My current work has been focused on the effective design of charge-transfer, ligand-centered, and/or metal-centered excited states. This research maps the transition from homo-to-heterobimetallic complexes while employing less expensive first-row versus third-row transition metals despite known lower spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and intersystem crossing (ISC). Techniques such as DFT and second order perturbation (MP2) methods have been employed in combination with experimental studies to address mechanisms underlying the luminescence behavior governed by the properties of inter- and/or intramolecular interactions.The key to successful design of optoelectronic materials lies in the ability to tailor the photophysical properties and bonding schemes by altering molecular composition and molecular structure. A large part of our research focuses on the exploration of novel bonding schemes in complexes containing group 6, 10, and 11 transition metal ions with the aim of pioneering studies on the design of new highly luminescent materials. More specifically, efforts have been focused on reaching maximum bond orders between two metal centers as well as studying metal-metal bonding in closed-shell metal complexes. Consequently, the strengthening of metallophilic interactions to reach covalency between closed-shell or pseudo-closed shell (e.g., nd10, nd8) metals is of current significance. Additional research includes studies into luminescent molecules such as monovalent coinage metal N-heterocyclic carbene complexes and main-group N-heterocyclic carbene molecules for applications in light-emitting devices, catalysis, and biomedical devices.