Research in our group has focused on the assembly and chemical reaction of “nontraditional” amphiphilic materials at surfaces and interfaces. We have investigated compounds such as liquid crystals, conducting polymers, fullerene-containing polymers, star copolymers, and nanoparticles. We have been able to make sophisticated measurements of the time dependence of surface properties to address questions such as chemical kinetics and reactivity, viscoelasticity and flow, optical properties, morphology via AFM, and more recently crystal structure via grazing incidence synchrotron diffraction. Recent activities are in the area of nanoparticles for drug detoxification applications, and systems consisting of immobilized ion channels over semiconductor devices.