Michael Therien

Therien received his B.S. in Chemistry from University of St Andrews in 1982. He began his studies in organometallic chemistry at University of California, San Diego, where he earned his Ph.D. in 1987 working with William C. Trogler.[2] Upon completion of his Ph.D. in 1987, he was a National Institutes of Health Postdoctoral Fellow at the California Institute of Technology under Harry B. Gray.[1] In 1990, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Chemistry at University of Pennsylvania, where he was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996, full Professor in 1997, and the named professorship Alan G. MacDiarmid Professor in 2002.[1] In 2008 he was appointed William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at Duke University, the position he currently holds.[1]

Ongoing studies in the Therien lab involve the synthesis of compounds, supramolecular assemblies, nanoscale objects, and electronic materials with unusual ground-and excited-state characteristics and the interrogation of these structures using transient optical, spectroscopic, photophysical, and electrochemical methods. They probe experimental and theoretical aspects of charge migration reactions and ultrafast electron transfer processes over chemical dimensions that span molecules to materials.[3]

(Publications listed below have been cited more than 200 times)[4]

• Ghoroghchian, PP; Li, G; Levine, DH; Davis, KP; Bates, FS; Hammer, DA; Therien, MJ (2006). "Bioresorbable Vesicles Formed through Spontaneous Self-Assembly of Amphiphilic Poly(ethylene oxide)-block-polycaprolactone". Macromolecules. 39: 1673–1675. doi:10.1021/ma0519009. PMC 2958688.
• Strachan, DR; Smith, DE; Johnston, DE; Park, TH; Therien, MJ; Bonnell, DA; Johnson, AT (2005). "Controlled fabrication of nanogaps in ambient environment for molecular electronics". Applied Physics Letters. 86: 043109. arXiv:cond-mat/0504112. doi:10.1063/1.1857095.
• Ghoroghchian, PP; Frail, PR; Susumu, K; Blessington, D; Brannan, AK; Bates, FS; Chance, B; Hammer, DA; Therien, MJ (2005). "Near-infrared-emissive polymersomes: Self-assembled soft matter for in vivo optical imaging". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102: 2922–2927. doi:10.1073/pnas.0409394102.
• Priyadarshy, S; Therien, MJ; Beratan, DN (1996). "Acetylenyl-Linked, Porphyrin-Bridged, Donor−Acceptor Molecules:  A Theoretical Analysis of the Molecular First Hyperpolarizability in Highly Conjugated Push−Pull Chromophore Structures". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 118: 1504–1510. doi:10.1021/ja952690q.
• LeCours, SM; Guan, H-W; DiMagno, SG; Wang, CH; Therien, MJ (1996). "Push−Pull Arylethynyl Porphyrins:  New Chromophores That Exhibit Large Molecular First-Order Hyperpolarizabilities". Journal of the American Chemical Society. 118: 1497–1503. doi:10.1021/ja953610l.
• De Rege, PJ; Williams, SA; Therien, MJ (1995). "Direct evaluation of electronic coupling mediated by hydrogen bonds: implications for biological electron transfer". Science. 269: 1409–1413. doi:10.1126/science.7660123.
• Lin, VS; Therien, MJ (1995). "The Role of Porphyrin‐to‐Porphyrin Linkage Topology in the Extensive Modulation of the Absorptive and Emissive Properties of a Series of Ethynyl‐ and Butadiynyl‐Bridged Bis‐ and Tris(porphinato)zinc Chromophores". Chemistry – A European Journal. 1: 645–651. doi:10.1002/chem.19950010913.
• Lin, VS; DiMagno, SG; Therien, MJ (1994). "Highly conjugated, acetylenyl bridged porphyrins: new models for light-harvesting antenna systems". Science. 264: 1105–1111. doi:10.1126/science.8178169.
• DiMagno, SG; Lin, VS; Therien, MJ (1993). "Facile elaboration of porphyrins via metal-mediated cross-coupling". Journal of Organic Chemistry. 58: 2983–5993. doi:10.1021/jo00074a027.

Fellow, Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts, 2009[5]
International Francqui Chair, 2008[6]
Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, 2005[7]
Philadelphia Section Award, American Chemical Society, 2004[8]
Young Investigator Award, Society of Porphyrins & Phthalocyanines, 2002[9]
Fellow, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, 1995[10]
NSF National Young Investigator, 1993-98[11]
Young Investigator Award, Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, 1992-1994[12]
Searle Scholar, 1991>[13]

| website = sites.duke.edu/therienlab/ }}