William B. Connick

Biography

Bill Connick is a Professor of Chemistry at the University of Cincinnati and Director of the Center for Biosensors & Chemical Sensors. He is a physical-inorganic chemist with research interests in inorganic photochemistry, catalysis, chemical sensing, radiochemistry, and nuclear forensics. After earning his B.A. degree from Williams College in 1988, he studied for two years at the University of Cambridge where he obtained a M.A. degree in chemistry. In 1997, he earned his Ph.D. degree at the California Institute of Technology with Professor Harry Gray investigating the spectroscopy, photophysics, and photochemistry of platinum(II) diimine complexes. He subsequently took a postdoctoral appointment in the laboratory of Professor Rich Eisenberg at the University of Rochester, where he synthesized and characterized metal complexes for catalyzing light-to-chemical energy conversion reactions. In 1998, he joined the faculty at the University of Cincinnati. He studies light-to-chemical energy conversion, develops new materials for chemical sensing and works with a collaborative team on the development of methods for identifying the origin of nuclear materials. He has received a Beckman Young Investigator Award (2001-2004) from the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation and a National Science Foundation CAREER Award (2002-2007) for his research focused on cooperative two-electron transfer reactions. He was named an IUPAC Young Observer in 2009, the Cincinnati Section of the American Chemical Society Chemist of the Year in 2014, and Visiting Scholar at the Université de Bordeaux in 2015. Bill also heads up the Sensors Leadership Group at UC which works to bring >200 sensor users, sensor developers, users of sensor data, and other experts together in order to leverage our community's broad expertise, build partnerships, and solve important scientific and technological challenges.

Research Interest

Inorganic photochemistry, catalysis, chemical sensing, radiochemistry, and nuclear forensics.