Prof. Sponsler joined the Syracuse University faculty in 1989, after receiving his B.S. degree in chemistry from Bowling Green State University in 1982 and his Ph.D. in chemistry from Caltech in 1987. He did postdoctoral work at UC-Berkeley.

Sponsler’s research interests are focused on new molecules and materials with potential applications in electronics or optics. Projects include organometallic wires and connection strategies for molecular electronics, organometallic conducting materials, and electrically switchable holographic recording materials.

Sponsler has organized and chaired symposia at meetings of the American Chemical Society. He has presented many invited lectures, including at American Chemical Society national meetings, Pacifichem international conferences, an Annual Meeting of Nano Science and Technology in South Korea, an Optical Society of America national meeting, and an international meeting of the Society of Photo-optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Sponsler has served as research advisor to more than 70 students and associates. In 2006, he authored the solutions manual to accompany a new graduate textbook Modern Physical Organic Chemistry.

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