Recent News
YASMINE RADWAN RECEIVED NSF INTERN SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDING
Yasmine Radwan has received NSF INTERN supplemental funding to Dr. Kirill Afonin’s NSF grant that will support her six month internship at MIMETAS. This opportunity will augment Yasmine’s research assistantship in the Afonin Lab with non-academic research internship training opportunities that will complement her academic research training.
This funding provides her with financial support of $55,00 that will be used to support travel, tuition and fees, health insurance, additional stipend and temporary relocation costs. This funding opportunity will allow her to acquire professional development experience that will enhance her preparation for multiple career pathways after graduation. Congratulations to Yasmine Radwan and Dr. Kirill Afonin!
Read more about the NSF INTERN supplemental funding.
RUBY MANDERNA AWARDED MoISSI FELLOWSHIP
Ruby Manderna has been awarded a highly competitive Molecular Sciences Software Institute (MolSSI) Software Fellowship to promote the development of software infrastructure, middleware, and frameworks for broader impact in the field of computational molecular sciences, quantum chemistry, and materials science. Ruby was chosen for this prestigious fellowship on the basis of an outstanding research proposal, which integrates scientific and software development goals, and a review of her significant contributions and productivity in the field of open-source software development. This fellowship provides her with financial support of $40,000 stipend for one year beginning in July of 2024 covering the tuition and required fees for the award year allowing her to pursue cutting-edge research and professional development opportunities. This award not only honors her past achievements but also paves the way for a promising and impactful future. Congratulations to Ruby on this well-deserved honor!
Read more about the fellowship.
YELIXZA AVILA: FROM FIRST-GEN TO POSTDOC
In March 2024, Avila was selected as an iCURE scholar for a postdoctoral fellowship with the National Cancer Institute. iCURE is an extension of the NCI Center to Reduce Cancer Health Disparities highly competitive and successful extramural Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences training program. CURE supports the career progression of scholars working toward research independence and fosters diversity in the biomedical research pipeline.
It also offers three-year awards for postdoctoral fellows and provides opportunities to work closely with world-class researchers at the National Cancer Institute. Awardees receive support from NCI program staff, access to resources on intramural and extramural funding opportunities, opportunities for professional and career development activities, and connections to an extensive mentoring network. Avila also will receive a stipend as a first-year iCURE postdoc scholar.
Read more about Yelixza’s story.
JORDAN POLER AWARDED NCINNOVATION GRANT
Jordan Poler, professor of chemistry, has been awarded a grant through a pilot program from NCInnovation. He is one of two UNC Charlotte faculty selected for the funding and among eight researchers chosen from the UNC System.
The grant will allow Poler to expand on his team’s recent innovations in water purification that have led to the creation of patented materials capable of removing harmful compounds more effectively than current market solutions.
At UNC Charlotte, Poler leads a research group that includes students from various disciplines focused on the development of advanced materials.
Poler founded startup naneXPure LLC and will work with Goulston Technologies, based in Monroe, to scale up the drinking water purification materials from bench to industry scale. Poler’s research on water purification materials, which includes the synthesis of polyelectrolytes, novel coordination complexes and nanostructured materials, shows the potential of nanoscale science to create impactful, real-world solutions to improve public health, he said.
Poler, a Fulbright scholar, has previously received grants from the Environmental Protection Agency, the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense for his research on water purification.
Read more about the grants awarded to UNC Charlotte researchers.
WALTER AND HANNA RECEIVED NSF GRANT
The grant will support a collaboration involving both UNC Charlotte and Winthrop researchers to explore photocatalysis with thiazolothiazoles. Photocatalysis is one of the most active areas of development in synthetic chemistry and pharmaceutical development, but much of the field has relied on scarce elements for the catalyst itself. This new research program will develop photocatalytic systems based on more sustainable practices, while also strengthening the connection between the two chemistry departments. Read more about the award: “Exploration and Development of High Performance Thiazolothiazole Photocatalysts for Innovating Light-Driven Organic Transformations.”
News
NSF Chemistry Division Grant The Chemical Synthesis Program of the NSF Chemistry Division has awarded a grant (#1800331) to an interdisciplinary research team led by Professors Thomas A. Schmedake (Chemistry), Michael Walter (Chemistry), and Yong Zhang (Electrical and Computer Engineering) at UNC Charlotte to develop hexacoordinate silicon complexes for optoelectronic device applications like the development […]
Winner of the ACS Nano-tations Video Contest Nano Girls: An epic tale of 3 guys’ quest to use nanotechnology for solar cells. ACS video contest: How will nano change the world?
NANOVEHICLES FOR INTRACELLULAR PROTEIN DELIVERY Juan L Vivero-Escoto Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Charlotte The Center for Biomedical Engineering and Science, University of North Carolina at Charlotte Protein therapeutics holds significant promise for improving human health [1,2]. Our organism contains thousands of proteins, which perform essential functions in growth, development and metabolism […]
GPSG wishes to recognize the volunteer efforts of the Association of Nanoscience Graduate Students (ANGS). Members attended the NC-MSEN Pre-College program to promote chemistry laboratories to high school students in the Science Olympiad.
