Houghton College Chemistry Department

Mengyang Li, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, is a physical chemist.  He received the BS in Physics from Nanjing University, MS from Beijing University, and MS from The University of Rochester, where he made significant contributions to the development of a spectroscopic method to study highly vibrationally excited molecules.  He received the Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from The University of Chicago, where he worked under Professor Stuart Rice and discovered a single crystalline layer of non-polar molecules at a water surface. Prior to this work all known single or double layers of molecules at water surfaces, including life cell membranes, were made of molecules with a polar head group.  His postdoctoral work was in chemical analysis and x-ray diffraction of biological molecules at Yale University.  Before teaching at Houghton, Dr. Li developed instruments for the optical fiber industry at Corning Incorporated.  

Among his academic and professional honors are the Elizabeth R. Norton Prize for Excellence in Research from The University of Chicago, a Helen Hay Whitney Postdoctoral Fellowship, and an award for achievements from the Optical Fiber Division of Corning Incorporated. 

Since 2004 Dr. Li has been teaching Physical Chemistry (two semesters), Analytical Chemistry, Impact of Science on Society, and Chemistry Seminar at Houghton.  He is starting an undergraduate research program.  His current research interests are in developing a time-resolved surface x-ray diffraction method to study surface structural changes.  This research is expected to increase the surface structure time-resolution from currently minutes to milliseconds and beyond, and is expected to have major impact on surface science including the study of the processes at model cell membranes.  This research will use synchrotron x-ray facilities of the Advanced Photon Source at the Argonne National Laboratory.   

Besides teaching and research, Dr. Li enjoys the time with his family, walking, and reading.

 Send an e-mail to Dr. Li.

Selected Publications

 1.      M. Y. Li, A. A. Acero, Z. Huang and S. A. Rice, Formation of an ordered Langmuir monolayer by a non-polar chain molecule, Nature 367, 151-153 (1994).

2.      E. B. Flom, M. Y. Li, A. Acero, N. Maskil and S. A. Rice, In-plane structure of the liquid-vapor interface of an alloy: a grazing incidence X-ray diffraction study of Bi:Ga, Science 260, 332-335 (1993).