MoNalisa Faculty Activities

NANO RESEARCH ACTIVITIES	WEB SITE
Molecular motor powered by the hydrolysis of ATP to translate DNA. The motor, one of the strongest molecular motors reported, appears to be novel mechanistically in comparison to the two known rotary motors, flagella and F1-ATPase. The structural components of the motor and their concerted function are being dissected by integrated genetic, biochemical and biophysical investigations.	Anderson, Dwight Dept. of Microbiology and Oral Sciences
Characterization and Electrophoretic Manipulation Individual Nanoparticles, liposomes, and subcellular nanostructures in aqueous phases. Total analysis of natural bionanostructures.	Arriaga, Edgar Dept. of Chemistry
The mechanism by which an electrochemical gradient is generated and is utilized is an important, unsolved problem in biological chemistry, and the focus of my research interests.	Barry, Bridgette Dept. of College of Biological Sciences
Synthesis, physical characterization, physical properties and modeling of block copolymers and block copolymer based blends. Characterization tools include small-angle x-ray and neutron scattering, dynamic mechanical spectroscopy, electron and optical microscopy, rheology, large strain mechanical testing, transport (ionic, diffusion) measurements, and processing techniques.	Bates, Frank S Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Development of chemically selective scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) as a new characterization tool for nanosciences. Chemically selective imaging of individual molecules by use of chemically modified STM tips. Chemistry of carbon nanotubes and their application as STM tips. Characterization of self-assembled monolayers at the molecular level.	Buhlmann, Philippe Dept. of Chemistry
Obtaining direct write electron beam lithography system as a general usage tool for the microtechnology lab. Sytem will be online in late 2001. Nanoparticle research: heterogeneous systems by electrostatic localization of 5 to 50 nm inorganic structures on predefined sites; nonvoilatile memories built by by embedding particles in insulatoring films.	Campbell, Stephen Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Characterization of structure and defects at the nonoscale. Materials systems include metals, semiconductors, ceramics and copmposites. All aspects of TEM, SEM and AFM. Thin films, particulates, growth and properties.	Carter, C. Barry Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science
Electronic, optical, and surface properties of molecular materials on sub-micron length scales. We emphasize molecular materials that have current or potential applications in electronics, and rely heavily on nanofabrication techniques and scanning probe microscopies to correlate properties of these materials with their microstructure.	Frisbie, C. Daniel Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Computational chemistry and computational biology. Zeolites, computational techniques to develop nanomaterials.	Gao, Jiali Dept. of Chemistry
Plasma synthesis of nanoparticles. Plasma deposition of superhard nanostructured films for friction and wear resistance. Synthesis of amorphous silicon films with nanocrystalline inclusions, for photovoltaic applications. Energetic properties of nanoparticles for applications such as solid fuel propulsion. Gas-phase nucleation of nanoparticles during semiconductor processing.	Girshick, Steven L Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Molecular routes to nanocrystalline materials. Chemical vapor deposition of high dielectric constant metal oxides. Nanocrystalline gallium nitride.	Gladfelter, Wayne L Dept. of Chemistry
Physics of mesoscopic solids, electronic properties, correlated electron tunneling, transport of interacting electrons, ballistic conduction, collective excitations, quantum fluctuations. Superconductivity: properties of layered and high-Tc materials, quantum and thermal fluctuations in samples of reduced dimensionality and mesoscopic superconductors.	Glazman, Leonid Dept. of Physics
Design, synthesis, and manuipulation of nanostructured block copolymers. Polymer synthesis. Fluorinated Polymers. Biodegradable materials. Nanoporous materials. Photonic switching.	Hillmyer, Mark A Dept. of Chemistry
Micropattern, surgace immobilization, gradient of biomolecules, neuronal cell, cell adhesion, nerve guide.	Hu Wei-Shou Dept. of Chemical Engineering
Non-Traditional Nanofabrication: Scanning Probe Lithography and Electric Microcontact Printing to pattern charge, oxides, and resists with sub 100 nm resolution. 2. Self-Assembly Based Manufacturing: The use of electrostatic forces to pattern nanoparticles with sub 100 nm resolution (NanoXerography).	Jacobs, Heiko O Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Nanoscale electronic device, circuit, and fabrication technologies. Electronic logic, memories and sensors based on Coulomb blockade. Molecular-based electronic logic and memory devices. Circuit architectures for nanoscale electronics. Self-assembly of circuitry by controlled precipitation in solids. Programmed assembly of electronic circuits by DNA scaffolding. Electric-field driven assembly and manipulation of molecules.	Kiehl, Richard A Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Primary research interests are in nonequilibrium plasmas processes for advanced technological applications as well as nanoparticle formation in plasmas. Formation and growth of nanoparticles in low pressure plasmas, depositions of nanostructured thin films, electron kinetics in low pressure plasmas, and stability of atmospheric pressure glow plasmas.	Kortshagen, Uwe Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Magnetic heterostructures and nanostructures. Thin film multilayers and superlattices. Interface magnetism and magnetic coupling phenomena. Large area magnetic nanodots fabricated by biological templating. Reversal mechanisms and coercivity in dot arrays.	Leighton,Chris Dept. of Chem. Eng. and Materials Science
