Zackary S. Parsons, Ph.D.

Education

• Ph.D. in Physics & M.S. in Physics

  2018 – 2023

  Materials physics specialization. Doctoral research in scanning electrochemical microscopy and nanoelectrode probe development.

• B.S. in Applied Physics & B.A. in Chemistry

  2014 – 2018

  Minor in Mathematics.

• A.A. in Social & Behavioral Sciences

  2012 – 2013

Teaching

• Professor of Physics

  2022 – Present

  3+ years teaching introductory and calculus-based physics at the college level.

• Graduate TA & Learning Assistant

  2016 – 2020

  4+ additional years supporting physics instruction as a teaching assistant, learning assistant, and grader.

Research

• Doctoral Research

  2018 – 2023

  Developed novel nanoelectrode probes for scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM). Demonstrated high-resolution imaging of single nanoparticle activity. Revealed ruthenium particle-size effects on nitrate reduction to ammonia. Uncovered copper oxidation-state effects on nitrate reduction. Elucidated cobalt oxidation-state effects on the oxygen evolution reaction.

• Undergraduate Research, National Laboratory

  2017

  Optimized light-guide geometry in the electromagnetic calorimeter of a particle detector for a relativistic heavy ion collider.

• Undergraduate Research, Radio Observatory

  2016

  Programmed a device for emulating pulsar signals to test digital backends for a large radio telescope.

• Undergraduate Research

  2015 – 2018

  Designed a low-cost scanning tunneling microscope. Wrote an astronomy data processing pipeline (AstroReduce) in Python.

Publications

1. Parsons, Z. S.; Shultz, L. R.; Jurca, T.; Feng, X. (2023). Cobalt (Oxy)hydroxide Nanosheets Supported on Nickel Foam as Efficient Electrocatalysts for Oxygen Evolution. ACS Appl. Eng. Mater. doi:10.1021/acsaenm.3c00258
2. Shi, K.; Parsons, Z. S.; Feng, X. (2023). Sensitivity of gas-evolving electrocatalysis to the catalyst microenvironment. ACS Energy Letters, 8, 2919–2926. doi:10.1021/acsenergylett.3c00962
3. Shultz, L. R.; Parsons, Z. S.; Beazley, M.; Feng, X.; Jurca, T. (2023). Tracking the seconds of a clock reaction: A multiparametric experimental study on the catalytic reduction of methylene blue. J. Phys. Chem. C, 127(8), 4042–4050. doi:10.1021/acs.jpcc.2c08001
4. Xing, Z.; Shi, K.; Parsons, Z. S.; Feng, X. (2023). Interplay of active sites and microenvironment in high-rate electrosynthesis of H₂O₂ on doped carbon. ACS Catalysis, 13(5), 2780–2789. doi:10.1021/acscatal.2c05639

Awards & Fellowships

Skills

Subjects

Experimental Techniques

Fabrication & Electronics

Programming