Devan E. Kerecman
Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Delaware
Newark, DE 19716
Cell: 570-499-0121
Email: dek@udel.edu
Education:
University of Delaware (2016-Present), Newark, DE
Anticipated Graduation: 2021
West Chester University of Pennsylvania (2012-2016), West Chester, Pa
Bachelor of Science in Chemistry
Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry
Research Advisors: Timothy Starn Ph.D., Jingqiu Hu Ph.D.
Research Experience:
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Ph.D. Candidate, Analytical Chemistry Division (2016-Present)
Dissertation Advisor: Murray V. Johnston Ph.D.
- Utilization of mass spectrometry techniques to characterize the chemical composition of atmospheric organic aerosols.
- Development of an ionization technique, Droplet Assisted Ionization, to sample aerosols directly from liquid aerosol droplets into a custom-built mass spectrometer inlet to obtain molecular composition measurements, study how ions are formed from droplets, and study reaction chemistry accelerated in microdroplets.
- Development and utilization of a stainless-steel flow tube reactor where gas phases reactants are combined to generate organic aerosol under various conditions to simulate atmospheric conditions and to study the effects of precursor, concentration, relative humidity, and aerosol size have on the composition of organic aerosols.
- Proficient in the use of the Waters Synapt G2-S and nanoAcquity UPLC. Experience includes instrument maintenance, tuning, and troubleshooting.
- Proficient in the following software: MassLynx v4.1, Thermo Xcalibur, and Excel for data analysis. Additional experience with ChemDraw, Origin, and R.
- Collaboration with Pennsylvania State University (Research Group of Mariam A. Freedman Ph.D.) to study organic aerosol morphology and phase using cryo-Transmission Electron Microscopy.
Additional Experience:
Mass Spectrometry Facility, University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Graduate Research Assistant (2018-Present)
Advisor: Papa Nii Asare-Okai Ph.D.
- Assist in the operation and function of the Mass Spectrometry Facility including sample analysis of sample submissions in various departments at the University of Delaware and outside the university from local laboratories or companies, instrument maintenance, tuning, and troubleshooting, and assisting and training other students on various instruments.
- Proficient in the operation of the following instrumentation: Thermo Q-Exactive Orbitrap accompanied by two HPLC systems; UHPLC for general applications to provide separation and UV detection, and nano-HPLC for more specialized applications involving sample limited scenarios, the Waters GCT Premier mass spectrometer using GCMS for EI and CI, and option to use liquid injection field desorption ionization for a variety of samples, the Intuvo 9000 GC-MSD and Agilent 7697A Headspace Sampler, Waters Acquity UPLC H-Class/SQD2, Waters Auto Purification system 2767 Sample Manager with HPLC and SQD2 MS, Bruker MicroFlex MALDI-TOF, and the Waters Xevo G2-S QTof. Experience includes maintenance, tuning, and troubleshooting.
- Proficient in the following software: Thermo Xcalibur, Chromeleon Xpress, and MSD ChemStation Data Analysis
Publications:
Apsokardu, M. J., Kerecman, D. E., Johnston, M. V. Ion formation in droplet-assisted ionization. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, 1-7, 2018.
Johnston, M. V., Kerecman, D. E. Molecular characterization of atmospheric organic aerosol by mass spectrometry. Annual Reviews of Analytical Chemistry, 12:247-274, 2019.
Zhang, Y., Apsokardu, M. J., Kerecman, D. E., Achtenhagen, M.; Johnston, M. V. Accelerated
Chemistry in Microdroplets: Reaction of carbonyl functionalities in α-pinene secondary organic aerosol with a derivatizing agent. in preparation.
Presentations:
Kerecman, D. E., Apsokardu, M. J., Johnston, M. V. Mechanistic insights into the ionization of airborne nanoparticles via droplet assisted ionization (DAI). 10th International Aerosol Conference, Saint Louis, MO, 2018.
Kerecman, D. E., Apsokardu, M. J., Zhang, Y., Johnston, M. V. Online molecular analysis of secondary organic aerosol using droplet assisted ionization. 37th American Association for Aerosol Research Annual Conference, Portland, OR, planned for Oct. 2019.
Teaching Experience:
University of Delaware, Newark, DE
Teaching Assistant (2016-2018)
Analytical and Instrumental Methods laboratory courses