Prof. Jack H. Freed
Director & Principal Investigator

jhf3@cornell.edu
(607)-255-3647

Prof. Freed has been on the Cornell faculty since 1963. He is a world leader in the ESR field and has received many national and international awards for his work in this field. Under his leadership, the laboratory has pioneered many of the theoretical and instrumental technologies that serve as the basis for the Center. He provides the overall direction of the Center and actively participates in all facets of its scientific programs, and its administration.

Petr P. Borbat
Senior Research Associate
Associate Director

ppb@ccmr.cornell.edu
(607)-255-6132

Dr. Borbat joined the Freed Research Group at Cornell, in 1995. His research interests are centered at pulsed ESR, in particular at the development of Multiple-quantum coherence ESR spectroscopy and related techniques relevant to distance measurements in biological applications, and the development of 2D-FT ESR and its applications to study molecular dynamics, including transient phenomena. He manages Center activity in distance measurements in biological systems and in two-dimensional FT ESR. He is also leading the development of unique pulsed ESR instrumentation of the Center.

Keith A. Earle
Senior Research Associate
Associate Director

earle@ccmr.cornell.edu
(607)-255-0591

Dr. Earle has been involved with the development of HFHF-EPR for over decade starting with the first successful high-resolution instrument at 250GHz, built in collaboration with Dr. W. Bryan Lynch. He is one of the world's leaders in the design and implementation of quasioptical techniques for the instrumentation needs of HFHF-EPR spectroscopists as evidenced by numerous publications and his recent co-authorship of a patent "Variable-coupling quasioptical electron resonance apparatus" (U.S. Pat. #6101015). He has designed and built or consulted on the construction of HFHF-ESR spectrometers at 95, 170, and 240GHz. The high-power cw/pulsed spectrometer at 95GHz built under his supervision has allowed 2D-FT-HFHF-ESR techniques to be included in the arsenal of measurement technologies available to biomedical community. He also collaborates on a variety of theory projects within the ACERT.

Prof. Earle maintains an official faculty connection as a assistant professor of physics with State University of New York at Albany.

Jozef K. Moscicki
Visiting Professor
Associate Director

jomo@ccmr.cornell.edu
(607)-255-0594

Dr. Moscicki has an internationally distinguished record of accomplishments in the field of molecular dynamics in soft matter, both as an experimentalist and as a theoretician. He has an exceptional record as a long-standing collaborator of the FRG. His over 90 months of collaborative research resulted in pioneering new ESR techniques of Dynamic Imaging of Diffusion by EPR and (with Dr. Earle) high field/high frequency (HFHF) ESR spectrometers for multifrequency ESR studies at Cornell. He initiated and contributed substantially to many research projects addressing a number of important contemporary problems of biology, medicine, and materials science.

Prof. Moscicki maintains an official faculty connection as a professor of physics with Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.

Mingtao Ge
Senior Research Associate

mingtao@ccmr.cornell.edu
(607)-255-4980

Dr. Ge has been a member of the Freed’s research group since 1988. Over the years he has become a key specialist in applications of ESR techniques to study membrane biophysics. He is very experienced in the analysis of slow motional ESR spectra of spin labeled lipid membrane systems. He has performed studies of the liquid ordered phase domain in RBL cell membranes in collaboration with Baird/Holowka group and in membranes reconstituted with the ARF protein in collaboration with the Brown group. His broad and solid knowledge in physical chemistry, ESR and membrane biophysics enables him to perform and direct creative research in leading areas of membrane biophysics.

Zhichun Liang
Research Associate

zl25@cornell.edu
(607)-255-4980

Dr. Liang is expert on our extensive simulation and non-linear least squares computational packages that are used to analyze our 2D-FT-ESR and multi-frequency experiments. He has had extensive theoretical experience in the application of the stochastic Liouville equation to slow-motional ESR studies. In particular, he developed the current multifrequency version of the sophisticated slowly-relaxing local structure (SRLS) model, that is appropriate for biological systems, and he successfully applied them to our studies of the dynamics of T4 lysozyme and of DNA oligomers. He has also developed other advanced software, including (i) the inclusion of finite pulses into the analysis of 2D-FT-ESR spectra in the slow motional regime, (ii) the adaptation of the SRLS model to NMR relaxation studies of proteins, (iii) chemical exchange: the SRLS program, and (iv) parallelization of our slow-motional ESR programs.

Curt R. Dunnam
Operations Manager
Senior Electronics Engineer

crd4@cornell.edu
(607)-255-6132

Mr. Dunnam is presently Senior Research Support Specialist for the Freed Research Group and Senior Electronics Engineer for the ACERT National ESR Center. His areas of professional expertise are EM physics, electrical engineering and business management. He joined the Freed Research Group in 1995, after 17 years with the Laboratory for Elementary Particle Physics (formerly LNS), Cornell, employed as an engineering physicist and electrical engineer. Mr. Dunnam has authored and co-authored several papers on particle accelerator instrumentation and beam diagnostics, ESR spectrometry and imaging, and rapid signal acquisition and processing. He also holds 4 U.S. patents relative to microwave and magnetic field instrumentation. Mr. Dunnam's primary research and development responsibilities at ACERT are centered on instrumentation for c.w. and pulsed millimeter-wave ESR spectrometry and high-resolution ESR microimaging.

Joanne Trutko
Administrative Manager

jkt27@cornell.edu
(607)-255-4632

A recent addition to ACERT staff as Administrative Manager of the ACERT office, Joanne Trutko is a graduate of Cornell University.  She provides administrative support for manuscript and grant submissions and serves as point of contact for internal and external scientists, collaborators, and visitors.  Prior to joining ACERT, Joanne was Aide to the Borough Administrator and Mayor of Glen Ridge, New Jersey,  Marketing Manager for the Professional Books Division of Van Nostrand Reinhold Publishers, Marketing Manager for the College Division of John Wiley & Sons, Publishers and has worked for Northeastern Ohio planning commissions in water pollution.

Diane (Dee) E. C. Patzer
Technician

dianec@ccmr.cornell.edu
(607)-254-8708