The Marder Group seeks to advance fundamental knowledge and adapt new discoveries to practical applications through hypothesis-driven molecular design, effective synthesis, and close collaboration with theoreticians and device scientists. The common thread of research in the Marder Group is the manipulation of electrons in organic and organometallic systems. We design molecules to control localization and delocalization in conjugated materials to probe the influence of molecular structure on bulk properties in nonlinear optical, organic electronic, and surface modifying materials. Further materials design often extends insights gained in the fundamental structure-property research to functional materials that are useful in optical devices, OLEDs, OFETs, and organic solar cells. A thorough understanding of our materials and processes is gained through collaboration with outstanding scientists and engineers at CU and throughout the world.