Chemistry Professor Honored with Hettleman Award

Chemistry Professor James Cahoon was one of four recipients awarded the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty.
Chemistry Professor James Cahoon was one of four recipients awarded the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty.

Four highly promising Carolina faculty members in diverse fields have been awarded the Philip and Ruth Hettleman Prizes for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement by Young Faculty. Among the recipients was James Cahoon, associate professor in the Department of Chemistry.

Cahoon’s research team seeks to understand and control the physical properties of semiconductor nanomaterials through chemical synthesis.

His approach combines material synthesis with physical measurements and in-house computational modeling to explore the fundamental limits of size, composition and morphology that can be chemically encoded in a nanostructure.

The Cahoon group’s unique blend of fundamental and applied research has delivered a wealth of findings that have propelled the field of nanomaterial fabrication. The materials being developed have applications in solar and thermal energy, electronics and photonics.

Cahoon is also Carolina’s co-principal investigator on a $5.5 million grant to establish the Research Triangle Nanotechnology Network Research (RTNN), a collaboration between N.C. State University, Duke University and Carolina. The RTNN leverages the capabilities of the Chapel Hill Analytical and Nanofabrication Lab, an on-campus user facility for nanomaking and measuring.

Jeffrey Johnson, chair of the chemistry department at Carolina, said Cahoon’s research program combines three key areas – synthesis, measurement and modeling – to develop new materials for a range of technologies from solar fuels to solid-state memory.

“By housing these capabilities all under one roof, Jim’s research program can develop complex methods and capabilities, bringing together diverse topics that would normally be outside the scope of a single program,” Johnson said.

Cahoon received his bachelor of science degree in chemistry and philosophy from The College of William & Mary in 2003, and doctorate from the University of California, Berkeley in 2008. He completed a two-year postdoc at Harvard University with Charles Lieber before joining the Carolina faculty in 2011.

Read more about the other three award recipients here.

Story by the University Gazette