(6aq) Smart Materials through Molecular Networking

I have a broad experience with chemical kinetics and reaction engineering in flow systems. I developed the first synthetic enzymatic oscillator during my first postdoc at the University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands. In this work, I precisely arranged reactions in continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) to get oscillatory dynamics.¹ At George Whitesides group at Harvard, I applied the similar strategy to obtain bistable and oscillatory dynamics from organic reactions in CSTR.² I have also worked with coupled reaction-diffusion systems, microfluidics, and soft materials.³In my independent research, I would like to apply my experience with engineering ofreaction kinetics in open system to problems in materials and catalysis.

Research Interests: 

My research program will focus on autonomous regulation in chemical systems by regulatory chemical reaction networksâ?? that is, cascades of chemical reactions that receive a chemical signal, process this signal, and respond with a chemical output. Chemical regulation is centrally important to cellular life; it orchestrates cellular metabolism and guides the growth and movement of cells in heterogeneous environments. Although electrical and mechanical control systems are usually the choice for regulating macroscopic devices, chemical control becomes a preferable option for the regulation at the micro- and nanoscales. When applied to catalysis, self-regulation can improve efficiency of chemical reactions. My group will exploit these opportunities in designing â??smartâ? materials and regulating catalytic transformations.

My research will have three major thrusts:

(i) Smart soft materials;

(ii) Chemical regulation at micro- and nanoscales through the surface modification.

(iii) Self-regulation in mixtures of organometallic catalysts.

Teaching Interests: 

I have had a variety of teaching experiences. I voluntarily gave two full lecture courses (8 and 6 lectures) in organometallic chemistry in the Materials Science Department of Moscow State University in 2011 and 2012. I examined and graded student that attended these courses. I worked as a lab assistant for the Inorganic chemistry laboratory course 1 at the University of Zurich. I also worked as a chemistry teacher in the School for young chemists (12-14 years old pupils), which is associated with the Moscow State University. As a prospective faculty member, I am interested in teaching thermodynamics, chemical kinetics, and reaction engineering.

Selected Publications:

1. Sergey N. Semenov, Albert S.Y. Wong, Martijn van der Made, Sjoerd Postma, Rik van Roekel, Tom F. A. De Greef, Wilhelm T. S. Huck â??Rational design of functional and tunable oscillating enzymatic networksâ? // Nature Chemistry, (2015), 7, 160 â?? 165.
2. Sergey N. Semenov, Lewis J. Kraft, Alar Ainla, Mengxia Zhao, Mostafa Baghbanzadeh, Victoria E. Campbell, Kyungtae Kang, Jerome M. Fox, George M. Whitesides â??Autocatalytic, Bistable, Oscillatory Networks of Biologically Relevant Organic Reactionâ? // Nature, (2016), 537, 656 â?? 660.
3. Sergey N. Semenov, Albert J. Markvoort, Tom F. A. de Greef, Wilhelm T. S. Huck â??Threshold Sensing Through a Synthetic Enzymatic Reaction-Diffusion Networkâ? // Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. (2014), 53, 8066 â?? 8069.