Rate My Professor Richard Sykora

Sykora's main area of research is synthetic inorganic chemistry, with particular interests in the structural chemistry of f-element compounds, including lanthanides (such as terbium and europium) and select actinides (such as uranium and thorium). His laboratory constructs functional f-element coordination polymers and studies light-harvesting ligands that enhance emission from lanthanide cations through energy transfer, enabling applications in fluoroimmunoassays, cellular imaging, chemosensors, optical communications, and optoelectronic devices. He supervises undergraduate research through Directed Studies (CH 394/494) at the University of South Alabama. Sykora has 18 publications documented in the university's Scholars@USA profile, including 'Emission, Raman spectroscopy, and structural characterization of actinide tetracyanometallates' (Inorganic Chemistry, 2013, with Branson A. Maynard et al.); 'Synthesis, crystal structures, and dual donor luminescence sensitization in novel terbium tetracyanoplatinates' (Inorganic Chemistry, 2012, with Philip A. Smith et al.); 'Solid-state photoluminescence sensitization of Tb3+ by novel Au2Pt2 and Au2Pt4 cyanide clusters' (Inorganic Chemistry, 2011, with LeAnn Ladner et al.); 'Actinide tetracyanoplatinates: synthesis and structural characterization with uncharacteristic Th-NC coordination and thorium fluorescence' (Chemical Communications, 2010, with Branson A. Maynard et al.); and 'Emission enhancement through dual donor sensitization: modulation of structural and spectroscopic properties in a series of europium tetracyanoplatinates' (Inorganic Chemistry, 2009, with Branson A. Maynard et al.).