Program Chair of Chemistry
Associate Professor of Chemistry
Jessica Lu’s teaching interests are in the areas of analytical, physical, and environmental chemistry. She teaches in the undergraduate B.S. program in Chemistry. Her courses include Analytical Chemistry lecture and lab, where students learn how to detect and quantify chemicals in laboratory and real-world samples, and Physical Chemistry, where students study the underlying physical principles that describe chemical systems. She enjoys integrating the Christian faith with stewardship of the environment through chemistry.
Lu is interested in research into the chemical and physical properties of organic compounds in their journey through the environment, building from a molecular-level picture and extending to surfaces and microdroplets. Specific projects have focused on the collection and chemical analysis of tropospheric aerosols, the study of pesticide degradation on environmental surfaces, and the properties of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. She has published in peer-reviewed journals, such as Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics. Lu completed post-doctoral research at Virginia Tech, the University of British Columbia, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, Switzerland (ETH Zurich).
2019 – Present: Stewart Science Honors Program Faculty Fellowship: Biola University
2013 - 2015: Marie Curie International Incoming Fellowship: ETH Zürich
2011: Graduate Research Award, Virginia Tech
2009 - 2010: Fulbright Research Grant: Israel, Weizmann Institute of Science
Can Optical Trapping be used for Freezing Studies? Lu, J. W., Corsetti, S., McGloin, D., Signorell, (In prep)
Low-temperature Bessel beam trap for single submicron aerosol particle studies, Lu, J. W., Isenor, M., Chasovskikh, E., Stapfer, D., Signorell, R. (Rev. Sci. Instrum. 2014)
Gas-Surface Reactions of Nitrate Radicals with Vinyl-terminated Self-Assembled Monolayers, Zhang, Y. F., Chapleski, Jr., R. C., Lu, J. W., Rockhold, Jr., T., Troya, D., Morris, J. R., (2014)
Timescales of water transport in viscous aerosol: measurements on sub-micron particles and dependence on conditioning history Lu, J. W., Rickards, A. J., Walker, J. S., Knox, K. J., Miles, R. E. H., Reid, J. P., Signorell, R., (2014)
Interfacial Energy Exchange and Reaction Dynamics in Collisions on Model Organic Surfaces, Lu, J. W., Day, B. S., Fiegland, L. R., Davis, E. D., Alexander, W. A., Troya, D., Morris, J. R., (2012)
Spring 2015 American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO. Presented on “Homogeneous freezing of single submicron to micron-sized water and hydrocarbon aerosol droplets levitated in a Bessel beam trap.” March 2015.
Fall 2011 American Chemical Society National Meeting, Denver, CO. Presented on “Reaction dynamics of ozone with unsaturated organic surfaces: Energy exchange, accommodation, and direct reactions.” August 2011.
Southeastern Regional American Chemical Society Meeting, Greenville, SC. Presented on “Energy Transfer and Scattering Dynamics of Ar and CO2 on Methyl- and Perfluorinated Self-Assembled Monolayers.” October 2007.
Biola University