Paul Bohn

Arthur J. Schmitt Professor

Lab Website

Research Areas

  • Physical/Analytical Chemistry

Research Specialties

  • Energy
  • Materials
  • Measurement

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Biography

Year Title
2006-present Arthur J. Schmitt Professor, University of Notre Dame
2003-2006 Centennial Professor of the Chemical Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2001-2002 Interim Vice Chancellor for Research, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1994-1999 Head of the Department of Chemistry, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1992-2006 Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1989-1992 Associate Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1983-1989 Assistant Professor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
1981-1983 Member of Technical Staff, Special Materials Groups, Bell Laboratories
1981 Ph.D. in Chemistry, University of Wisconsin-Madison
1977 B.S. in Chemistry, University of Notre Dame

Selected Awards

2022   C.N. Reilley Award in Electroanalytical Chemistry

2017   American Chemical Society Award in Electrochemistry

2015   Top 100 Most Influential Analytical Scientists

2012   Fellow, Society for Applied Spectroscopy

2010   Theophilus Redwood Award, Royal Society of Chemistry

2008   Fellow, Royal Society of Chemistry

2005   Bomem-Michelson Award of the Coblentz Society

2004   Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh Award

1998   Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science

1997   American Chemical Society Award in Spectrochemical Analysis

Research Interests

The Bohn group uses the tools of molecular nanotechnology to define the state-of-the-art in chemical analysis of mass-limited samples (ranging from ~106 molecules down to a single molecule). Our research currently focuses on problems in three thematic areas: low-dimensional analytical electronics and photonics, analytical nanofluidics, and correlated imaging, and uses the tools of nanofabrication, high sensitivity molecular spectroscopy, and electrochemistry to achieve our research goals.
 
Analytical nanofluidics – research in this area concentrates on four major projects: (1) non-aqueous microchip electrophoresis (NAME) for lipid biomarker detection; (2) chemical reactions in confined/constrained environments; (3) design of extraordinarily efficient chemical reactors (NanoPERfECT); and (4) plasmonic and Fourier transform impedance sensing of toxins and pathogens.
 
Low-dimensional analytical electronics and photonics – research in this area exploits low-dimensional structures to perform chemical measurements and is focused on four major projects: (1) atom-scale junctions for chemical sensing; (2) single molecule spectroelectrochemistry; (3) electrochemistry in 1-D nanostructures; and (4) tightly coupled electrokinetics and electron transfer.
 
Correlated imaging – research in this area seeks to develop novel methods of heterocorrelated chemical imaging and is composed of two major projects focused on: (1) the molecular etiology of cancer, and (2) communication of microbial communities.
 

 

Selected Publications

  • Metro, J.; Weaver, A. A.; Reitemeier, J.; Desnoyers, C. and Bohn, P. W. "Monitoring Populations of Single Extracellular Vesicles from Pseudomonas Aeruginosa using Large Parallel Arrays of Zero-Mode Waveguides" 2025 Precision Chemistry, in press. DOI: 10.1021/prechem.5c00012.
  • Reitemeier, J.; Metro, J. and Bohn, P. W. "Detection of Aldehydes from Degradation of Lipid Nanoparticle Formulations using a Hierarchically-Organized Nanopore Electrochemical Biosensor" 2024 Biosensors & Bioelectronics, 261, 116457. DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2024.116457.
  • Weaver, A. A.; Jia, J.; Cutri, A. R.; Madukoma, C. S.; Vaerewyck, C. M.; Bohn, P. W. and Shrout, J. D. "Alkyl Quinolones Mediate Heterogeneous Colony Biofilm Architecture that Improves Community-Level Survival" 2024 Journal of Bacteriology, 206 (4), e00095-24. DOI: 10.1128/jb.00095-24.
  • Jonsson, A.; Xu, P. C.; Reitemeier, J.; Bohn, P. W. and Fay, P. "Wet Etch Methods to Achieve Submicron Active Area Self-Aligned Vertical Sb-Heterostructure Backward Diodes" 2024 Materials Science In Semiconductor Processing, 171, 108036. DOI: 10.1016/j.mssp.2023.108036.
  • Du, Y. P.; Reitemeier, J.; Jiang, Q.; Bappy, M. O.; Bohn, P. W. and Zhang, Y. L. "Hybrid Printing of Fully Integrated Microfluidic Devices for Biosensing" 2024 Small, 20 (5), 2304966. DOI: 10.1002/smll.202304966.
  • Sundaresan, V.; Metro, J.; Cutri, A. R.; Palei, M.; Mannam, V.; Oh, C.; Hoffman, A. J.; Howard, S. and Bohn, P. W. "Nanopore-Enabled Dark-Field Digital Sensing of Nanoparticles" 2023 Analytical Chemistry, 95 (35), pp.12993–12997. DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.3c02943.