Sophia E. Hayes is a professor of chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis. Her group is focused on improving the basic understanding of the structure and properties of different types of inorganic systems, including semiconductors and other optically and electronically active materials. Her research interests include optically-pumped NMR and optically-detected NMR; quadrupolar NMR of clusters and thin films; and carbon capture, utilization and sequestration. Hayes has spoken about the importance of harnessing technical innovation to mitigate climate change.
Hayes has taught and conducted research in chemistry at Washington University since 2001. Hayes earned her PhD. in chemistry at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Her research efforts have been recognized with an NSF CAREER Award (2003), an Alfred P Sloan Foundation Fellowship (2007), and the Regitze R Vold Memorial Prize in solid-state NMR (2009).
New collaborative research from the Department of Chemistry at Washington University in St. Louis, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, leveraged quantum chemistry approaches to develop additional data infrastructure for an isotope of silicon, 29Si.
Helium is a valuable, non-renewable resource that is critical for many medical and research applications. But helium supply and pricing are unreliable. Sophia Hayes, a professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, spoke at a recent American Chemical Society webinar about the need for congressional action to address these challenges.
Sophia Hayes, professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, served on a committee that prepared a report and launched a website about the shortage of liquid helium and how both the government and scientific researchers can respond.
Sophia Hayes, associate professor of chemistry in Arts & Sciences, was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, leaning toward an economics major when she stumbled into a quantum mechanics class and then a chemistry class with a collaborative research focus. Research projects were the hook, and “I crammed the chemistry major into my last two years,” Hayes says.
