Elizabeth Ryland , PhD

Assistant Professor

About

Likes lasers, ultrafast spectroscopy, high time-resolution, organometallic chemistry, and ligand redox non-innocence. New fan of x-ray biogeochemical speciation and environmental monitoring. Recently thinking about the Marcus inverted region, PCET, and MGE chemistry. A strong advocate for equitable science outreach and communication. 

Research Interests

Dr. Ryland's career so far has focused on Ultrafast Transient Absorption Spectroscopies, X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure, Technique development, Organometallic photochemistry, Ligand redox non-innocence, and mechanism elucidation.

New research directions here at WWU include photocatalytically accessing high redox states of metalloid and transition metal compounds in order to catalyze difficult reactions and activate typically inert bonds for environmental remediation, and branching into Environmental Science with research on the biogeochemical speciation of burnash and post-fire soil content.

Educational & Professional Experience

B.S. Louisiana Tech University, 2013

Ph.D. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2019

NRC Postdoctoral Fellow, Naval Research Laboratory, 2019-2021

Postdoctoral Scholar, Stanford University/SLAC National Accelerator Lab, 2021-2025

Selected Awards & Honors

Stanford Postdoc JEDI Champion Award 2024 for work in DEI and science outreach

Electron Donor-Acceptor Interactions GRC 2024 Poster Award / Postdoctoral Invited Speaker

SLAC Public Lecture Series Invited Speaker 2024

Photochemistry GRC 2023 Poster Award / Postdoctoral Invited Speaker

UIUC Geerdes Memorial Dissertation Award 2018

Rau Prize, International Symposium on Molecular Spectroscopy 2018

 

Recent Publications

“Revealing Parallel Inter- and Intra-Ligand Charge Transfer Dynamics in [Ru(L)2(dppz)]2+ Molecular Lightswitch with N K-Edge X-Ray Absorption Spectroscopy”
   Ryland, E.S.; Yang, X.; Garret, D.; Henke, W.; Kahraman, A.; Taub, M.; Sachs, M.; Biasin, E.; Hampton, C.; Hoffman, D.; Coslovich, G.; Kunnus, K.; Dakovski, G.; Mara, M.; Chen, L.; Mulfort, K.;  Li, X.; Cordones, A.A.

    Angewandte Chemie., 2025.  https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.202509496 

“Site-specific electronic structure of covalently linked bimetallic dyads from Nitrogen K-edge X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy”
    Ryland, E.S.; Liu, X.; Kumar, G.; Raj, S.; Xie, Z.-L.; Mengele, A.; Fauth, S.; Siewerth, K.; Dietzek-Ivansic, B.; Rau, S.; Mulfort, K.; Li, X.; Cordones, A.A. 

J. Chem. Phys. 2024, 160 (8), 084307. Featured Article   https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0192809