Christopher L. Cahill
Christopher L. Cahill
Professor of Chemistry and International Affairs
Contact:
800 22nd St. NW
Washington DC 20052
Christopher Cahill was born in Huntington, NY and grew up on an apple orchard in nearby Fort Salonga. His education includes a BS in Geochemistry from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Fredonia (1993) and a PhD in Chemistry from SUNY-Stony Brook (1999). He joined the faculty of GW in 2000 after a one-year post-doctoral position in the Environmental Mineralogy group at the University of Notre Dame. He is an expert in solid-state and materials chemistry with a particular emphasis on X-ray crystallography. His synthesis expertise includes high temperature techniques, as well as hydrothermal systems that produce novel hybrid materials with relevance to the nuclear fuel cycle. He has published over 150 peer reviewed papers in a range of areas related to the synthesis and structural characterization of materials and minerals. Current research areas include exploring the behavior of uranium and transuranic species under environmentally relevant conditions, as well as the synthesis of lanthanide containing sensor materials. Chris is the first physical scientist at GW to hold a joint appointment in the Elliott School of International Affairs, where he develops and delivers technical curricula targeting non-technical nuclear policy professionals. He is a recipient of the prestigious NSF CAREER Award (2004), the Bender Teaching Award (2005), a Fulbright Scholarship (Cardiff University, UK; 2008) and the Trachtenberg Prize for Teaching (2013). He is a past President of The American Crystallographic Association (2014-2016), a member of the Cosmos Club and has held visiting researcher positions at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and Argonne National Laboratory. Chris spent a sabbatical (2015-2016) as the American Institute of Physics State Department Science Fellow at the US State Department’s Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism on the Nuclear Forensics Team. Back at GW, he was a member of the 17th Presidential Search Committee and for Spring 2018, he was the Acting Director of the Institute for International Science and Technology Policy. Chris is currently the Chair of the Chemistry Department. While serving as the Chair of the Chemistry Department he was elected to the 2021 class of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellows and the recipient of the 2023 Hillebrand Prize.
Hybrid materials, f-element chemistry, Nuclear fuel cycle, X-ray crystallography, and Luminescent materials
Hybrid materials such as coordination polymers and metal-organic frameworks find application in areas as diverse as gas storage, rad-waste immobilization, micro-electronics and catalysis. Those containing lanthanide (Ln) or actinide (An) compositions (aka the ‘f-elements’) are of particular importance to the nuclear fuel cycle and related environmental issues. Further, Ln elements see application in areas from medical imaging to magnetic materials and sensing devices. Synthetic routes for producing these materials often include soft-chemical or molecular design approaches. Soluble molecular precursors or even dense phase minerals provide the structural building units that are induced to assemble via covalent and non-covalent (e.g. hydrogen- and/or halogen- bonding) interactions. Investigation of the properties of these (and other) types of materials is closely related to an understanding of their crystal structures. As such, a major focus of our group is the X-ray structural characterization of large families of both novel and naturally occurring solid-state compounds to establish assembly criteria and structure-property relationships, with a particular emphasis on luminescence behavior.
Chem 1111: General Chemistry I
Chem 1112: General Chemistry II
Chem 4134: Descriptive Inorganic Chemistry
Chem 6235: Advanced Inorganic Chemistry
IAFF (International Affairs) 6118: The Science of Nuclear Materials
- Raghavan, A.; Cahill, C. L., Orbital Engineering Mediated by Cation Conjugation in Luminescent Uranyl-Organic Hybrid Materials. Angew. Chem. 2024, 136 (7), e202318161. http://dx.doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.202318161.
- Herder, J. A.; Kruse, S. J.; Nicholas, A. D.; Forbes, T. Z.; Walter, E. D.; Cho, H.; Cahill, C. L., Systematic Study of Solid-State U(VI) Photoreactivity: Long-Lived Radicalization and Electron Transfer in Uranyl Tetrachloride. Inorganic Chemistry 2024, 63 (11), 4957-4971. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.3c04144.
- Walusiak, B. W.; Raghavan, A.; Cahill, C. L., Bandgap modification in 0D tellurium iodide perovskite derivatives via incorporation of polyiodide species. RSC Advances 2023, 13 (20), 13477-13492. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/D3RA00996C.
- Surbella, R. G., III; Ducati, L. C.; Schofield, M. H.; McNamara, B. K.; Pellegrini, K. L.; Corbey, J. F.; Schwantes, J. M.; Autschbach, J.; Cahill, C. L. Plutonium Hybrid Materials: A Platform to Explore Assembly and Metal–Ligand Bonding. Inorganic Chemistry 2022, 61 (45), 17963-17971. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c02084
- D. M. Brager; A. D. Nicholas; M. H. Schofield; C. L. Cahill, Pb–Oxo Interactions in Uranyl Hybrid Materials: A Combined Experimental and Computational Analysis of Bonding and Spectroscopic Properties. Inorganic Chemistry 2021, 60 (22), 17186−17200. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.1c02518
Ph.D., SUNY-Stony Brook, 1999
- Christopher Cahill is the recipient of the 2024 Oscar and Shoshanna Trachtenberg Prize for Scholarship (Research). This award recognizing outstanding research accomplishments. The award is meant to honor faculty scholarship and demonstrate the George Washington University’s commitment to research and creative endeavors.
- Chemistry’s Cahill Elected AAAS Fellow. Christopher Cahill was honored among a distinguished class of scientists, engineers and innovators.
- Christopher L. Cahill was awarded the 2023 Hillebrand Prize in recognition of his contributions to the science of chemistry. The Chemical Society of Washington announced Professor Christopher L. Cahill as the winner of the 2023 Hillebrand Prize in recognition of illuminating research in condensed phase actinide chemistry and crystal engineering harnessing organic-actinide interactions, which inform efforts in environmental remediation, separations and nuclear forensics. Professor Cahill will be presenting at the upcoming CSW dinner meeting on March 14, 2024. You can read the story in GW Today
- Christopher Cahill Co-Leads $25 Million Consortium Research Project. The purpose of the consortium, according to the U.S. Energy Department, is to educate the next generation of nuclear forensic scientists and engineers.