Forbes Research Group

Department of Chemistry, University of Iowa

Developing novel nanomaterials that provide an enhanced understanding of basic actinide chemistry and the mobility of nuclear materials in environmental systems.

Welcome to the Forbes Research Group!

Recent News:

05/11/2023  Congratulations to Dr. Dmytro Kravchuk for winning the UI Department of Chemistry Lynn Anderson Award!  This award is given to one graduating PhD student from the Department of Chemistry every year and recognizes productivity, creativity, and collaborative efforts in the research laboratory.

05/02/2023  Big congratulations to Haley Lightfoot for winning the Leeper Senior Chemistry Alumni Award and the Russell K. Smimms Scholarship and Ferris Bissen for winning the ACS Division of Inorganic Chemistry Award! Well deserved!

05/01/2023  Congrats to Harindu Rajapaksha, Vidumini Samarasiri, Sarah Scherrer, and Grant Benthin for all passing their comprehensive exam this spring.  Nice job everyone!

04/12/2023 Congrats to Dr. Logan Augustine for successfully defending his Ph.D.!  

04/11/2023 A new Forbes group Dr!  Congrats to Dr. Dmytro Kravchuk for successfully defending his Ph.D!!!

03/31/2023 New publication with the Mason group and Theory Division at LANL:  L. J. Augustine, J. M. Kasper, T. Z. Forbes, S. E. Mason, E. R. Batista, P. Yang "Influencing Bonding Interactions of the Neptunyl (V, VI) Cations with Electron-Donating and -Withdrawing Groups." https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c04538

03/02/2023 New publication with the MacGillivray group: S. J. Kruse, L. C. MacGillivray, and T. Z. Forbes "Effects of Gamma Radiation on Single- and Multicomponent Organic Crystalline Materials." https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.cgd.2c01504

03/01/2023 New publication with the Mason group:  L. J. Augustine, M. M. F. Pyrch, D. V. Karvchuk, J. M. Williams, S. E. Mason, T. Z. Forbes "Density Functional Theory Guided Investigations of LIgand-Induced Neptunyl-Neptunyl Interactions."  https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.202200693

02/14/2023 New publication:  T. H. L Jahinge, D. K. Unruh, and T. Z. Forbes "Teterometallic uranyl (hydroyethyl)iminodiacetic acid (heidi) complexes:  Molecular models for complex speciation."  https://doi.org/10.1002/ejic.202200791

12/21/2022 Welcoming new graduate students tot he group!  Emma Markum, Nicole Shapiro (co-advised with Dave Cwierty) and Ecem Celik (co-advised with Korey Carter)!

12/20/2022 New publication with the Mason group:  L. J. Augustine, H. Rajapaksha, M.M. F. Pyrch, M. Kasperski, T. Z. Forbes, and Sara E. Mason "Periodic Density Functional Theory calculations of uranyl tetrachloride compounds engaged in uranyl-cation and uranyl-hydrogen interactions:  Electronic structure, vibrational, and thermodynamic analyses." https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c03476

12/16/2022 New publication with the Cerrato group: I. Meza, J. Gonzalez-Estrella, P. C. Burns, V. Rodriguez, C. A. Velasco, G. E. Sigmon, J. E. S. Szymanowski, T. Z. Forbes, L. M. Applegate, A.-M S. Ali, P. Lichtner, and J. M. Cerrato. "Solubility and thermodynamic investigation of meta-autunite group uranyl arsenate solids with monovalent cations Na and K. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.2c06648

11/07/2022 New publication with the Leddy group:  L. C. Applegate, V. S. Samarasiri, J. Leddy, and T. Z. Forbes "Impacts of surface adsorption on the water uptake within a metal organic nanotube material." https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.2c01124

11/03/2022 New publication with the Cwiertny group: M. E. Carolan, R.J. Langel, D. May, A. DeSalvo, H. E. gonzalez-Ribot, A. J. Mattson, M. D. Schueller, D. A. Thompson, D. M. Cwiertny, T. Z. Forbes "Survey of 226Ra/228Ra and inorganic constituents in Iowa private drinking water wells.  https://doi.org/10.1002/aws2.1311

10/22/2022 Congrats to all the Forbes grad students who presented at the Midwest ACS meeting in Iowa City.  You all did great!

10/21/2022 Tori receives the University of Iowa Collegiate Scholar Award https://chem.uiowa.edu/news/forbes-receives-collegiate-scholar-award

10/17/2022 Excited to work with Dr. Sara Mason on the newly funded DOE grant on carbon capture! https://chem.uiowa.edu/news/forbes-and-mason-awarded-funds-for-chemical-and-materials-science-advance-clean-energy

09/13/2022 New publication:  M.M.F. Pyrch, J. L. Bjorklund, J. M. Williams, M. Kasperski, S. E. Mason "Investigations of the cobalt hexamine uranyl carbonate system:  Understanding the influence of charge and hydrogen bonding on the modification of vibrational modes in uranyl compounds." https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.inorgchem.2c01982

08/29/2022 It's official!  Tori was promoted to Full Professor in the Department of Chemistry.  https://chem.uiowa.edu/news/tori-forbes-promoted-professor

