I am trained as an experimentalist in the field of atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics, with a specific background
on the interactions of electrons with molecules. As a faculty member in the Science
and Math department, I’ve also developed a passion for teaching and being an active
part of our campus community. My favorite work is to be engaged with students discussing
the details of physics and math, especially when students have a genuine curiosity
beyond the requirements of their courses. Seeing someone be fascinated by a topic
that once intimidated them is very rewarding for me, and I enjoy the empowerment that
students gain by gaining a command over a difficult subject. Most of all, I want to
create a supportive and inclusive learning environment for everyone in my classroom,
and to foster a lifelong pursuit of learning. In my free time, I also enjoy running,
hiking, studying/playing music, games (video and board), aviation, food, photography…pretty
much anything!
My field of research is in experimental atomic, molecular, and optical (AMO) physics.
In my graduate research at Auburn University, my focus was on the interactions of
electrons with gas-phase molecules. Specifically, I studied the dissociative attachment
of electrons to small polyatomic molecules. Recently, this work has evolved to focus
on more complex polyatomic molecules as a path towards an understanding of electron
attachment in biological systems.
In my postdoctoral research experience at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, my work focused
on experimental observation of processes involving highly-charged ions (HCI). These
measurements are motivated by observations of spectral emissions from astrophysical
objects such as cometary gases and planetary atmospheres. These laboratory astrophysical
measurements serve as benchmark experiments that support the analysis of observational
data from instruments such as the newly launched James Webb Space Telescope.
My graduate research fed into my recent work on electron attachment at the Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory (LBL), where I continue work with the Chemical Sciences
division to observe molecular fragmentation in organic molecules. Throughout these
research projects, I have also been a collaborator on X-ray photoionization experiments
conducted at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) of LBL.
Highlighted publications include:
- G Panelli, A Moradmand, B Griffin, K Swanson, Th Weber, T N Rescigno, C W McCurdy,
D S Slaughter, J B Williams; “Investigating resonant low-energy electron attachment
to formamide: Dynamics of model peptide bond dissociation and other fragmentation
channels”; Phys. Rev. Res. (2021)
- A Moradmand, M A O El Ghazaly, D P Mahapatra and A Chutjian; “Measurement of absolute
single and double charge exchange cross sections for Si(7−10)+ ions at 0.88-2.5 keV/u
impacting He and H2”; Astrophys. Journal (2018)
- C W McCurdy, T N Rescigno, C S Trevisan, R R Lucchese, B Gaire, A Menssen, M S Schoffler,
A Gatton, J Neff, P M Stammer, J Rist, S Eckart, B Berry, T Severt, J Sartor, A Moradmand,
T Jahnke, A L Landers, J B Williams, I Ben-Itzhak, R Dorner, A Belkacem, and Th Weber;
“Unambiguous observation of F-atom core-hole localization in CF4 through body-frame photoelectron angular distributions.”; Phys. Rev. A (2017)
- J Rist, T Miteva, B Gaire, H Sann, F Trinter, M Keiling, N Gehrken, A Moradmand, B
Berry, M Zohrabi, M Kunitski, I Ben-Itzhak, A Belkacem, T Weber, A L Landers, M Schoffler,
J B Williams, P Kolorenˇc, K Gokhberg, T Jahnke, R Dorner; “A comprehensive study
of Interatomic Coulombic Decay in argon dimers: Extracting R-dependent absolute decay
rates from the experiment.”; Chem. Phys. (2017)
- J R Machacek, D P Mahapatra, D R Schultz, Yu Ralchenko, A Moradmand, M A O El Ghazaly,
and A Chutjian, “Solar-wind ion driven X-ray emission from cometary and planetary
atmospheres: measurements and theoretical predictions of charge-exchange cross sections
and emission spectra for O6+ + H2O, CO, CO2, CH4, N2, NO, N2O, and Ar”; Astrophys. J. (2015)
- B Gaire, I Bocharova, F P Sturm, N Gehrken, J Rist, H Sann, M Kunitski, J B Williams,
M S Schoffler, T Jahnke, B Berry, M Zohrabi, M Keiling, A Moradmand, A L Landers,
A Belkacem, R Dorner, I Ben-Itzhak, Th Weber, “Hydrogen and fluorine migration in
photo-double-ionization of 1,1-difluoroethylene (1,1-C2H2F2) near and above threshold”;
Phys. Rev. A (2014)
Courses taught include:
- PHY 100: General Physics
- PHY 105: General Physics II
- PHY 105L: General Physics II Lab
- PHY 200: Engineering Physics I
- PHY 200L: Engineering Physics I Lab
- PHY 205: Engineering Physics II
- ME 330: Engineering Dynamics
- MTH 99L: College Algebra & Trigonometry Support Lab
- MTH 100: College Algebra & Trigonometry
- MTH 107: Elementary Statistics
- MTH 211: Calculus II
- MTH 395: Special Topics: Quantum Mechanics
- OCN 350: Physical Oceanography
- CHE 105: Introductory Chemistry
- CHE 105L: Introductory Chemistry Lab
- CHE 110L: General Chemistry Lab
