Research Summary
The focus of my research is to understand the connection between structure and function in complex macromolecular materials, with interests both in artificial macromolecules (synthetic polymers) and in biological ones (proteins, DNA). Using time-resolved optical techniques (ultrafast laser spectroscopy and single-molecule fluorescence microscopy) I am able to characterize multiscale, dynamic processes in disordered materials at their native time and length scales.
Biography
Prof. Noriega is an Assistant Professor of Chemistry at the University of Utah. His research interests focus on the connections between the structure and properties of soft disordered materials. Before joining the Chemistry faculty at Utah, he received a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics from Monterrey Tech (2006) in his native Mexico. He then moved to California, where he earned his Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Stanford University working with Prof. Alberto Salleo (2013). Prof. Noriega then worked with Prof. Naomi Ginsberg at the University of California Berkeley with support from a Philomathia Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship. He joined the Chemistry department at the University of Utah in 2016 and is currently studying charge and energy flow in polymer semiconductors, the conformational dynamics of enzymes, and the electronic properties of electrochemical interfaces.