Draft:Clemens Burda

Clemens Burda is a German-American Nanomaterials Chemist. He is currently the Chemical Professor at Case Western Reserve University. Prof. Burda is known for the development of nanomaterials and their laser spectroscopic investigation. He co-developed the plasmonic semiconductor quantum dots, nitrogen-doped titania nanoparticles, and targeted nanoparticle delivery systems to fight cancer drugs. Dr. Burda is also the co-author of the Third Edition of a Monograph and Textbook entitled "Modern Optical Spectroscopy".

Early life
Clemens Burda was born in Germany and spent all of his school years in Weil am Rhein.

He graduated from high school (Kant Gymnasium Weil am Rhein) in 1988. He credits his high school years and the excellent science teachers who inspired him to pursue science in depth. He also enjoyed painting and photography as a pupil and became fascinated by the composition of pigments and dyes and how they interact with light to produce their various colors. After completing the, back-then mandatory, military service from 1988 to 1989, he decided to study chemistry.

Higher education
Burda received a Diploma in Chemistry from the University of Basel in 1994. His undergraduate thesis was performed under Prof. Fabian Gerson in EPR and ENDOR spectroscopy of radical anions of azulene derivatives. This topic got Burda interested in Physical Chemistry and in Spectroscopy in particular. He stayed at the institute for his PhD studies, which he completed in 1997 under Prof. Jakob Wirz with a topic on "Picosecond Intramolecular Electron Transfer Reactions".

During an IUPAC Conference on Photochemistry in 1996 he was introduced by his PhD advisor J. Wirz to the legendary Prof. Mostafa El-Sayed who was a featured speaker at that meeting. They quickly agreed to aim for future collaboration.

After defending his PhD thesis, Burda joined the following year (1997) the El-Sayed lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He changed his topic from organic molecular photochemistry to the spectroscopy of nanoparticles and quantum dots. During his time with Prof. El-Sayed, Burda studied and learned the synthesis and properties of quantum materials. A topic that is central to his research throughout his career. Burda stayed at Georgia Tech from 1997 to 2001.

Career
In 2001 Burda started as an Assistant Professor at Case Western Reserve University.

He was tenured in 2006 and became a full professor in 2011. In 2014 he became the Chair of the Chemical Professorship in the College of Arts and Science at CWRU.

Since his arrival at CWRU in 2001, Burda has been focusing on the development of novel nanomaterials and providing new nanotechnology platform technologies for future energy harvesting, energy storage, heterogeneous catalysis, environmental remediation, and biomedical applications such as imaging and curing cancers.

In addition, his research in fundamental spectroscopy of molecules and nanomaterials continues and has recently culminated in the co-authorship of a textbook in "Modern Optical Spectroscopy", a book for upper-undergraduate and graduate students. That third edition was published in Spring 2023.

Research accomplishments
10 most influential paper published by Dr. Clemens Burda are


 * 1) Metal oxide nanoparticles doped with non-metals (C, N, S, F, etc.):  “Enhanced Nitrogen Doping in TiO2 Nanoparticles”  By: Burda, Clemens*; Lou, Yongbing; Chen, Xiaobo; Samia, Anna C. S.; Stout, John; Gole, James L.; Nano Letters (2003), 3(8), 1049-1051
 * 2) Twenty nm wide semiconductor nanorods with alternating phase structure through sono-electrochemistry:   “PbTe Nanorods via Sonoelectrochemistry.”   By: Qiu, X.; Lou, Y.; Samia, A.C.S.; Anandos, H.; Burgess, J.; Dayal, S.; Burda, Clemens*; Angew. Chem. Intl. Ed., (2005), 44(36), 5855-5857.
 * 3) IV-injected gold nanoparticle delivery into a mouse tumor in under 1 minute:  “Highly Efficient Drug Delivery with Gold Nanoparticle Vectors for in Vivo Photodynamic Therapy of Cancer”; By:Cheng, Yu; Samia, Anna C.; Meyers, Joseph D.; Panagopoulos, Irene; Fei, Baowei; Burda, Clemens*; Journal of the American Chemical Society (2008), 130(32), 10643-10647
 * 4) Wireless photoactivation of brain circuits using quantum dots:  “Wireless activation of neurons in brain slices using nanostructured semiconductor photoelectrodes.”; Zhao, Y.; Larimer, P.; Pressler, R. T.; Strowbridge, B. W.*; Burda, Clemens*; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2009), 48(13), 2407-2410.  (Selected as “Hot Paper”)
 * 5) Plasmonic semiconductor NPs. Since development of semiconductor plamonics:   “Plasmonic Cu2-xS Nanocrystals: Optical and Structural Properties of Copper-Deficient Copper(I) Sulfides”; Zhao, Yixin; Pan, Hongcheng; Lou, Yongbing; Qiu, Xiaofeng; Zhu, JunJie; Burda, Clemens*; Journal of the American Chemical Society (2009), 131(12), 4253-4261
 * 6) Review that caught broad attention in the Nanoscience Community with over 6449 citations:  “Chemistry and Properties of Nanocrystals of Different Shapes”; Burda, Clemens*; Chen, Xiaobo; Narayanan, Radha; El-Sayed, Mostafa A.; Chemical Reviews (Washington, DC, United States) (2005), 105(4), 1025-1102
 * 7) The explanation of the visible-light coloring of doped titania:   “The Electronic Origin of the Visible-Light Absorption Properties of C-, N- and S-Doped TiO2 Nanomaterials”; Chen, Xiaobo; Burda, Clemens*; Journal of the American Chemical Society (2008), 130(15), 5018-5019
 * 8) Development of semiconductor nanoparticles for biomedicine:  “Semiconductor quantum dots for photodynamic therapy”; Samia, Anna C. S.; Chen, Xiaobo; Burda, Clemens*;Journal of the American Chemical Society (2003), 125(51), 15736-15737
 * 9) Laser spectroscopy for future energy materials:  “Femtosecond Time-Resolved Transient Absorption Spectroscopy of CH3NH3PbI3 Perovskite Films: Evidence for Passivation Effect of PbI2”; Wang, Lili; McCleese, Christopher; Kovalsky, Anton; Zhao, Yixin; Burda, Clemens*;Journal of the American Chemical Society (2014), 136(35), 12205-12208
 * 10) A modern monograph/textbook for Optical Spectroscopy:  "Modern Optical Spectroscopy: From Fundamentals to Applications in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Biophysics"; 662 pp., William W. Parson and Clemens Burda [authors], Springer, Feb 28, 2023.

Awards and honors
Professor Burda has been honored as a 2023 AAAS Fellow for his exceptional contributions to experimental physical chemistry, specifically in the investigation of the rapid dynamics of semiconductor nanoparticles.

Personal life
Clemens Burda is married to a chemistry professor affiliated with the Department of Chemistry at Case Western Reserve University. They have a son together.