Measurement of micro/nano scale mechanical properties of soft tissues using nanoindentation and microscratch techniques. Measuring fracture toughness and stiffness of cartilage in the mouse and other small animal models of cartilage disease and injury. These properties are related to microstructural composition and organization of the cartilage.	Lewis, Jack L Dept. of Orthopaedic Surgery and Mechanical Engineering
Block copolymer nanostructures. Polymer synthesis and characterization. Diffusion, rheology, dynamics.	McMurry, Peter H Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Two-dimensional DNA crystals as a scaffolding for the self-assembly of arrays of metallic nanoparticles for the development of new electronic devices. Experiments involve (1) optimization of conjugation strategies for attachment of gold nanoparticles to DNA hairpin oligonucleotides, (2) assembly into two-dimensional DNA crystals, (3) analysis by scanning probe and electron beam microscopies.	Musier-Forsyth, Karin M Dept. of Chemistry
Optical force manipulation of nanoscale particles for nanofabrication applications. Biological nanostructure self-assembly and disassembly.	Odde, David J Dept. of Biomedical Engineering
Nanoscale characterization with wet chemical methods. Fundamental processes by which particles grow and developing methods through which particle size, shape, and microstructure can be controlled.	Penn, R. Lee Dept. of Chemistry
Nanoparticle production and measurement, microcontamination research, filtration and separation technology, aerosol instrumentation, as well as aerosol charging, sampling, transport, and deposition mechanisms.	Pui, David Y Dept. o f Mechanical Engineering
Surface chemistry of size-selected nano-aerosol particles. Atmospheric processing involving nano-sized cloud particles. Spectroscopy at nanoparticle surfaces. Molecular origin of nano-, meso-, and microstructure in chemical vapor deposition. Chemical routes to new, high technology materials.	Roberts, Jeffrey T Dept. of Chemistry
Semiconductors and Biophysics.	Shklovskii, Boris Dept. of Physics shklovskii@physics.spa.umn.edu
Development of a gel membrane-based oscillator which modulates drug release in a pulse-oscillatory manner.	Siegel, Ronald A Dept. of Department of Pharmaceutics
Modeling of complex fluids by particle simulations. Retention in chromatographic systems. Phase equilibria and thermophysical properties. Structure of microheterogeneous fluids (e.g., nanoemulsions). Nucleation of chain and/or associating fluids. Polymorphism and solvate formation.	Siepmann, Ilja Dept. of Chemistry
Self assemled nanopores for use in magnetic and photonic applications, such as high density media, spintronic devices, photonic crystals. Extension of long range order via growth studies.	Stadler, Bethanie J. H Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
Synthesis, characterization, and applications of nanoporous solids. Self-assembly. Surfactant templating. Colloidal crystal templating. Surface functionalization. Catalyst design. Photonic crystals. Bioactive materials. Battery materials. Zeolites.	Stein, Andreas Dept. of Chemistry
Interaction of biological molecules with manmade nanometer-scale patterns and objects. Biomolecule templating of nanoparticle shape and size; novel biosensor technologies from nanoparticle probes; understanding protein-protein, protein-ligand and protein-surface interactions over 10-500 nm lengthscales using nanolithographically patterned models.	Taton, T. Andrew Dept. of Chemistry
Tunneling and spin polarization in Ferromagnet/supreconductor nanostructures. Proximity effects in nanostructures involving magnetic and superconducting materials.	Valls, Oriol T Dept. of Physics
Studies on the microbial transformation of biologically-rare elements: silicon, tin, germanium, boron, and bismuth. These investigations contribute to the microbial genomics effort and potentially new biochemical knowledge to be used in microbially-based nanofabrication	Wackett, Larry Biological Process Technology Institute
Molecular-level design of 2-D and 3-D crystalline frameworks	Ward, Michael D Dept. of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science
Nanoparticle synthesis from the gas phase. Mass-spectrometric characterization and laser induced breakdown spectroscopy. Atomistic simulation of nanoparticle properties. New CVD methods for synthesis of nanocrystalline films.	Zachariah, Michael R Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
Solution phase assemblies and chemical vapor deposition for the growth of covalently anchored monolayers; organic semiconductors; microarray technology.	Zhu, Xiaoyang Dept. of Chemistry
Fabrication of nanoporous materials and their integration with micromachined devices for microfluidic and sensor applications.	Ziaie, Babak Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering
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