Northwestern Home Page   Emilie Ringe



Welcome to my webpage!


Bio
I was born in Valleyfield, Qc, a small city on an island close to Montreal. The education system is in Quebec is different than that in the US, such that there is 2 years of CEGEP (similar to a community college) before College, where the B.S. only takes 3 years. Thus, after high school, I joined the science International Baccalaureat program, which prepared me for a chemistry B.S. education at McGill University. Between my junior and senior year at McGill, I took a year off to complete a 16 month internship at Merck in Kirkland (suburb of Montreal). I then transferred at Northwestern University to be with my husband, and completed a M.S. in inorganic chemistry with Prof. Jim Ibers. I joined the chemistry Ph.D. program at Northwestern in 2008. I am co-advised by Laurence Marks and Richard Van Duyne (chemistry). For more details, see my CV here

Research and Teaching Interests
I am interested in structure-property relationships in a broad sense of the term. During my masters I synthesized various uranium based inorganic structures and studied the effect of structure on conductivity and magnetic properties. Currently, in the Marks group, I study the effect of nanoparticle shape and size on their optical properties. More detail on this field called "nanoplasmonics" can be found on the nanoplasmonics page.
I am active in tutoring and mentoring activities at Northwestern. In 2007 and 2008, I have tutored students taking the intensive general chemistry classes over the summer. In 2009, I mentored a high school teacher coming in to do research for 8 weeks (RET program as part of the materials research science and engineering center--MRSEC--). I am part of the K-12 teaching program of MRSEC, which manages an after school science club at a middle school. I also teach to elementary school kids through SITC (Science in the classroom), a program managed by chemistry graduate students.
I recently started to help visually impaired people. A few months ago, seeing a blind runner inspired me, hence now I also guide blind runners, and read to them at "Blind Services Association", in Chicago.

Publications and presentations
"Partial Cu occupancy in uranium copper diantimonide, UCu0.60(4)Sb2"
E. Ringe & J. A. Ibers, Acta Crystallogr. Sect. C Cryst. Struct. Comm., 64, i76-i78 (2008).

"Structural, Electronic, and Magnetic Properties of UFeS3 and UFeSe3"
G. B. Jin, E. Ringe, G. J. Long, F. Grandjean, M. T. Sougrati, E. S. Choi, D. M. Wells, M. Balasubramanian., J. A. Ibers (Submitted, 2009)

"Structure, properties, and theoretical electronic structure of UCuOP and NpCuOP"
D. M. Wells, E. Ringe, D. Kaczorowski, G. Andre, D. E. Ellis and J. A. Ibers (In preparation, 2009)

"Structure determination and characterization of UCuOP, UCu0.6Sb2, and UFeSe3"
E. Ringe, D. M. Wells & J. A. Ibers, (poster) Undergraduate research symposium, Northwestern University (2008)

Sports and Training
When I am not working, I am training for endurance races. I started doing triathlons as a challenge between my dad and me in 2005. I really enjoyed this first experience, and trained for increasingly longer events each year. In 2008, I completed the half-ironman distance, which is 1 mile swim, 56 miles bike and 13 miles run. It seems a lot, but discipline and a good training plan really help (not that I say it was particularly easy). In 2009, I took a break from triathlons, and ran the Montreal marathon in September, and the lakefront 50K in October. In the future, I would like to finish an ironman, swim a very long distance (5-10 miles?), and run marathons in unusual places, like on the great wall of China or in the desert.
My husband and I windsurf on lake Michigan, which we really enjoy, although are not quite good at yet. Not many people know, but Northwestern has sailing and windsurfing facilities open to the general public. We also take advantage of the many parks and lakes around by kayaking and biking.

Travel


My husband and I are avid travelers, as you can see on my travel page.