As part of her MSc research Sara Joulaei-Zonouz (UVic, MSc 2023) studied an organic dye molecule that was designed to exhibit an enormous solvatochromic shift from a twisted excited state geometry - these excited states are called Twisted Internal Charge Transfer (TICT) states. While the molecule behaved experimentally as it should (we checked!), Sara found out - through a lot of ab initio calculations - that it does all this without actually forming a TICT state. A real twist in that story..!
Read more at the New Journal of Chemistry.
Read more
For the first time the LaserLab group has had two articles accepted on the same day! Both are in ACS Analytical Chemistry and both are on the use of our fully-programmable, broadband light source for highly multiplexed fluorescence spectroscopy.
Read more
Beach Day 2023
The LaserLab appreciates photons, waves, and silicates in all forms!
Spending a day at the beach in East Sooke Park was a reminder that there is life outside the lab.
Read more
Flame emission spectra of metals are a common chemistry demonstration; Adam Bernicky takes this to the next level by employing neural network analysis for the spectral decomposition of the flame emission from crushed copper ore concentrates.
Read more
Everything you ever wanted to know about measuring refractive indices with optical fibres! Did you know that there were over 1000 papers published on that topic in the last 15 years? We read them all!
The review article introduces common performance metrics for these sensors, compares and ranks the many different designs, and then provides guidelines for building better refractive index sensors.
This was a major portion of Deniz’ PhD thesis and a huge tour-de-force!
Applied Physics Reviews 10, 011307 (2023);
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0105147
Read more
Congratulations to Oren Katz for crushing his M.Sc defense and becoming the latest alumnus of our group. Thank you to examiners Dennis Hore and Reuven Gordon who shared their insights into Oren’s work on five-dimensional Hadamard-Transform fluorescence imaging.
Read more
So, you are about to graduate with a B.Sc. in chemistry or physics, and are looking for an exciting research opportunity? Consider applying for one of two graduate student positions in our group! We are a multidisciplinary and diverse team of chemists and physicists, and we are keen to work with you.
Read more
Who would have thought that classical trajectory calculations are so hard…!?
Read more
We are hiring!
Our group has two open Postdoctoral Fellow positions in fiber optic sensing and multiplexed fluorescence spectroscopy. Please click on the link to learn more.
Read more
The celebration in Kingston following Dr Amy MacLean’s successful PhD defense.
Read more
Congratulations to Dr. Deniz Aydin for successfully defending her PhD thesis:!
Read more
The M.Sc. work by Emily Groper has been published as a cover article in the RSC journal Analyst. Emily was working with former UG student Rory McEwen and collaborators at Laval University to develop a multi-channel emitter for electrospray ionization.
Read more
Our new photonics lab is ready for moving in!
We are looking to hire undergraduate project students for September 2021 (yes, you will be working in that lab, and not remotely!)
We are always hiring graduate students!
Write to hploock@uvic.ca if you consider applying..
Read more
These five scientists had a brilliant idea on how to simultaneously record 2D fluorescence spectra and absorption spectra.. Optical measurements of chemical kinetics would never be the same again. They demonstrated and patented this new spectroscopic technique.
You would not believe what happened next!
Read more
Unpacking boxes is fun - but it is more fun if you don’t know what is inside and you don’t have over 50 of them…! After many days of unwrapping our equipment we started setting up the first experiment at UVic and Deniz was able to obtain a signal with our fiber-optic vibration probe and test equipment. Now we just need an earthquake (no, not really)
Read more
On May 7, 2020 and under the most adverse circumstances. Adam Bernicky successfully defended his M.Sc thesis on Hadamard Transform Fluorescence EEM spectroscopy!
All examiners were connected through teleconferencing software since the pandemic would not allow us to hold a defense face-to-face. Examiners were in two different timezones and covered a vast range of topics, yet Adam delivered a masterclass on how to excel in an M.Sc. defense.. Congratulations, Adam!
Read more
Thank you to Dr. Gianluca Gagliardi and his group for welcoming Deniz and Peter to a 3-week stay in his lab to study brightly glowing liquid droplets! Our trip to the CNR – Istituto Nazionale di Ottica in Pozzuoli, Italy, included visits to Pompeii and Capri, lots of pizza, the best seafood on the planet, and some of the most “intense” traffic imaginable. Oh, and really awesome science, of course.
Read more
Almost the entire lab was boxed up and shipped across the country.
After 21 years at Queen’s University, Loock Laser Lab moves to the University of Victoria. For Peter it is wonderful (and weird) to return to the university where he graduated in 1996. The rest of the group is apprehensive. Are Victorians friendly? How is the new space? Can we afford living there? Only time will tell. But first we need to unpack a huge number of boxes..!
Read more
Graduate Student Adam Bernicky holding the selfie stick at an authentic Bulgarian BBQ with collaborators from Aurubis, KPM, and Universidad de Concepción.
Read more
Loock Laser Lab jocks and jockettes assemble during the 2019 CCCE conference in Quebec City, Quebec.
Read more