Ramesh Jasti

Ramesh Jasti utilizes organic synthesis to probe the physics and theory of carbon nanostructures, with the ultimate goal of developing new applications in nanotechnology.  Professor Jasti joined BU in 2009 after having been one of the first postdoctoral fellows at the Molecular Foundry—a US Department of Energy nanoscience facility at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.  As a highly interdisciplinary scientist, Professor Jasti also has appointments in the Materials Science and Engineering Division, as well as the Center for Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology.

Degrees and Positions

• B.S. in Chemistry with Honors and Distinction, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1998
• Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of California, Irvine, 2006
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of California, Berkeley & The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (2006-2009)

Professor Jasti was the first scientist to synthesize carbon nanohoops—the shortest-possible fragments of “armchair” carbon nanotubes (so called because of their conformation).

Honors

• Fred Morrison Scholarship (1994-1998, funded entire undergraduate education)
• Dean’s List (5 semesters, 1994-1998)
• Golden Key National Honor Society (1996-1998)

Research

The Jasti Group is highly interdisciplinary, working at the interface of organic synthesis and nanoscience.  They aim to develop and utilize modern techniques of organic synthesis in order to construct molecules with unique physical properties, ranging from the nanometer to the millimeter length-scale.

• The bottom-up organic synthesis of carbon nanotubes, graphene, and diamondoids – They are developing new synthetic organic methods and strategies to produce carbon-based materials with well-defined structures.  For instance, one of their goals is to synthesize carbon nanotubes of an exact chirality utilizing organic chemistry.
• The physics and theory of carbon-based nanomaterials – Precise synthetic methods allow them to characterize the physical properties of carbon nanomaterials in an unprecedented fashion and correlate these properties to principles of quantum mechanics. This work is done in a highly collaborative manner with leading physicists and theorists at BU.
• Applications of carbon-based nanomaterials – The Jasti Group also works closely with engineers in order to apply their synthetic expertise and understanding of these nanomaterials to problems in energy, electronics, and medicine.

Techniques & Resources

• Modern synthetic organic techniques – schlenk line and glove box,  as well as standard small molecule analytical work (NMR, MS, HPLC, GC, etc.).
• Direct visualization of nanostructures – Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM),  Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM).
• Advanced measurements of optical and electronic properties – in collaboration with faculty in the Materials Science and Engineering Division and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology.

Opportunities

Members of the Jasti Group are exposed to a wide variety of science due to the interdisciplinary nature of the work.  For instance, students regularly attend seminars in the Materials Science and Engineering Division, the Center for Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology, the local Boston nanoscience group — BACON (with MIT and Harvard), in addition to the weekly seminars in the Chemistry Department.

What’s Next for Graduates of the Jasti Group?

As technology continues to shrink to the molecular level, students of the Jasti Group will be ideally poised to play a leading role in the utilization of organic molecules in nanotechnology.  Experts in nanoscience are highly sought after in academics, as well as in newly emerging industries in the fields of energy, electronics, and biotechnology.

Assistant Professor
LSE 706
Phone: 617.358.5543
Fax: 617.353.6466
jasti@bu.edu
Office Hours: by Appointment
Jasti Group Home Page