Education

• Postdoctoral (Miller Fellow), University of California, Berkeley
• Ph.D., University of Kentucky
• M.S., Politechnika Wroclawska, Poland

Teaching and Research Interests

Organic chemistry, physical organic chemistry, asymmetric synthesis, organic magnets, spin labels, biomedical contrast agents, nanomedicine

Current Research

Rajca group’s research interest is in the area of organic and biomaterials chemistry. The underlying theme of our research is rational design and synthesis of new materials (molecules and polymers) with magnetic and optical properties. Rational design of new structures and materials (molecules and polymers) with targeted properties are implemented using the tools of organic synthesis, crystallography, magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR and EPR) and imaging (MRI), as well as magnetometry (SQUID), circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy and multiangle light scattering (MALS).

Figure 1

The specific ongoing research projects are high-spin organic molecules and polymers as building blocks for organic magnets, organic radicals as contrast agents for biomedical imaging, and chiral π-conjugated molecules.

For more information, please visit the Rajca Research Group Homepage.

Selected Publications

(1) Rajca, A.; Wongsriratanakul, J.;  Rajca, S. "Magnetic Ordering in an Organic Polymer", Science, 2001, 294, 1503–1505.

(2) Rajca, A.; Olankitwanit, A.; Rajca, S. “Triplet Ground State Derivative of Aza-m-Xylylene Diradical with Large Singlet-Triplet Energy Gap”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 4750–4753.

(3) Boratynski, P. J.; Pink, M.; Rajca, S.; Rajca, A. “Isolation of the Triplet Ground State Aminyl Diradical”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2010, 49, 5459–5462.

(4) Olankitwanit, A.; Kathirvelu, V.; Rajca, S.; Eaton, G. R.; Eaton S. S.; Rajca, A. “Calix[4]arene nitroxide tetraradical and octaradical”, Chem. Commun., 2011, 47, 6443–6445.

(5) Zak, J. K.; Miyasaka, M.; Rajca, S.; Lapkowski, M.; Rajca, A. “Radical Cation of Helical, Cross-Conjugated β-Oligothiophene”, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2010, 132, 3246–324.

(6) Miyasaka, M.; Pink, M.; Rajca, S.; Rajca, A. “Noncovalent Interactions in the Asymmetric Synthesis of Rigid, Conjugated Helical Structures”, Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., 2009, 48, 5954–5957.

Complete list of publications