Michael Sponsler

Michael B. Sponsler earned his PhD from the California Institute of Technology in 1987, working as an NSF Graduate Fellow with Dennis A. Dougherty. He did research as an NIH Post-doctoral Fellow with Robert G. Bergman at the University of California, Berkeley and then accepted a faculty position at Syracuse University in 1989, where he is now Associate Professor. His research involves physical organic studies in the diverse areas of conjugated organometallic complexes and liquid crystalline holographic recording materials. The organometallic studies include synthesis and characterization of both mixed-valence complexes with polyenediyl bridges and related polymers. Applications in molecular electronics and nanotechnology are under investigation. The holographic studies are focused on new strategies for producing electrically switchable holograms.