Delia Milliron
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deliamilliron.bsky.social
Delia Milliron
@deliamilliron.bsky.social
nanocrystals, clean tech, cooking, trails, dogs, higher ed (she/her).
Views are my own and do not represent any institution or organization.
Pinned
How do polymer co-solutes induce attractive interactions between colloidal nanocrystals? Quantitative theory-experiment analysis with @tmtruskett.bsky.social group using small angle X-ray scattering. @texasche.bsky.social @chemistry.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#ChemSky 🧪
Reposted by Delia Milliron
Disorder is inevitable in colloidal assembly. Sharing our latest in ACS Photonics, led by Tanay Paul and Allison Green in collaboration with @deliamilliron.bsky.social, exploring the role of structural disorder in extreme light-matter coupling of plasmonic nanocrystals pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10....
Plasmon Polaritons in Disordered Nanoparticle Assemblies
Multilayer assemblies of metal nanoparticles can act as photonic structures, where collective plasmon resonances hybridize with cavity modes to create plasmon-polariton states. For sufficiently strong coupling, plasmon polaritons qualitatively alter the optical properties of light-matter systems, with applications ranging from sensing to solar energy. However, results from experimental studies have raised questions about the role of nanoparticle structural disorder in plasmon-polariton formation and the strength of light-matter coupling in plasmonic assemblies. Understanding how disorder affects optical properties has practical implications since methods for assembling low-defect nanoparticle superlattices are slow and scale poorly. Modeling realistic disorder requires large system sizes, which is challenging using conventional electromagnetic simulations. We employ Brownian dynamics simulations to construct large-scale nanoparticle multilayers with controlled structural order. We investigate their far- and near-field optical response using a superposition T-matrix method with two-dimensional periodic boundary conditions. We find that while structural disorder broadens the polaritonic stop band and the near-field hot-spot distribution, the polariton dispersion and coupling strength remain unaltered. To understand the effects of nanoparticle composition, we consider assemblies with Drude model particles mimicking gold or tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) nanocrystals. Assemblies of ITO nanocrystals, which have lower carrier concentrations, exhibit ultrastrong coupling, in contrast to Au nanoparticle multilayers that display deep strong coupling. Finally, we demonstrate that while computationally efficient mutual polarization method calculations employing the quasistatic approximation modestly overestimate the strength of collective plasmon coupling in these assemblies, they reproduce the polariton dispersion relations determined by electrodynamic simulations.
pubs.acs.org
September 30, 2025 at 6:09 PM
Abortion bans make pregnancy more dangerous and put young families at risk.
Earlier this year, ProPublica found that the sepsis rate in second-trimester pregnancy loss hospitalizations increased by more than 50% under Texas’ abortion ban.

Here’s how we did our analysis.

(Published Feb. 2025)
Texas Won’t Study How Its Abortion Ban Impacts Women, So We Did
Since Texas banned abortion, no one has studied the statewide effects on pregnant women experiencing complications. Here’s how we sifted through data on millions of pregnancy hospitalizations and anal...
www.propublica.org
September 21, 2025 at 1:54 PM
Huge thank you to my DMG (Delia Milliron Group) students and postdocs for the amazing send off at group meeting today. Go Blue! #ChemSky
August 4, 2025 at 11:18 PM
The girls are training for our upcoming trip.
July 26, 2025 at 6:19 PM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
“More than 140 employees of the National Science Foundation have signed a letter denouncing what they described as efforts to undermine one of the country’s main science funding agencies.”
Amid Fear of Retaliation, N.S.F. Workers Sign Letter of Dissent
www.nytimes.com
July 23, 2025 at 3:12 AM
In discussing the redistricting news with folks outside of Texas, I've realized many don't know how much our democracy is already eroded. The GOP is not worried about losing ground, rather they are aiming to go even FURTHER to undermine representation for democrat-leaning populations.
July 21, 2025 at 12:09 PM
On my way to the first-ever American Conference on Inorganic Nanoscience (ACIN). Grateful to @brandicossairt.bsky.social and the other organizers for bringing the community together to exchange ideas. I hope our international colleagues can reach the US safely.
#chemSky
July 6, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
"I now start my classes by saying science is a human endeavor, with the uniquely human parts making us stronger—if we let them." scim.ag/3Sn9O7G #ScienceWorkingLife
May 5, 2025 at 3:43 PM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
Staff members at the US National Science Foundation (NSF) were told on 30 April to “stop awarding all funding actions until further notice,” according to an email seen by Nature.

https://go.nature.com/44Ugf9V
Exclusive: NSF stops awarding new grants and funding existing ones
US science funder also plans to screen grant applications for compliance with ‘agency priorities’.
go.nature.com
May 1, 2025 at 10:51 PM
This is chilling. The slowing of grant funding to a crawl could, through recission later this year, result in drastically reduced FY25 funding that provides the excuse for drastically reduced science funding going forward. The copy-paste of this strategy to #NSF and others seems likely.
🧪#ChemSky
New at Can We Still Govern: An anonymous NIH employee maps out the GOP budget gameplan to permanently gut our most important science agency.
Impoundment, delay and red tape will create artificial "savings" that become the new benchmark for NIH budgets.
donmoynihan.substack.com/p/the-nih-bu...
The NIH budget is on a fast track to disaster
An NIH insider explains what Republicans are likely to do next, and what we can do
donmoynihan.substack.com
April 29, 2025 at 12:29 AM
Useful info for those mystified (and angered) by the student status terminations hitting international students at campuses across the US.
We already know of over 1,000 student visa terminations. The true number is likely significantly higher. Very few have anything to do with pro-Palestinian advocacy. The overwhelming majority seem to be the result of automated terminations for any contact with law enforcement, no matter how minor.
There are specific regulatory and procedural requirements to end a student’s legal status, attorneys say.

