Louisa Hope-Weeks' headshot

Louisa Hope-Weeks, Ph.D.

Dean, College of Science

Summary

Louisa Hope-Weeks, Ph.D. is the Dean of the College of Science. Prior to joining the University of Nevada, Reno, she served as the Associate Dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Fellowships at Texas Tech University.

Research interests

  • Synthesis and characterization of...
    • Improvised peroxide based energetic materials
      • This work looks to investigate new methods for the synthesis of triacetone triperoxide and related materials.
    • Organometallic tetrazole and triazole based energetic materials
      • The scope of this work is to form novel energetic materials that exhibit properties that can be controlled by changing the metal and ligands in the coordination sphere. The ability to modify the structure will allow energetic materials with reduced sensitivity to shock and temperature to be synthesized.
    • Aerogel materials
      • The goal of this work is to synthesize a diverse range of composite transition metal oxide, sulfide, and organic polymeric aerogels. These materials depending on their composition will be evaluated for their catalytic, super-capacitive, energetic, and general material properties.

Education

  • Postdoctoral, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 2001-2002
  • Ph.D. in Chemistry, Cambridge University, 2000
  • B.S. in Chemistry, University of Hertfordshire, 1997

Selected publications

  • Zhu, LJ. Hope-Weeks, Y. Yu, JJ. Yuan, XK. Zhang, HJ. Yu, JJ. Liu, XF. Li, XH. Zeng, Effect of concentration of glycidol on the properties of resorcinol-formaldehyde aerogels and carbon aerogels. RSC Advances, 12, 31, 20191-20198 (2022)
  • Zhu, LJ. Hope-Weeks, R. Baghi, VR. Charles, Y. Yu, LW. Zhu, XH. Wang, DB. Li, XH. Zeng, Enhanced compressive strength of carbon aerogels with low density and high specific surface areas. Journal of Porous Materials, 29, 4, 1279-1285 (2022)
  • Ardon-Dryer, J. Warzywoda, R. Tekin, J. Biros, S. Almodovar, BL. Weeks, LJ. Hope-Weeks, A Sacco, Mask Material Filtration Efficiency and Mask Fitting at the Crossroads: Implications during Pandemic Times. Aerosol and Air Quality Research, 21, 7, 200571 (2021)
  • Fondren, ZT. Fondren, DK. Unruh, A. Maiti, A. Cozzolino, YJ. Lee, L. Hope-Weeks, BL. Weeks, Study of Physicochemical and Explosive Properties of a 2,4,6-Trinitrotoluene/Aniline Cocrystal Solvate. Crystal Growth & Design, 20, 1, 116-129 (2020)
  • Zhu, LJ. Hope-Weeks, D. Ramirez, R. Baghi, VR. Charles, Y. He, Controllable decomposition of lanthanum oxychloride through different annealing conditions. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 800, 29-40, (2019)
  • Li, R. Baghi, J. Filip, S. Islam, L. Hope-Weeks, W. Yan, Activation of Peroxydisulfate by Ferrite Materials for Phenol Degradation. ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering 7, 9, 8099-8108, (2019)
  • Baghi, K. Zhang, S. Wang, LJ. Hope-Weeks, Conductivity tuning of the ITO sol-gel materials by adjusting the tin oxide concentration, morphology and the crystalline size. Microporous and Mesoporous Materials, 244, 258-263, (2017)
  • UaCearnaigh, R. Baghi, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Sol–gel synthesis of a series of first row d-block ferrites viathe epoxide addition method. RSC Advances, 6, 48212-48221 (2016)
  • Hung-Low, DA. Ramirez, GR. Peterson, WM. Hikal, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Development of a carbon-supported Sn–SnO2 photocatalyst by a new hybridized sol–gel/dextran approach. RSC Advances, 6, 21019-21025 (2016)
  • Yue, F. Hung-Low, LJ. Hope-Weeks, and W. Yan, Fe/Al binary oxide aerogels and xerogels for catalytic oxidation of aqueous contaminants. Separation and Purification Technology,156, 1035-1040 (2015)
