Rate My Professor Courtney Ennis

Dr. Courtney Ennis is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Otago, a position she has held since 2018. She earned her PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of Western Australia between 2005 and 2009, along with a BSc (Hons) from the same institution. Her postdoctoral career includes positions at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa from 2009 to 2011, University College London from 2012 to 2013, the Australian Synchrotron and La Trobe University from 2014 to 2015, and an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellowship at La Trobe University from 2015 to 2018. Ennis also serves as an Associate Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, having joined in 2021. She has secured funding including a Marsden Grant from the Royal Society Te Apārangi for research related to Saturn's moon Titan and a University of Otago Research Grant in 2020.

The research of the Ennis group centers on the application of laboratory infrared spectroscopy techniques—such as cryogenic thin-film FTIR, matrix isolation, synchrotron far-IR and THz spectroscopy, and aerosol scattering—to characterize crystalline solids. These methods are paired with periodic density functional theory (DFT) frequency calculations to study solid-state astrochemistry, molecular crystals, supramolecular gas sorption, UV photochemistry, crystal morphology, and intermolecular interactions. Her work explores planetary surface geochemistry, vibrational signatures of porous materials like metallic- and hydrogen-bonded organic frameworks, and their potential for gas storage of H2 and CO2. Ennis teaches advanced courses including CHEM463 Advanced Topics in Inorganic and Structural Chemistry and supervises CHEM490 dissertations. Key publications include 'An exploration of the three phenylacetylene polymorphs and discovery of a benzene-phenylacetylene co-crystal by vibrational spectroscopy and powder diffraction' (Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2026), 'Crystal structure of diacetylene unveiled by X-ray and neutron diffraction, Raman spectroscopy and periodic DFT' (IUCrJ, 2026), 'Tunability of nickel benzenehexathiolate electrocatalysts for the hydrogen evolution reaction' (ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces, 2025), 'Manipulating a thermosalient crystal using selective deuteration' (Journal of the American Chemical Society, 2025), and 'Formation and stability of the propionitrile:acetylene co-crystal under titan-relevant conditions' (ACS Earth & Space Chemistry, 2025).