Curriculum Vitae

Education

Experience

Invented new organometallic copper molecules as Solar fuels catalysts to replace ultra-rare metals  such as iridium and ruthenium.
Collaboratively Synthesized and characterized 18 new carbene-metal-amide molecules with record fast blue photon emission for organic LED applications and created a model for tuning photon emission rate via molecular design.
Used transient spectroscopy techniques to capture molecular movies of organometallic molecules during the solar fuels process in collaboration with Professor Stephen E. Bradforth’s group at USC, and Mathew Bird at Brookhaven National Lab.
Optimized the molecular structure of a new family of molecules for Solar induced conversion of water to hydrogen.
Wrote a 20 page proposal on designing electrodes for lithium ion batteries with up to 6 orders of magnitude increased charging/discharging rate capabilities vs. commercial batteries.
Published multiple first author papers in high-impact journals, and filed patents for new technologies

Performed plasma etching on layered materials to create micron-scale architectures that satisfied customer specifications analyzed by electron microscopy.

Synthesized metal-triphenylenehexathiolate 2D covalent organic frameworks as potential low temperature superconductors and measured their electrical conductivity at low temperature. 

Invented a new class of inorganic ion-exchangers and measured their efficacy in ocean water desalination.
Synthesized and characterized eight new rare-earth niobate coordination polymers 
Performed spin coat deposition of garnet phase Li5La3Nb2O12 as a solid state electrolyte for improve thermal stability of Li ion batteries.

Patents & Publications

Collin N. Muniz, Hiral Patel, Dylan B. Fast, Lauren S. Rohwer, Eric W. Reinheimer, Michelle Dolgos, Matt W. Graham, May Nyman* Rare Earth Niobate Coordination Polymers J. JSSC. 2018, 259, 48-56.
Collin N. Muniz, Jonas Schaab, Anton Razgoniaev, Peter I. Djurovich, and Mark E. Thompson* πExtended Ligands in Two-Coordinate Coinage Metal Complexes J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2022, 144 (39),  17916-17928.
U. S. Patent pending “(carbene)M(amide) complexes with pi-extended ligands”, Muniz, C. N.; Schaab J.; Razgonaiev, A.; Thompson, M. E.; Djurovich, P., July 21, 2022
Collin N. Muniz, Claire Archer, Jack Applebaum, Peter Djurovich, Mark E. Thompson* TwoCoordinate Coinage Metal Complexes as Solar Photosensitizers, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2023, 145 (25), 13846-13857
Michael Kellogg, Austin Mencke, Collin N. Muniz, N. K Thabassum, Fabiola Cardoso-Delgado, Nina Baluyot-Reyes Reyes, Stephen E. Bradforth, Mark E. Thompson* Inter and Intra Molecular Charge  Transfer in Two-Coordinate Photosensitizers In Preparation, Preprint available on chemrxiv.org/engage/chemrxiv/article-details/63f91334937392db3d02ba4f

Honors & Awards

Invited Speaker for ACS F. Albert Cotton Symposium for Professor May Nyman, Mar 2023

Invited Speaker for SHPE GEM Fellow Panel: Outreach to Hispanic community, Oct 2022

1st Place National GEM Conference Technical Talk Competition: PhD Category, Sept 2022

3rd Place National GEM Conference Technical Talk Competition: PhD Category, Sept 2021

1st Place Lam Research Company-Wide Internship Poster Competition, Aug 2019

Awarded GEM fellowship from the National GEM Consortium, May 2019

NSF GRFP Honorable Mention, Apr 2018

USC Dornsife Fellow, Top Off Award, Diversity Achievement, Mar 2018

Presented About My Scientific Career to the President and Provost of OSU and LBCC, Sept 2017

Best prototype at HWeekend - built a device to detect metals in drinking water within 30 hrs, Sept 2017

Student Leader In Technology Award, TechConnect World Innovation Expo., Washington D.C., May 2017 and 2018

Featured in OSU iMPACT Magazine, Mar 2017

Invited speaker - OSU Alumni Board of Advisors, Nov 2016

Merit Based Oregon State College of Science Scholarships: Physics Scholarship ($1,500), Jerry Raymond Alexander Scholarship ($1,200), Sally Runes-Hicks Scholarship ($7,500), Herrin Scholarship ($10,000), Diversity Achievement Scholarship ($4,000), McKennon Chemsitry Scholarship ($2,400), Merril Family Foundation Scholarship ($9,900), Sept 2013-Jun 2016

Undergraduate of the Quarter, OSU, May 2015

Nasa Space Grant Recipient ($8,000), Aug 2014

Presentations

Collin N. Muniz, Claire Archer, Jack Applebaum, Anushan Alagaratnam, Jonas Schaab, Peter Djurovich, Mark Thompson* Designing Copper Complexes for Renewable Energy Applications, ACS Spring 2023, Invited Speaker: F. Albert Cotton Award Symposium for May Nyman, Mar 2023.