Ph.D Nanoscale Science Doctoral Dissertation Presentation Gaurav Singh Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Marcus Jones “Investigations into Photo-Excited State Dynamics in Colloidal Quantum Dots” Abstract: Colloidal Quantum dots (QDs) have garnered considerable scientific and technological interest as a promising material for next generation solar cells, photo-detectors, lasers, bright light-emitting diodes (LEDs), and reliable biomarkers. However, for practical […]
Ph.D Nanoscale Science Doctoral Presentation Nathan Behm Doctoral Advisor: Dr. Qiuming Wei “The Influence of Reinforcement Size on the Microstructure and Mechanical Behavior of a Nanostructured Aluminum-Based Metal Matrix Composite” Abstract: With increased availability and growing commercial applications, aluminum-based metal matrix composites show promise as high specific strength structural materials. Before they can be implemented […]
“BROADBAND TERAHERTZ CONDUCTIVITY AND OPTICAL TRANSMISSION OF INDIUM-TIN-OXIDE (ITO) NANOMATERIALS” EVENT DATE: Tuesday, October 1, 2013 LUNCH WITH THE SPEAKER : 11:30am – 12:30pm * 238 Grigg SEMINAR – 12:45 – 1:45pm * 132 Grigg Abstract Time-domain terahertz spectroscopy (THz-TDS) provides a non-contact method for characterizing the electrical and dielectric properties of technologically important materials, […]
Juan Vivero-Escoto Receives Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Award from ORAU Chemistry Assistant Professor Juan Vivero-Escoto has received the 2013 Ralph E. Powe Junior Faculty Enhancement Award from Oak Ridge Associate Universities (ORAU), a 109-member university consortium affiliated with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Dr. Vivero-Escoto was among 30 winners in a pool of 147 […]
Lets congratulate Princess Mycia Cox, fellow nanoscale PhD student, for defending her Ph.D. dissertation, entitled: “Design and fabrication of low loss and low index optical metamaterials” last week. She completed the work under the supervision of Dr. Michael Fiddy (Electrical and Computer Engineering). “Meta-materials” is an highly active area of research at UNC Charlotte. The […]
Department of Chemistry, University of South Florida “LIGHTING-UP METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS: PHOTOCATALYTIC GUEST ENCAPSULATION IN METAL ORGANIC FRAMEWORKS” Metal organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as an important class of porous materials noted for extremely high surface areas, functionalizable building blocks, and ease of synthesis. To date, a plethora of MOFs have now been synthesized and […]
Department of Physics and Astronomy,Kinard Laboratory Building,Clemson University “IMPROVING THE PHYSICS AND SPEED OF DELPHI POISSON-BOLTZMANN SOLVER” Emil AlexovElectrostatic forces and energies are one of the major components of the total energy of biological macromolecules. However, computing the electrostatic field distribution in systems made of biological objects immersed in water is not trivial task because […]
Lets congratulate Jonathan Paul Ligda, another nanoscale PhD student, for defending his Ph.D. dissertation, entitiled: “Effects of Grain Size on the Quasi-static Mechanical Properties of Ultrafine-Grain and Nanocrystalline Tantalum”. He completed the work under the supervision of Dr. Qiuming Wei (Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Science) and Dr. Brian Schuster (Army Research Laboratory). We wish him […]
The Nanoscale Science Ph.D. Program at UNC charlotte would like to congratulate Derek Peloquin and Nathan Behm for getting their team project work published in a peer-reviewed journal. The advance copy of their article, “High-throughput microwave synthesis and characterization of NiO nanoplates for supercapacitor devices” is available online at the Springer’s Journal of Materials Science(DOI: […]
Lets congratulate Ryan Hefti for his recent publication, “Long-Range Correlated Fluorescence Blinking in CdSe/ZnS Quantum Dots” in J . Phys. Chem. C (online pre print, DOI: 10.1021/jp3084343). Ryan is advised by Dr. Pat Moyer (Physics and Optical Science) and this work was in collaboration with Dr. Marcus Jones (chemistry).
University of South Carolina, Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry “INTERFACIAL CHEMISTRY OF SEMICONDUCTOR NANOCRYSTALS” Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals – a type of quantum dot (QD) – are well-known as bright, highly photostable inorganic fluorophores that can be well-suited to imaging applications in biology. Additionally, the delocalized electronic states present in nanoscale semiconductors should offer distinctive ways […]
Sharonda recently defended her Ph.D. dissertation, entitiled: “Electric field dependent spectroscopy of single nanocrystal systems” in front of a packed audience. She completed the work under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Moyer (Physics and Optical Science) and Dr. Marcus Jones (Chemistry) and will soon be starting a postdoctoral position with Dr. Gloria Elliot (Mechanical Engineering […]