Contact Information

• jrech@unca.edu
• 232-5168
• 107 Zeis Hall

Courses Taught

• CHEM 111 General Chemistry Laboratory
• CHEM 231 Organic Chemistry I

Education

• Postdoc in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University (CA)
• Ph.D. in Chemistry (Polymer/Materials) from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (NC)
• B.S. in Chemical Physics from Lewis University (Romeoville, IL)

About Me

I am originally from Northwest Indiana and would go to college just over the border in Illinois as Lewis University. As an undergraduate, I was not interested in chemistry, instead was a theology major thinking about a future in either religion or history. When I learned what research was, I fell in love with chemistry, especially my first type of research projects which focused on designing water filters. I wanted to continue my education and moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for my Ph.D. My focus in graduate school was to design low cost, semi-transparent, and high efficiency polymers for use in organic photovoltaics (solar cells). Integrating this into practice, I  collaborated on projects which incorporated these semi-transparent solar panels with greenhouses to help boost crop (like tomatoes and lettuce) yield and create an off the grid greenhouse, where the solar panel provides the electricity load for heating, cooling, and hydroponics. In a similar theme through the Intelligence Community Postdoctoral Research Fellowship Program, I moved to Stanford University in Prof. Zhenan Bao’s lab to design conjugated polymers which can dynamically tune the absorption of specific wavelengths of light outside the visible light range. An example of this application can be with smart windows which control the amount of heat which enters your house and drastically cut your heating and cooling costs without interfering with the transparent nature of your windows. My research success led to being honored by Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 list for best young scientists in the country.

Research Interests

I am a synthetic organic chemist who focuses on chemistry enabled materials discovery – using organic synthesis to understand and control the properties of polymers for specific applications. I am starting a new research lab here at UNC-Asheville which will focus on making low cost, scalable, and recyclable polymers for a variety of electronic applications, primarily solar panels. More details and website coming soon!

Publications

See Google Scholar.