Professor Willett obtained a Ph.D. in Chemistry and Physics at Iowa State University. A NATO Senior Postdoctoral Fellowship initiated collaboration in low temperature physics at the Kamerlingh-Onnes Laboratorium in Leiden, the Netherlands. He was a visiting professor of physics at the University of Zrich in 1980 and a Fulbright fellow in chemistry at the University of Leiden in 1981. He has also had many close contacts with research groups in Florence and Modena, Italy. He served as Chair of the Chemistry Department at WSU from 1974-1978 and from 1992-1998;

Our research interests center on the properties of transition metal oligomers and polymers, with particular emphasis on copper halide salts. Systems with unusual magnetic, conductive, catalytic, and structural behavior are under investigation utilizing a wide range of experimental techniques including X-ray diffraction, low temperature magnetic studies, DSC, EPR, and spectroscopic techniques.

Magnetic studies have centered on the elucidation of magneto-structural correlations and their utilization on the design of novel low-dimensional magnetic systems. The ability to tune the magnetic behavior by small changes in structural parameters is an excellent example of the power of "molecular engineering" in the development of new materials. Current interests center on the synthesis and characterization of ferrimagnetic chains of mixed metal ions and of ladder structures.

A new area of interest is in the electrochemical synthesis of potentios high Tc magnetic materials. Initial studies have focused on the preparation of transition metal/TCNQ salts with further extension planned to metal/tetracyanoethylene and metal cyanide systems, among others;

Phase transition studies on transition metal salts involve such phenomena as thermochromism and piezochromism (involving change of coordination geometry), ferroelectric and ferroelastic systems, the dynamic cooperative Jahn-Teller effect, and incommensurate behavior. The latter involves the superposition of a continuous distortion (with a temperature dependent 1 wavelength) upon a basic structure.

Please note that there are no graduate student positions open in my laboratory at this time.