The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry is pleased to announce that Julia Widom will be joining the faculty this fall as an Assistant Professor in the physical chemistry division.

Dr. Widom performed her postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Dr. Nils Walter at the University of Michigan, using single-molecule fluorescence microscopy to study how the structures that RNA molecules fold into affect their ability to regulate gene expression. Her research at UO will combine single-molecule and ultrafast spectroscopy to probe RNA structure and dynamics in complex macromolecular machines. She will also use RNA as a scaffold for chromophore arrays, developing methods that will enable rapid screening of the optical properties of a diverse library of arrays.