Group Members

Postdoctoral Fellow

Alex is a post-doctoral research fellow who joined the Grubbs group at Missouri S&T in August 2022. His main project is to construct and test the group’s new state-of-the-art chirped-pulse Fourier transform microwave spectrometer, which is to be capable of laser ablation studies, conducting microwave three-wave mixing experiments, multi-antenna detection and more. Alex received his Master of Science degree in July 2019 from the University Nottingham, UK, and his PhD in December 2022, from the same institution, under the supervision of Prof. Tim Wright.

Graduate Student

Joshua Isert joined Dr. Grubbs’ microwave spectroscopy group as a First Year Reseach Experience (F.Y.R.E.) scholarship student in the spring semester of 2017. Having one first author publication, one poster presentation, and one oral conference presentation, he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry in May of 2020. Joshua then decided to continue his research as a Ph.D. student in the group. Since beginning graduate studies in August of 2020, Joshua has taken on the role as the lead of all exotic sourcing techniques such as laser ablation, heated nozzle, and DC discharge and is the student lead on the rotational spectra of actinide-containing molecules.

Graduate Student

Billy is starting his third year as a Ph.D. student in the group. He received his Bachelor’s degree from Missouri S&T in 2021. His research involves complex spin coupling schemes and chiral quantum control experiments. He is currently working on O₂ complexes and investigating possible pulse schemes for the chiral control experiments.

Undergraduate Student

Josie Glenn is a senior chemistry major at Missouri S&T. She joined the group as a freshman in the Spring of 2021 because of her interest in studying lanthanide and actinide-containing species through the FYRE program. Josie has spent the majority of her time in the group assisting with the implementation of a laser ablation source for the CP-FTMW spectrometer. Currently, Josie is working on the collection and analysis of the rotational spectrum of 1-Ethylsilacyclopentane. 

Undergraduate Student

Harrison joined the group in 2022 as a FYRE student. He currently works on multiple projects including the multiple antenna detection CP-FTMW experiment and the laser ablation setup. He spent summer 2023 as a Missouri S&T Undergraduate Summer Research Scholar.

Undergraduate Student

Michael is a senior working toward a Chemistry degree.

PhD, Summer 2023

Nicole Moon initially joined Dr. Grubbs’ microwave spectroscopy group in the spring of 2016 as an undergraduate, where she participated in two OURE programs and an honors academy fellowship. It was during this time that she fell in love with microwave spectroscopy and instrumentation. After graduating with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry in May of 2019, she decided to continue her graduate studies under Dr. Grubbs, with a research focus on Microwave Three-Wave Mixing. In 2023, she graduated with her Ph.D. in chemistry and accepted a postdoctoral fellowship with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. 

PhD, Fall 2019

Frank Marshall joined the group in the Spring of 2014 when he was helping to find another advisor for the Mars Rover Design Team and began to get interested in Dr. Grubbs’ research in building and applying spectroscopic techniques. In 2015 he decided to continue his studies in graduate school under Grubbs in microwave spectroscopy. After having much success with the rotational spectroscopy of silicon-containing species and original laser ablation design, he went on to testing the design of the MAD-CP-FTMW experiment. He is currently the Chemistry Manufacturing and Controls Scientist at Cardinal Health.

B. Sc. 2017

Thomas Persinger received his Bachelor’s of Science degree in Chemistry from Missouri S&T in May 2017, and received his PhD from Emory University in 2022 under the direction of Michael Heaven. He is currently an Assistant Chemist at Argonne National Laboratory doing spectroscopy research on metal-containing molecules.