Castle Group News
  • July 2012: Mike Cecchini successfully defends his MS thesis!

  • October 2011: MS student Mike Brignone joins the group.

  • May 2011: Undergraduate Alex Kowler joins the group.

  • May 2011: Professor Castle receives the William Pierce Boger Jr., M.D. Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Natural Sciences!

  • April 2011: Professor Castle receives summer grant from the Jamie Hendry Sustainable Studies Development Fund!

  • September 2010: New graduate student Mike Cecchini joins the group.

  • September 2010: The new laser laboratory is completed in the basement of Rooke.

  • August 2010: Tara Pedersen receives her MS degree and goes to work for Teach for America!

  • May 2010: Tara Pedersen, Stephen Ragard, and Jakob Schaeffer receive their BS/BA degrees!


    Teaching Interests
    Physical Chemistry II
    Introduction to Molecular Spectroscopy
    Physical Chemistry for Engineers
    Inorganic Chemistry I
    General Chemistry I
    Seminar in Atmospheric Chemistry
    Research in Science Capstone
    Undergraduate and Graduate Research

    Former Group Members
    Michael Cecchini (MS '12)
    Tara Pedersen (BS/MS CHEM '10)
    Jakob Schaeffer (BA PHYS '10)
    Stephen Ragard (BA CHEM/ECON '10)
    Darryl Kyle (MA CHEM)
    Labe Black (MS CHEM '09)
    Tom Vogler (BS BICH '10)
    Kristy Brown (BS CHEM '09)
    Michael Simione (BS CHEM '09)
    Stephanie Rink (BA CHEM/SPAN '09)
    Andrea Asimoglou (BS BICH '09)
    Andrea Brown (BA CHEM/SPAN '08)
    Justin Rhinehart (MS CHEM '08)
    Dustin Schroeder (BS EE/PHYS '07)
    Kristi Cashman (BS CHEM '06)
    Michael Heinrich (BS CHEM '06)
    Rebecca Rupp (BS BIO '05)
    Carmen Gherghisan (BS BIO '05)
    Brian Day (BA CHEM '05)
    Katie Kleissas (BS CHEM '04)
    Betsy Staudt (BS CHEM '04)

    		•

    Dr. Karen J. Castle
    Associate Professor of Chemistry
    317 Rooke Chemistry Building
    Bucknell University
    Lewisburg, PA 17837
    (570) 577-3092
    kcastle@bucknell.edu

    For more information on Professor Castle, see this abbreviated CV.


    Current Group Members

    Left to Right: Alex Kowler (BS CHEM/PHYS '14), Michael Brignone (MS CHEM '13), Tricia Clyde (BS CHEM/MATH '13), and Michael Cecchini (MS CHEM '12)

    Our Research
     Our group uses laser spectroscopy to study chemical and physical processes that are important in Earth's upper atmosphere.

    For details on our current aeronomy experiments, check out our aeronomy page.
    The new laser laboratory was completed in September 2010!


    Current Funding
     Our work on CO2-O vibrational energy transfer is supported by NASA Geospace Sciences and our work on O3-O vibrational energy transfer is supported by NSF's CEDAR program.

    Recent Publications  (Bucknell students denoted with a *)
     Karen J. Castle, Labe A. Black*, Michael W. Simione*, and James A. Dodd, J. Geophys. Res 117, A04310 (2012) . “Vibrational Relaxation of CO2(nu2) by O(3P) in the 142-490 K Temperature Range.”

    Karen J. Castle and Stephanie M. Rink* J. Chem. Educ. 87, 1360 (2010) “Customized laboratory experience in physical chemistry.”

    Karen J. Castle, J. Chem. Educ. 84, 459 (2007). “High-resolution vibration-rotation spectroscopy of CO2: Understanding the Boltzmann Distribution.”

    Karen J. Castle, Katherine M. Kleissas*, Justin M. Rhinehart*, Eunsook S. Hwang, and James A. Dodd, J. Geophys. Res. 111, A09303 (2006). “Vibrational relaxation of CO2(nu2) by atomic oxygen.”