Rebecca A. Peebles, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor -
Physical Chemistry
B.A., Oberlin
College, 1996
Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2000
EIU, 2001
Courses Taught
CHM 1040 - The World of Chemistry
CHM 1310 - General Chemistry I
CHM 1315 - General Chemistry Laboratory I
CHM 1390 - Honors General Chemistry I
CHM 1395 - Honors General Chemistry I Laboratory
CHM 1490 - Honors General Chemistry II Lecture
CHM 2040 - Practical Chemistry
CHM 3910 - Chemical Thermodynamics & Kinetics
CHM 3915 - Physical Chemistry Laboratory
Click here for Dr. Peebles' personal page
Research Interests
I am interested in several different types of spectroscopy. My doctoral research focused on microwave spectroscopy of weakly bound dimers and trimers, an area that I have been able to pursue at EIU in collaboration with Dr. Sean Peebles's group. Other interests involve the use of vibrational spectroscopy to investigate various environmental problems. Cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) is a relatively new and very sensitive spectroscopic technique which is extremely versatile. Its high sensitivity allows the study of species in very low concentrations and also makes the observation of very weak spectroscopic transitions possible.
A cavity ring-down spectrometer is currently being constructed at EIU and when it is complete it will be used to investigate weak interactions between chemicals that are present in the atmosphere (SO2, NOx, CO2, H2O, etc.). I am also studying these species by ab initio and semi-empirical computational techniques in order to gain a better understanding of the molecular interactions before beginning on spectroscopic investigations.
