In August 2024, Dr. Caleb Thompson joined our department as an assistant teaching professor in chemistry. Caleb will be teaching general chemistry and physical chemistry courses, spending time discussing his favorite concepts and ways of thinking with new and interesting people (the students!).
Caleb earned his Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the University of Chicago in August 2024. Caleb’s Ph.D. work was done in the laboratory of Professor Steve Sibener. He published papers studying atomic-scale structure, vibrational dynamics, and electron-phonon coupling of niobium surfaces and their oxides. Niobium is the current material of choice for superconducting radio frequency cavities in high-energy particle accelerators around the world. Caleb’s experimental measurements correlated atomic-scale surface structure with electron-phonon coupling, allowing him to connect fundamental surface structure studies to niobium superconducting performance metrics.
Caleb believes teaching is a worthy and undervalued craft. Caleb is looking forward to growing as a teacher and chemist at ISU, as well as joining a robust department of excellent teaching and research faculty/ staff.
His free time is spent working on his hobby video game (2D pixel art, fantasy action rpg, made in Unity game engine with C#), playing video games (right now: Dark Souls 2/3 and Baldur’s Gate 3), listening to audio books (right now: The Wheel of Time book series and The Expanse book series), drawing, and hanging out with friends.
