BY

I would like to thank several people for helping me reach this accomplishment. First, I thank my advisor, Professor William B. Tolman, for his encouragement over the years and allowing me the opportunity to work on interesting and challenging projects and to develop as an independent scientist. I also thank Professor Lawrence Que, Jr., and John Lipscomb for allowing me access to their facilities. I’d like to thank Dr. Victor Young, Jr. for all of his help with X-ray Crystallography. Thanks also to my master degree research advisor, Professor Ho-Gyeom Jang, for his guidance and advice to pursue this career. I would like to thank all past and present Tolman group members for helpful discussions. In particular, thanks to Aalo Gupta for his endeavor to work on Resonance Raman experiments as well as to make our lab a fun place to work. Also, thanks to Drs. Lyndal Hill and Itsik Bar-Nahum for their advice and guidance. I would like to especially thank my wife, Moonyeon Youn, for her constant love, respect and encouragement. I would not be here where I am today without her, who has always helped me to achieve my goals. I also would like to show my deep love to m