But the basis for the vast majority of terminations—including traffic violations and other misdemeanor issues—wouldn’t meet them, they say. And students aren’t getting a chance to respond.
April 15, 2025 at 7:20 PM
Photonic integration of plasmonic metal oxide nanocrystal assemblies for ultrastrong coupling and infrared spectral tuning. Collaboration with @utmid-ir.bsky.social and @tmtruskett.bsky.social now out in @pubs.acs.org ACS Nano.
@texasche.bsky.social

#ChemSky 🧪
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...
April 12, 2025 at 6:25 PM
How do polymer co-solutes induce attractive interactions between colloidal nanocrystals? Quantitative theory-experiment analysis with @tmtruskett.bsky.social group using small angle X-ray scattering. @texasche.bsky.social @chemistry.bsky.social

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

#ChemSky 🧪
April 11, 2025 at 7:52 PM
I'm watching closely, with a flicker of hope, and with pride as an alum, how Princeton is responding to funding threats and how other universities will, I hope, rally in solidarity with them and with each other. #academicSky
Relatedly: University President Christopher Eisgruber signaled that Princeton would not make concessions to the federal government in an interview with Bloomberg after news broke that the Trump administration had suspended dozens of the University’s research grants.
In Bloomberg interview, Eisgruber signals that Princeton will not make concessions
University President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 signaled that Princeton would not make concessions to the federal government after news broke that the Trump administration had suspended dozens of the U...
www.dailyprincetonian.com
April 3, 2025 at 2:15 AM
A robot called WANDA... My group has recently returned to @molecularfoundry.lbl.gov to use WANDA and work with @emorychannano.bsky.social on nanocrystal synthetic development.

#ChemSky
April 2, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Heading to San Diego for #ACSSpring2025? Check out our three-day symposium on Responsive Colloidal Networks (3/23, 3/26, 3/27) with more than 40 speakers.

Full technical program: lnkd.in/gdd-2YKE

Thanks to sponsors: @acs.org, @aip.bsky.social, Syngenta, @texasche.bsky.social, and UW ChE
ChemSky🧪
March 22, 2025 at 3:23 PM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
"If science is to honour one of its core values — a commitment to the truth wherever it might lead — scientists must stand up when DEI matters"

www.nature.com/articles/d41...
Don’t wait out four hard years: speak truth to power
The importance of diversity in science is an unshakeable reality that the scientific community must stand by.
www.nature.com
March 17, 2025 at 3:48 PM
Big congrats to my @texasche.bsky.social colleague Wennie Wang on her Maria Goeppert Mayer award from @apsphysics.bsky.social for "research on defective transition metal oxides...[&] a commitment to broadening participation of underrepresented groups in computational materials science"
🧪ChemSky
March 18, 2025 at 3:35 PM
Grateful for my elected US rep @doggett.house.gov and colleagues from UT Austin who gave voice yesterday to the importance of science. The baseless and destructive dismantling of science and higher ed in the US must stop. We must protect funding and demand disbursement of funds for research!
This Friday, March 7, at 5 pm on the Texas State Capitol south steps, I am speaking at a public event to Stand Up for Science as part of a national day of action. Essential to engage more and more neighbors in rejecting the science deniers. (1/2)
March 8, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
Special Bluetorial: The benefits of different life experiences

The scientific community has folks with a very wide range of life experiences. We have a lot to learn from one another.
a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
ALT: a cartoon says hey everybody an old man 's talking while bart simpson looks on
media.tenor.com
February 7, 2025 at 3:08 AM
Reposted by Delia Milliron
Received this email from my chair tonight (🧵, 1/6):

"The DOE has issued new guidance indicating that, until further notice, there will be delays in any funding actions. Here’s what this means for projects pending or already awarded by DOE:
1. Pending Proposals: Awards will be postponed.
...
January 24, 2025 at 2:25 AM
Reading about these various definitely-not-DEI-hire nominees, I can't help but wonder if the Republicans have confused "meritocracy" with "mediocrity."
January 24, 2025 at 1:52 AM
New #ChemRxiv #preprint from my group and collaborators @tmtruskett.bsky.social and @utmid-ir.bsky.social

Ultrastrong coupling and IR spectral design by assembling layers of plasmonic ITO nanocrystals in open cavities. Surprising disorder tolerance of polariton modes!

chemrxiv.org/engage/chemr...
January 18, 2025 at 10:01 PM
Excited to see this research published! From my @texasche.bsky.social colleague @joaquinresasco.bsky.social and his team about how dissolved ions restructure the electric field at the electrode-electrolyte interface to modulate electrocatalytic reactions. ChemSky 🧪
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Organic electrolyte cations promote non-aqueous CO2 reduction by mediating interfacial electric fields - Nature Catalysis
Electrolyte cations have been shown to have a strong impact on reactivity in electrocatalytic CO2 reduction. However, most studies have been performed in an aqueous environment. Here the effect of var...
www.nature.com
January 10, 2025 at 9:25 PM
As a department chair, I routinely review student comments submitted to my colleagues and occasionally check the averages on the quantitative ratings. The kinds of gender biases reported in this study and in many others are pervasive.
Did you see this experiment my colleague Kristina conducted not just at my university but *in my department*? She and the male instructor assumed eachothers’ names for an online course: and the difference in feedback they received was horrifying.
Student Evaluations Can’t Be Used to Assess Professors. They’re Discriminatory.
And that means they’re illegal.
slate.com
December 31, 2024 at 12:46 PM