The goal Of Professor Weiss’ Lab is to understand the mechanisms by which energy is converted from one form to another within hybrids of inorganic nanostructures and organic molecules. The model system they use most is a colloidal semiconductor nanocrystal, or quantum dot. The primary research areas in the lab are colloidal photocatalysis, the use of quantum dots to drive chemical reactions with unprecedented selectivity; the realization of electron ratcheting, a new mode of electron transport through nominally insulating materials; the design of photonic qubits for quantum information science; the photophysical characterization of mixed-dimensional heterojunctions, comprising 0D quantum dots or molecules and 2D semiconductors; ultrafast biology, the development of probes for biological imaging on the nanosecond timescale; and hierarchical photocatalysis, the coupling of catalytic processes to mechanical actuation.