08/17/2022 New publication with the Cerrato group: N. Shaikh, J. Qian, S. Kim, H. Phan, J. S. Lezama-Pacheco, A.-M. S. Ali, D. M. Cwiertny, T. Z. Forbes, A. J. Haes, J. M. Cerrato "U(VI) binding onto electrospun polymers functionalized with phsophonate surfactants." https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jece.2022.108448

07/01/2022 New publication: M Shohel,J. A. Smith, and T. Z. Forbes. "Cr3+ incorporation in to an Al3+ Keggin-type oligomer to form the Al25.7Cr6.3S216+ polycation" https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inoche.2022.109519

06/17/2022 New publication: M Shohel, K.K. Ray, A. V. Tivanski, N. E. B. McAdams, A. M. Bancroft, B. D. Cramer, and T. Z. Forbes. "Nanomechanical variability in the early evolution of vertebrate dentition."  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-14157-2

05/13/2022 Congrats to Mikaela Pyrch and Lindsey Applegate in their Ph.D. graduation!  Mikaela is off to UC Berkeley and Lindsey will be an assistant professor at Webster University in Fall 2022!

05/04/2022 Congrats to Mikaela Pyrch for receiving the Lynn Anderson award for best Ph.D. dissertation in the Department of Chemistry!

05/3/2022  Huge congrats to Mikaela for receiving the MPS-Ascend NSF Postdoc Fellowship!!!! https://chem.uiowa.edu/news/mikaela-pyrch-receives-nsf-postdoctoral-research-fellowship

03/22/2022 Congrats to Samatha for receiving an NSF GRFP!! https://chem.uiowa.edu/news/ui-chemistry-students-recognized-the-2022-nsf-graduate-research-fellowship-program

03/22/2022 Congrats to Samatha for receiving the University of Iowa Graduate College summer fellowship and post-comprehensive research fellowship!!

03/22/2022 Congrats to Haley Lightfoot for being selected for the ACS Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry Summer School and to Nick Dahlen for making his decision to join the graduate program at MSU next fall!!  Also big win for Maguire Kasperski for getting his dream job doing glacier tours in Alaska ths summer.

03/18/2022 Huge congrats to Dmytro for winning the University of Iowa Graduate Research Excellence Award!!! 

03/14/2022 New publication:  D. V. Kravchuk and T. Z. Forbes "Mechanochemical activation and oxidation of U(IV)O2" https://doi.org/10.1039/D2CC00242F 

03/14/2022 Tori has official started as the Director of the University of Iowa MATFab facility.

03/11/2022 Congrats to Dmytro for being selected for the G. T. Seaborg Institute Graduate Research Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory!

02/28/2022 New publication:  M.M. F. Pyrch, L. J. Augustine, J. A. Williams, S. E. Mason, T. Z. Forbes "Use of vibrational spectroscopy to identify the formation of neptunyl–neptunyl interactions: a paired density functional theory and Raman spectroscopy study" https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/dt/d2dt00200k/unauth

01/14/2022 New publication:  D.V. Kravchuk and T.Z. Forbes, "Mechanochemical synthesis of crystalline U(vi) triperoxide solids" https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlelanding/2022/CE/D1CE01479J

01/01/2022 - Welcome to our new graduate students Grant Benthin, Harindu Rajapaksha, Vidumini Samarasiri, and Sarah Scherrer!

 

 

  • Exploring uranyl citrate complexes using Raman spectroscopy (Basile et al., 2015)

    Exploring uranyl citrate complexes using Raman spectroscopy (Basile et al., 2015)

  • Np(VI) oxidation state stabilized in the presence of functionalized crown ether (Pyrch et al., 2019).

    Np(VI) oxidation state stabilized in the presence of functionalized crown ether (Pyrch et al., 2019).

  • Crystallization of Np(V) tetrachlorides over Np (VI) species occurs with charge assisted hydrogen bonding (Pyrch et al., 2020)

    Crystallization of Np(V) tetrachlorides over Np (VI) species occurs with charge assisted hydrogen bonding (Pyrch et al., 2020)

  • Water exhibits unique and unexpected behavioral and structural changes under nanoscale confinement (Applegate and Forbes, 2020)

    Water exhibits unique and unexpected behavioral and structural changes under nanoscale confinement (Applegate and Forbes, 2020)

  • Interactions between H-donors and U(VI) and Np(V) oxo groups impact the thermal expansion properties. (Payne et al. 2018)

    Interactions between H-donors and U(VI) and Np(V) oxo groups impact the thermal expansion properties. (Payne et al. 2018)

  • If you are interested in conducting graduate work in actinide chemistry, contact Dr. Forbes

    If you are interested in conducting graduate work in actinide chemistry, contact Dr. Forbes

  • Autoxidation of benzaldehyde in presence of U(VI) affords the in-situ generation of peroxide (Kravchuk and Forbes, 2019)

    Autoxidation of benzaldehyde in presence of U(VI) affords the in-situ generation of peroxide (Kravchuk and Forbes, 2019)

  • Undergraduate researchers work with Graduate mentors to synthesize new materials

    Undergraduate researchers work with Graduate mentors to synthesize new materials

  • If you are interested in undergraduate research, contact Dr. Forbes

    If you are interested in undergraduate research, contact Dr. Forbes

  • Uranium metal-organic nanotube contains confined water molecules in a hexagonal array. (Unruh et. al. 2013)

    Uranium metal-organic nanotube contains confined water molecules in a hexagonal array. (Unruh et. al. 2013)