A scientific internship using single-particle plasmonic sensing to quantify surface chemistry. Plasmonic nanoparticles are highly sensitive to their local environment; small changes within a few nanometers of the particle surface lead to measurable shifts in their optical response, making them promising nanoscale sensors. The intern will use a single-particle dark-field scattering setup to measure the optical spectra of individual gold nanoparticles, correlate these with transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to determine particle shape, and systematically modify the surface chemistry by varying and exchanging surface molecules to quantify how sensitively plasmonic nanoparticles probe their nanoscale environment.