, 2015 Brianna's paper on the "Elucidation of perovskite film micro-orientations using two-photon total internal reflectance fluorescence microscopy" has been accepted in The Journal of Physical Chemistry Letters!
June 3, 2015 Congratulations to Kevin on passing his Candidacy Research Proposal!
May 18, 2015 Sharon Aioyka joins us from the University of North Carolina, Pembroke as an REU student for the summer. Welcome, Sharon!
April 18, 2015 Tessa is a panelist on the University of Tennessee's Women in STEM Research Symposium Q&A Panel.
March 24, 2015 Congratulations to Brianna for passing her Candidacy Research Proposal!
2014
December 19, 2014 Our Joint Directed Research and Development proposal to the UT-ORNL Science Alliance has been selected for funding!
October 1, 2014 Our collaborative project led by Dr. Jennifer Morrell-Falvey has been selected for funding as part of the Laboratory Directed Research and Development program at ORNL.
August 20, 2014 Alexandra Novak joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Alex!
August 20, 2014 Lindsey Miller, Anna Fraser, and Brittney Wright join the group as undergraduate researchers. Welcome!
May 19, 2014 Stephanie Armas joins us from the University of Central Florida as an REU student for the summer. Welcome, Stephanie!
April 28, 2014 Brianna Watson joins the group as a graduate student. Welcome, Brianna!
April 25, 2014 Tessa is selected as a Fellow of the first class of the Science Alliance JDRD Collaborative Cohort Program.
April 15, 2014 Our collaborative project led by Dr. Mitchel Doktycz at ONRL is chosen for funding by DOE!
January 8, 2014 Philip Belcher, Kevin Higgins, and Tyler Thompson join the group as graduate students. Welcome!
2013
August 21, 2013 Richard Prince joins the group as an undergraduate researcher. Welcome, Richard!
August 12, 2013 The Calhoun lab moves to the University of Tennessee, Knoxville!