Shraddha Avasthy
Materials Science and Engineering
Northwestern University
Room: B560, Silverman Hall
Chemistry of Life Processes Institute,
2170 Campus Drive
Evanston IL, 60208-3113
Phone: (847) 491-5809
Fax: (847) 491-7280
Email: shraddhaavasthy2013@u.northwestern.edu
Education
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL December 2013
- Ph.D. candidate, Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Dissertation title: Mechanical characterization of sub-surface features in soft and hard materials
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL August 2006
- Masters of Science (Thesis), Department of Materials Science and Engineering
- Dissertation title: Soft Three Dimensional Microfluidic and Integrated Optical Systems for Sensing
Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India May 2002
- Bachelor of Technology in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering (Gold Medal)
- Project title: Optimization of operation parameters for separation of materials with different size distributions and its visualization using OpenGL programming
Research Experience
Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Sept 2008-present
Graduate research assistant, Advisor: Prof. Vinayak P. Dravid
- Tested therapy of Acute Lung Injury diseases such as pneumonia and diagnosis of colon cancer by measuring mechanical properties of biological cells at the nano-scale.
- Detected sub-surface defects using ultrasonic mechanical property testing at the nano-scale.
University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, IL January 2004-June 2006
Graduate research assistant, Advisor: Prof. John A. Rogers
- Fabricated an all-polymer optical sensing device for a lab-on-a-chip system.
Hindalco, Aditya Birla Company, India May 2001-July 2001
Summer Research Internship, Advisor: Arindam Sarkar
- Recommended changes to production process to improve its efficiency and cut costs.
Current Research Work
Study of mechanical properties of biological systems and soft materials with Scanning Probe Microscopy:
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Dynamic scanning probe microscopy to study the effect of thrombin (a hemostyptic agent) and sphingosine 1-phosphate (a therapeutic agent) on mechanical properties of Human Pulmonary Endothelial Artery cells.
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Scanning probe microscopy study of mechanical properties of HT 29 colon cancer cells and their RNA inhibited knocked down version for non-invasive diagnosis of disease progression. Confocal fluorescence, optical and electron microscopy being used for validation and further analysis.
- Study the effect of roughness on optical signal contrast obtained through Pulsed Wave Spectroscopy on cheek cells from humans. Roughness study is being conducted to see if surface topography variation between healthy and diseased cells can have any contribution to the changing optical signal.
Publications
Analysis of the role of cortactin in actin cytoskeleton rearrangement of live human pulmonary artery endothelial cells through atomic force spectroscopy. S. Avasthy (in preparation)
Surface mapping of sub-surface defect in Si(100) at sample longitudinal thickness mode resonance. S. Avasthy (in preparation)
Improving accuracy of nanoscale mechanical measurements with AFM-based Contact Resonance Force Microscopy using Silicon as model material. S. Avasthy, J.H. Kim, G.S. Shekhawat, S.P. Shah and V.P. Dravid (to be submitted)
Sub-cellular Dynamic Mechanical Response Measurements of Live Human Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells with Atomic Force Microscopy. S. Avasthy, Y. Ishikawaa, G.S. Shekhawat, V.P. Dravid, G. Mustata, M.E. Brown, J.G. Garcia and S. Dudek.. Microscopy and Microanalysis , 18(S2), July 2012 , pp 1622-1623.
Gajendra Shekhawat, Shraddha Avasthy, Arvind Srivastava, , and Vinayak P. Dravid, “Probing Buried Defects in Extreme Ultraviolet Multilayer Blanks Using Ultrasound Holography”, G.S. Shekhawat, S. Avasthy, A. Srivastava, S. Tark and V.P. Dravid. IEEE Transactions on Nanotechnology, 9(6), Nov. 2010.
Ultrasound Holography for Non-Invasive Probing of Buried Defects and Interfaces for Advanced Interconnect Architectures. G.S. Shekhawat, A. Srivastava, S. Avasthy and V.P. Dravid, Applied Physics Letters, 95(26), 263101, Dec 2009.
Soft Lithography for Microfluidic Microelectromechanical Systems and Optical Devices. S.M. Mitrowski, S. Avasthy, E.M. Erickson, M.E. Stewart, J.A. Rogers and R.G. Nuzzo, Unconventional Nanopatterning Techniques and Applications (ISBN: 978-0-470-09957-5; Chapter 12), Wiley Publications, 2008. (Book Chapter)
Scanning Near Field Ultrasound Holograhy. S. Avasthy, G.S. Shekhawat and V.P. Dravid. Acoustic Scanning Probe Microscopy, Series Title 3705, (ISBN: 9783642274947, Chapter 10), Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2012. (Book Chapter)
Scanning Near Field Ultrasound Holograhy. S. Avasthy, G. S. Shekhawat and V. P. Dravid. Encyclopedia of Analytical Chemistry, (ISBN: 9780470027318, Surfaces) Wiley Publications, 2010. (Book Chapter)
Seeing the Invisible: Noninvasive Subsurface Nanoscale Imaging with Scanning Near-Field Ultrasound Holography. S. Avasthy, A. Srivastava, G. S. Shekhawat and V. P. Dravid. FutureFab Intl., Issue 30, July 2009. (Article)
Selected Presentations
Microscopy & Microanalysis Conference: Physical Science Symposium Phoenix, AZ, July 2012
Award talk: “Sub-cellular Dynamic Mechanical Response Measurements of Live Human Pulmonary Artery Endothelial Cells with Atomic Force Microscopy.” S. Avasthy, Y. Ishikawa, G. Shekhawat, V.P. Dravid, G. Mustata, M.E. Brown, J.G. Garcia and S. Dudek.
14th International Scanning Probe Microscopy Conference Toronto, Canada, June 2012
Oral presentation: “Dynamic AFM mechanical property measurements of live single cells under changing physiological conditions.” S. Avasthy, M.E. Brown, Y. Ishikawa, G.S. Shekhawat, J.G. Garcia, S.M. Dudek, and V. P. Dravid
NSF CMMI Grantee Conference: Biomechanics and Mechanobiology Boston, MA, July 2012
Poster presentation: “Implementation of Fluidic-Scanning Near Field Ultrasound Holography with Integrated Electronic Detection for Nano-Bio-Mechanics.” S. Avasthy, Y. Ishikawa, G.S. Shekhawat, and V.P. Dravid.
Catalyzing Collaboration Conference with Focus on Tumor Immunology: Emerging
Discovery, Translational & Diagnostics Approaches Abbott Park, IL, Dec. 2011
Poster presentation: “Seeing and Sensing the Invisible: Emerging Nanostructures and Devices for Biodevices.” S. Avasthy, M. De, G.S. Shekhawat, S.S. Chou, G.M. Mustata and V.P. Dravid.
CMOS Emerging Technologies Conference Whistler, Canada, May 2010
Oral presentation: “Nanoscale Sub-surface Metrology using Ultrasound Holography for imaging buried defects in Advanced Interconnects and Semiconductor Devices.” S. Avasthy, G.S. Shekhawat and V.P. Dravid.
Awards and Honors
Distinguished Scholar Award, Microanalysis Society of America | 2012 |
The Northwestern Graduate School Terminal Year Fellowship | 2012 |
The Northwestern Graduate School Conference Travel Grant | 2012 |
Gold Medal for Materials and Metallurgical Engineering, IIT Kanpur | 2002 |
Certificate for Academic Excellence, IIT Kanpur | 2001 |