Collin N. Muniz, Jonas Schaab, Anton Razgoniaev, Peter Djurovich, Mark Thompson* Discovery of Molecules with Record Fast Blue Photon Emission for Organic LED Applications, National GEM Consortium Technical Talk Competition: PhD Category, Sept 2022.

Collin N. Muniz, Claire Archer, Jack Applebaum, Peter Djurovich, Mark E. Thompson* Copper Based Molecules for Sustainable Solar Fuels, National GEM Consortium Technical Talk Competition: PhD Category, Sept 2021.

Collin N. Muniz, Claire Archer, Jack Applebaum, Peter Djurovich, Mark E. Thompson* TwoCoordinate Coinage Metal Complexes for Solar Fuels, National GEM Consortium Poster Competition, Sept 2021

Collin N. Muniz, John Hoang, Plasma Etching Micron-Scale Architectures for Transistors, Lam Research Company-wide Internship Poster Competition, Aug 2019.

Collin N. Muniz, May Nyman, Ocean Water Desalination: An Inorganic Approach, TechConnect World Innovation Expo, May 2017.

Collin N. Muniz, Yousif Almulla, Inventors Enterprise Overview, TechConnect World Innovation Expo, May 2017.

Collin N. Muniz, Hiral Patel, Dylan Fast, Michelle Dolgos, Mathew Graham, May Nyman, Synthesis and Characterization of an Unreported Series of Rare Earth Coordination Polymers, AIChE National Conference Poster Competition, San Francisco CA, Apr 2017.

Collin N. Muniz, Band Structure and Density of States Calculations for the Mixed Valent SmB6 Kondo Insulator, Graduate Solid State Physics Poster Fair, Oregon State University, Jun 2017.

Collin N. Muniz, May Nyman, Douglas A. Keszler, Synthesis of a Solid State Garnet Electrolyte for Thin Film Battery Applications, Center of Sustainable Materials Chemistry National Conference, Eugene OR, Nov 2015.

Collin N. Muniz, May Nyman, Douglas A. Keszler, Synthesis of a Solid State Garnet Electrolyte for Thin Film Battery Applications, Kevin Ahern’s Undergraduate Research Symposium, Oregon State University, Sept 2015.

Professional Associations

- Gem Fellow, 2019-Present
- American Chemical Society, 2022-Present
- Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science, 2017-Present
- Phi Beta Kappa Honor Society, 2017
- Co-Founder and President of Inventors Enterprise (IE), OSU, 2016 - 2018
     IE was founded to create a driven community of STEM and business students, to collaboratively develop inventions and explore them as business ventures.
     - Met with department heads to gain dual sponsorship between the College of Business and College of Engineering
     - Lead our officers in organizing events, recruitment, seminars
     - Project leader for: Heads up display lab goggles, Water desalination with molecular salt sponges, and a detector for heavy metals in water
     - Awarded $1,000 in funding from the College of Business
     - Awarded $1,300 in funding from the College of Engineering
- Society of Physics Students (Oregon State Chapter) 2014-2017
- American Institution of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) 2014- 2017

Technical Proficiency

Expert: Technical Presentations & Scientific Communication, Molecular Design, Materials Design, Computational Chemistry, Photochemistry, Organometallic Synthesis, Organic Synthesis, Photoluminescence Measurements, Quantum Yield Measurements, Time-Correlated Single Photon Counting, Transient Absorption Spectroscopy, TRPL Spectroscopy, Solar Fuels Catalysis, Glovebox Chemistry, Schlenkline Chemistry, Organic LED Chemistry, UV-Vis Spectroscopy, FTIR Spectroscopy, Hydrothermal Synthesis, Spin Coat Deposition, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Mass Spectrometry, Inductive Coupled Plasma Spectroscopy, Powder X-Ray Diffraction, Thermogravimetric Analysis, Aqueous Inorganic Synthesis, Inorganic Chemistry, 1D and 2D NMR, Small Angle X-Ray Scattering, Linear Algebra, Quantum Mechanics, MOF Synthesis, Hydrogen Evolution Catalysis, Origin Pro, MS Office, Diamond, IQmol, Avogadro, QChem.
Proficient: RAMAN Spectroscopy, HPLC, Column Chromatography, Oscilloscope, Optics Table Setup/Beam Alignment, Ellipsometry, Python and VPython, Matlab, LaTeX, Mathematica, 3D Builder, Blender, Gaussian.

Please contact me for my full CV

Oregon State University BSc in Chemistry BSc in Physics Math Minor	2013 - 2018
University of Southern California PhD in Chemistry	2018 - 2023