  • Wang, S Su, J. Wei, R. Bahgi, LJ. Hope-Weeks, J. Qiu, and S. Wang, Ratio-metric sensor to detect riboflavin via fluorescence resonance energy transfer with ultrahigh sensitivity. Physica E: Low-dimensional Systems and Nanostructures,72, 17–24 (2015)
  • Son, G. Arora, JD. Crawford, EK. Lee, LJ. Hope-Weeks, K.Surowiec, and RA. Bartsch, New 5,17-(di-ionizable)-25,26,27,28-tetraalkoxycalix[4]arene ligands: synthesis and selected divalent metal ion extractions. Journal of Inclusion Phenomena and Macrocyclic Chemistry, 81 (3-4), 451-464 (2015)
  • Zhang, KS. Ziemer, K. Zhang D. Ramirez, L. Li, S. Wang, LJ. Hope-Weeks, and BL. Weeks, Large-Area Preparation of High-Quality and Uniform Three-Dimensional Graphene Networks through Thermal Degradation of Graphene Oxide-Nitrocellulose Composites. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 7(2), 1057–1064 (2015)
  • S. Sohal, M. Nazari, X. Zhang, E. Hassanzadeh, VV. Kuryatkov, J. Chaudhuri, LJ. Hope-Weeks, JY. Huang, and M. Holtz, Effect of Tb3+ concentration on the optical and vibrational properties of YBO3 microstructures tri-doped with Ce3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+. Journal of Applied Physics, 15 (18), 183505 (2014)
  • JF. Wang, W. Wages, SY. YU, JD. Maul, G. Mayer, LJ. Hope-Weeks and GP. Cobb, Bioaccumulation of Fullerene (C-60) and Corresponding Catalase Elevation in Lumbriculus Variegatus. Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 33 (5), 1135-1141 (2014)
  • GR. Peterson, WP. Bassett, F. Hung-Low, C. Gümeci, C. Korzeniewski and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Preparation-Morphology-Performance Relationships in Cobalt Aerogels as Supercapacitors. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 6 (3), 1796-1803 (2014)
  • RM. Allaf and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Synthesis of ZnO-CuO Nanocomposite Aerogels by the Sol-Gel Route. Journal of Nanomaterials, 491817 (2014)
  • M. Davis, DA. Ramirez, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Formation of Three-Dimensional Ordered Hierarchically Porous Metal Oxides via a Hybridized Epoxide Assisted/Colloidal Crystal Templating Approach. ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, 5 (16), 7786-7792 (2013)
  • GR. Peterson, R. Baghi, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Thermal tuning of advanced Cu sol-gels for mixed oxidation state Cu/CuxOy materials. Journal of Materials Chemistry A, 1 (36), 10898-10902, (2013)
  • GR. Peterson, WP. Bassett, BL. Weeks, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Phase Pure Triacetone Triperoxide: The Influence of Ionic Strength, Oxidant Source, and Acid Catalyst. Crystal Growth & Design,13 (6), 2307-2311, (2013)
  • M. Davis, F. Hung-Low, WM. Hikal, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Enhanced photocatalytic performance of Fe-doped SnO2 nanoarchitectures under UV irradiation. Journal of Materials Science, 48 (18), 6404-6409 (2013)
  • F. Hung-Low, GR. Peterson, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Controllable thermal degradation of 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) by absorption and confinement into mixed metal sponges. Journal of Thermal Analysis and Calorimetry, 113 (2), 475-480 (2013)
  • F. Hung-Low, GR. Peterson, M. Davis, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Rapid preparation of high surface area iron oxide and alumina nanoclusters through a soft templating approach of sol-gel precursors. New Journal of Chemistry, 37 (1), 245-249 (2013)
  • H. Suh, DJ. Casadonte, L. Hope-Weeks, HJ. Kim, B. Kim, and T. Chang, Synthesis, crystal structure, and conjugation properties of phenanthroline copper phosphine complexes. Inorganica Chimica Acta, 394, 710-714, (2013)
  • OS. Bushuyev, P. Brown, A. Maiti, RH. Gee, GR. Peterson, BL. Weeks, and LJ. Hope-Weeks, Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) as Safer, Structurally Reinforced Energetics. Chemistry-A European Journal, 19 (5), 1706-171, (2013)