Theis Ivan Sølling

Current research

The ultimate time scale in chemistry is the femtosecond time scale.  Chemical bonding cannot cannot change any faster than that.  With a time resolution on the femtosecond time scale it is possible to obtain information on the first decissive moments in a chemical reaction. The femto lab at the department of chemistry is achieving that resoltion with a pulsed laser: a femtosecond laserpulse initiates a "change" and a subsequent pulse measures the structural and electronic impact of the light excitation.

My focus is on mechanistic and physical problems in organic chemistry and photo chemistry.  Both from a very fundamental angle but also more recently applied in Oil and Gas related contexts. 

We have recently found that the outcome of many photo induced processes are determined by structural changes that take place immediately after excitation, i.e., in less than a picosecond.  It is the mechanisms that drive the molecular motions in these first determining moments that are key to photophysical processes and fundamental for the photostability of for instance DNA and proteins.  There is a clear link between structure and mechanism – thus we are also focusing on the interplay between organic chromophores and how they direct nuclear motions. My lab here at CHEM is built around a femtosecond laser with experimental setups for time-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and time-resolved mass spectrometry for gas phase measurements, and absorption spectroscopy for solution phenomena.  All experiments are supported by quantum mechanical calculations.

The problems in applied research rely on collaboration with industry research partners.  The main focus here is on the understanding of flow in porous media and on how methods in organic chemistry can modify it.  The experimental approach is tomography and scanning electron microscopy with simulation on the resulting images  

Bachelor and Master projects: In the femtolab, we are currently investigating the mechanisms of internal conversion and intersystem crossing in a wide variety of organic molecules, and we have several interesting projects with this focus.  It seems that we are at a breakthrough of understanding why transition from triplet states to singlets can sometimes be ultrafast, although it is formally a spin-forbidden process. These projects involve a combination of laser lab work and time spent in front of the computer both working on data and performing calculations.

In the case of the applied oil and gas related projects there are no lab facilities at HCØ yet.  In due course the plan is to build a confocal microscopy setup for studies of the composition of organic species that are captured inside rocks and this involves plenty of project work.  Currently, projects evolve around derivation of flow parameters from tomograms and how these parameters are impacted by the organic surface chemistry.  The aim is to understand and modify the surface coverage and improve flow.

The group has a wide variety of internation partners and the projects can be designed so that they involve research at organizations abroad.

CV

Research Experience

1996               Collaborative project with Dr Henri E. Audier’s research group, Ecole

1997-1998    The research group of Professor Leo Radom, Australian National University.

2000              Collaborative work in Professor Leo Radoms research group, Australian National University.

2000 – 2002  The research group of Professor Ahmed H. Zewail, Post-doctoral fellow, California Institute of Technology.

2002 – 2004   Danish Polymer Center, Project researcher, Risø National Laboratories

2005–             Collaborative work in the research groups of Prof. Peter M. Weber, Brown University, USA, Prof. Albert Stolow, NRC, Canada. Assoc. Prof. Kuo-Wei Huang, KAUST, Saudi Arabia, Prof. Eric Wei-Guang Diau, NCTU, Taiwan.

2004 – 2016   Associate Professor, University of Copenhagen

2013 – 2014   EOR team, Maersk Oil Qatar

2014 – 2016   Digital Core Lab Team Lead, Maersk Oil Qatar

2016–             Professor, University of Copenhagen

Committees

2001 –            Referee for Chemical Physics Letters, Angewandte Chemie, ChemPhysChem and Chemical Physics, Journal of Physical Chemistry, Photochemistry and Photobiology, Journal of the American Chemical Society and Journal of Chemical Physics

2007- 2013    Board member, Danish Chemical Society, organic section

2008               Organizing committee Nordic Femto 08

2013               Organizing committee Femto 11

Student uptake; B.Sc., M. Sc.and Ph.D.

2004-             4 Ph. D. (2 on going), 9 M. Sc., 10 B. Sc.    

Previous PhD. students:

Liv B. Klein (Novo), Thomas S. Kuhlman (Novozymes), Rasmus Y. Brogaard (Universitet i Oslo) and Nerijus Rusteika (Expla Optics)   

Teaching

1996-             

                  First year organic chemisty, involvement at all levels (laboratory and class room teaching, lecturing and course planning)

                  First year nano technology (solar cell laboratory course)

                  First year introduction to chemistry (class room teaching and lecturing)

                  Third year advanced organic chemistry (class room teaching, lecturing and course planning)

                  Third year course in advanced photochemistry (class room teaching, lecturing and course planning)

                   Masters/Ph. D. course in advanced organic chemistry (class room teaching, lecturing and course planning)

Awards and grants (last ten years).

2005              Statens Naturvidenskabelige forskningsraad, Apparatus grant.

2005              Carlsberg Foundation, Apparatus grant.

2005              Director Ib Henriksens Foundation. Apparatus grant

2005-2010    Danish National Research Foundation, “Centre for Molecular Movies” under the leadership of Prof. Martin M. Nielsen.

2006              Torkild Holms Foundation. Travel grant

2006              FNU operating expenses

2008              FNU apparatus grant

2011              NTCU Travel grant to visit prof. Eric Diau, National Chaio Tung Uni, Taiwan

2012              Danish Universities/JSPS: Denmark-Japan Researcher Exchange program

2013              Villum-Kahn Rasmussen Grant

2013              FNU Grant

2013              FNU travel grant

Primary fields of research

Reaction Dynamics and ultrafast processes in organic molecules

Pore scale phenomena

Teaching