Jacky Burke

Jacky joined the CHIRAX team in 2025 as a postdoctoral researcher focused on experimentally probing molecular chirality with X-rays. Jacky received their PhD in physical chemistry from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2025 where they were advised by Prof. Josh Vura-Weis and Prof. Renske van der Veen.  During their PhD, they performed ultrafast spectroscopy experiments across the electromagnetic spectrum – from the near infrared to hard X-ray regions – using ultrafast laser, synchrotron, tabletop high-harmonic generation, and X-ray free electron laser sources. In particular, they exploited the elemental specificity of X-ray spectroscopy to track electron transfer in bimetallic molecules. In addition, Jacky developed and measured chiral bimetallic molecules to study the chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect in metal-to-metal charge transfer.