About
Professor Lay joined the faculty in the Department of Chemistry at Cooper Union in 2014. He teaches a variety of courses related to analytical chemistry, nanoscience, and electrochemistry. Dr. Lay’s research allows graduate and undergraduate researchers to obtain expertise in a wide variety of techniques used in chemistry, engineering, nanoscience, and the electronics industry. This includes atomic force microscopy, Raman spectroscopy, uv-vis spectroscopy, mid-IR spectroscopy, electrochemistry, nano-particle separation, fluorescence spectroscopy, and nanoparticle dispersion.
Prior to joining Cooper Union, Prof. Lay was a Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Georgia, where he established a modern materials research laboratory. Before that, he was a Postdoctoral Research Scientist in the Flynn Research Group in the Department of Chemistry and Department of Chemical Engineering, at Columbia University in New York City. There, he used scanning probe microscopy methods to study the self-assembly of various molecular systems. Previously, he was a National Research Council (NRC) Postdoctoral Fellow, working in the Electronic Materials Branch at the Naval Research Laboratory in Washington D.C. This work involved developing new methods to incorporate single-walled carbon nanotubes into device structures to achieve enhanced chemical detection. Prof. Lay received his Ph. D. in Chemistry from the University of Georgia. The focus of his dissertation was scanning tunneling microscopy studies of the electrochemical formation of compound semiconductors. He has published over 30 peer-reviewed manuscripts and abstracts, 4 book chapters, and presented over 40 invited and 30 contributed seminars.