Harry C. Dorn

Harry Dorn is an American chemist and a professor of chemistry at Virginia Tech, since 1974. He was a professor of Radiology at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine and a professor at Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute from 2012 to 2017.

Dorn's research interests are focused on fullerenes, fullertubes, metallofullerenes, nanoparticles, and chemistry. He is most known for his work in the development and applications of nuclear magnetic resonance, (NMR), dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP), and discovery and functionalization of carbonaceous nanomaterials.

Early life and education
Dorn received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry in 1966 from the University of California, Santa Barbara followed by a PhD in Chemistry from the University of California, Davis in 1974.

Career
Starting his academic career in 1974, Dorn worked at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, where he held various positions including assistant professor of Chemistry and Associate Professor of Chemistry, until 1985. From 2012 to 2017, he worked as professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion (now Fralin Biomedical) Research Institute. He was a professor at the Virginia Tech Carilion Research Institute from 2012 to 2017 and held concurrent appointments as a professor of radiology at the Virginia Tech School of Medicine and Chemistry at the Virginia Tech College of Science. Dorn was the Director of the Center for Self-Assembled Nanoscale Devices (CSAND) and the Director of the Carbonaceous Nanomaterials Center (CNC) from 2005 to 2010.

Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR) and dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)
Dorn's early research offers an approach for the direct monitoring of supercritical fluids and chromatographic separations using 1H nuclear magnetic resonance and provides details into how NMR-based direct monitoring enhances process efficiency through real-time information acquisition on composition changes during separation stages. His research has proposed the coupling of the hydrogen nuclear magnetic resonance detector to the liquid chromatographic unit for identifying and differentiating various components present in jet and diesel fuel samples, such as alkylbenzenes, alkanes, and substituted naphthalenes. Furthermore, his work established the superiority of this approach over conventional methods such as refractive index detectors (RI). His work highlighted the potential of combining LC-^1H NMR and GC-MS techniques for more precise analysis of volatile samples. Later studies were expanded to the related magnetic resonance phenomena, dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP) which can allow greater NMR sensitivity and a fundamental understanding of electron-nuclear molecular interactions.

Discovery and biomedical applications of carbonaceous nanoparticles
During the early 1990s, Dorn in collaboration with scientists at IBM, published the first bond length measurements and solid-state dynamics of the soccer ball-shaped fullerene C60. In 1999, he and Stevenson, with X-ray structure determination reported a new family of trimetallic nitride template (TNT) endohedral metallofullerenes EMFs, M3N@C80 (M = Group IIIB and lanthanide metal ions) with the M3N metal cluster encapsulated in a high symmetry icosahedral fullerene cage, C80. His early research demonstrated that a functionalized Gd EMF nanoparticle could potentially serve as an effective contrast agent for MRI scans and be used in drug delivery systems. While exploring ways to produce nanoparticles with surface-bound proteins, his research substantiated that the processing conditions greatly influenced the localization of the protein outside the nanoparticle, thereby emphasizing the need to carefully select the appropriate processing method and conditions to achieve the desired protein localization and maximize the efficacy targeting of the nanoparticles for drug delivery, vaccine development, and biomedical imaging. In collaboration with Li on the potential application of amine functionalized TNT Endohedral metallofullerenes in the treatment of lower back and leg pain, his work demonstrated that these particles possess analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties in both in vitro and model studies, precisely due to their ability to scavenge free radicals and modulate inflammatory pathways, thereby providing a potential therapeutic approach for managing lower leg and back pain. In a collaborative study with Steven Stevenson, Dorn discovered a new form of carbon that represents a marriage of fullerenes and single-walled nanotubes SWNTs called fullertubes. The structure of these soluble all carbon fullertubes have C60 hemispheres capped on the ends of SWNTs. As of February 2023, this paper has an altmetric score of all outputs from JACS of 96%.

Awards and honors

 * 1991 – IBM Research Award, IBM
 * 2010 – A.C. Lilly Faculty Fellow of Nanoscience, Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University

Selected articles

 * Hedberg, K., Hedberg, L., Bethune, D. S., Brown, C. A., Dorn, H. C., Johnson, R. D., & De Vries, M. (1991). Bond lengths in free molecules of buckminsterfullerene, C60, from gas-phase electron diffraction. Science, 254(5030), 410–412.
 * Johnson, R. D., Yannoni, C. S., Dorn, H. C., Salem, J. R., & Bethune, D. S. (1992). C60 rotation in the solid state: Dynamics of a faceted spherical top. Science, 255(5049), 1235–1238.
 * Stevenson, S., Rice, G., Glass, T., Harich, K., Cromer, F., Jordan, M. R., ... & Dorn, A. H. (1999). Small-bandgap endohedral metallofullerenes in high yield and purity. Nature, 401(6748), 55–57.
 * Stevenson, S., Fowler, P. W., Heine, T., Duchamp, J. C., Rice, G., Glass, T., ... & Dorn, H. C. (2000). A stable non-classical metallofullerene family. Nature, 408(6811), 427–428.
 * Olmstead, M. M., de Bettencourt-Dias, A., Duchamp, J. C., Stevenson, S., Marciu, D., Dorn, H. C., & Balch, A. L. (2001). Isolation and structural characterization of the endohedral fullerene Sc3 N@ C78. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, 40(7), 1223–1225
 * Zhang, J.; Stevenson, S.; Dorn, H.C. (2013) Trimetallic Nitride Endohedral Metallofullerenes: Discovery, Structural Characterization, Reactivity, and Applications. Accounts of Chemical Research, 46(7), 1548–1557.
 * Liu, X.; Bourret, E.; Noble, C. A.; Cover, K.; Koenig, R. M.; Huang, R.; Franklin, H. M.; Xu Feng, Bodnar, R. J.; Zhang, F.; Tao, C.; Sublett, M. D.; Dorn, H. C. Stevenson, S.; Gigantic C120 Fullertubes: Prediction and Experimental Evidence for Isomerically Purified Metallic [5, 5] C120-D5d and Nonmetallic [10,0] C120-D5h (10766). Journal of the American Chemical Society 144 (36), 16287-16291 (2022).
 * Bourret, E.; Liu, X.; Noble, C. A.; Cover, K.; Davidson, T. P.; Huang, R.; Koenig, R. M.; Reeves, K. S.; Vlassiouk, I. V.; Côté, M.; Baxter, J. S.; Lupini, A. R.; Geohegan, D. B.; Dorn, H. C.; Stevenson, S.; Colossal C130 Fullertubes: Soluble [5,5] C130-D5h(1) Pristine Molecules with 70 Nanotube Carbons and Two 30-Atom Hemifullerene End-Caps. Journal of the American Chemical Society 145 (48), 25942–25947 (2023).