Zeb Kramer, Ph.D.

Zeb Kramer has been teaching physical and general chemistry at La Salle’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry since 2015.  Dr. Kramer’s research interests span a range of topics in chemical dynamics and kinetics with an emphasis on interpreting reaction mechanisms in the language of theoretical classical and quantum dynamics.  The main focus of Dr. Kramer’s research involves studying classes of non-statistical chemical reactions not readily amenable to study by statistical reaction rate theories.  Dr. Kramer is also interested in the kinetics of complex chemical processes relevant to combustion and atmospheric chemistry.  A typical student project in Dr. Kramer’s lab focuses on computational or theoretical chemistry with an emphasis on chemical dynamics simulations and electronic structure calculations.

Dr. Kramer received his undergraduate degree from Washburn University in Topeka, Kansas.  He received his Ph.D. in chemical physics from the University of Colorado-Boulder in the area of theoretical chemical reaction dynamics. He performed post-doctoral work at Cornell University studying non-statistical reactions before coming to La Salle University as an assistant professor.

Education

• Postdoctoral, Cornell University
• PhD, Chemical Physics, University of Colorado-Boulder
• BS, Chemistry, Mathematics, & Physics, Washburn University

Representative Publications

Zeb C. Kramer, Barry K. Carpenter, Gregory S. Ezra, and Stephen Wiggins, A Reaction Bifurcation in an Electrocyclic Reaction: The Ring-Opening of the Cyclopropyl Radical, Journal of Physical Chemistry A, 2015, 119, 6611-6630.

Peter Collins, Zeb C. Kramer, Barry K. Carpenter, Gregory S. Ezra, and Stephen Wiggins, Nonstatistical Dynamics on the Caldera, Journal of Chemical Physics, 2014, 141, 034111.

Zeb C. Kramer and Rex T. Skodje, A Semiclassical Adiabatic Calculation of State Densities for Molecules Exhibiting Torsion:  Application to Hydrogen Peroxide and its Isotopomers, Theoretical Chemistry Accounts, 2014, 133, 1530.

Zeb C. Kramer, Xiang-Kui Gu, Dingyu D. Y. Zhou, Wei-Xue Li, and Rex T. Skodje, Following Molecules through Reactive Networks: Surface Catalyzed Decomposition of Methanol on Pd(111), Pt(111), and Ni(111), Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2014, 118, 12364-12383.

Teaching

• Quantum Chemistry & Spectroscopy
• Thermodynamics & Kinetics
• General Chemistry I and II (Lecture and Lab)

Areas of Expertise

• Chemical Reaction Dynamics
• Theoretical Chemistry
• Physical Chemistry