News

VPD Group Takes ACS Fall

August 2023   Ben and Jack attended the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society, presenting on their work in the Environmental and Energy and Fuels divisions.

REU Students Present at Montana State University

August 2023   SHyNE’s 5 REU students presented their work during the 2023 Convocation, hosted by Montana State University

RET/REU Farewell Party!

July 2023   On Friday July 28th, the summer RET and REU participants gathered, together with their mentors, for a farewell party.

Yukun Liu Selected for 2023 Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award

July 2023   Yukun Liu, a doctoral student in the VPD Group in Material Science & Engineering, has been selected for the 2023 Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award for his work titled "Probing the 'Order' in Complexity: Entropy-Engineered Thermoelectric Materials."

Celebrating Dr. Liubov Bondarenko on a Job Well Done

July 2023   VPD group and NUANCE staff sent off visiting scholar, Dr. Liubov Bondarenko with a sweet celebration in Northwestern's Atrium.

Yukun Liu awarded Ryan Fellowship

June 2023   Yukun Liu named Ryan Fellow due to their exceptional work as a graduate candidate.

Northwestern Hooding Ceremony 2023

June 2023   Recognizing three PhD graduates at Northwestern's hooding ceremony through celebration and smiles.

VPD Research Group & NUANCE participate in MSSA's 5K!

May 2023   On May 13, 2023, a cold, rainy, and windy Saturday morning, the VPD Research Group and NUANCE Center once again made their way to Northwestern's lakefront for the annual MSSA 5K. MSSA’s annual 5K walk & run is a fundraiser benefiting the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club of Chicago and Letters to a Pre-Scientist. Always ready to support a good cause, staff, students, faculty and family members ran the course, then socialized over snacks and Gatorade post-event. The NUANCE/VPD team also took home the award for the most participants! We are so happy each year to help sponsor the event and support MSSA!

Metal-filtering sponge removes lead from water

May 2023   Reusable sponge can capture and recover critical metals and heavy-metal pollutants. Northwestern University engineers have developed a new sponge that can remove metals — including toxic heavy metals like lead and critical metals like cobalt — from contaminated water, leaving safe, drinkable water behind.

Paty Meza Awarded Federal Funding through NSF GRFP Fellowship

April 2023   Second-year graduate student in the VPD Group, Paty Meza, was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) Fellowship.

Carolin Wahl, Yea-Shine Lee, & Kelly Matuszewski awarded Ryan Fellowship

April 2023   VPD members named Ryan Fellows due to their exceptional work as scholars.

Kunmo Koo Receives 2023 M&M Postdoctoral Scholar Award

April 2023   Postdoctoral research associate Kunmo Koo was honored for his recent work on ultra thin membranes for in situ TEM analysis by receiving the 2023 M&M Postdoctoral Scholar Award.

Yukun Liu Named One of 2023 M&M Student Scholars

April 2023   Yukun Liu, VPD Group doctoral student in Material Science & Engineering, was selected for 2023 Microscopy & Microanalysis Student Scholar Award for his work titled “Probing the ‘Order’ in Complexity: Entropy-engineered Thermoelectric Materials.”

Carolin Wahl Wins International Precious Metals Institute (IPMI) Student Award

March 2023   Congratulations to Carolin Wahl, VPD Group PhD candidate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the McCormick School of Engineering, on receiving the IPMI Graduate Student Award. Winners of this prestigious award are selected annually and present their work at the IPMI Annual International Conference.

Matthew Cheng defends dissertation

March 2023   Matthew Cheng defended his thesis, "Defects and Interfaces in Quantum Systems: van der Waals Crystals and Superconducting Transmons" on March 16th, 2023.

Stephanie Ribet defends dissertation

March 2023   Stephanie Ribet defended her thesis, “The Hierarchy of Length Scales in Materials for Environmental Remediation: From Macroporous Sponges to Sub-Angstrom Electron Probes”, on March 09, 2023. Stephanie has been with the VPD Group since 2018. In April, Stephanie will start as a Postdoctoral Scholar, National Center for Electron Microscopy, Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley Lab.

Waste Sponges and Foams for Environmental Remediation: Teaching 'Old' Materials 'New' Tricks

March 2023   Professor Vinayak Dravid presented the talk: "Waste Sponges and Foams for Environmental Remediation: Teaching 'Old' Materials 'New' Tricks" at the Institute for Sustainability and Energy at Northwestern University.

Soaking up oil spills with sponges

March 2023   Professor Dravid and his group have developed a highly porous smart sponge that selectively soaks up oil in water. With an ability to absorb more than 30 times its weight in oil, the sponge could be used to inexpensively and efficiently clean up oil spills without harming marine life.

Jingshan Du Receives APS Award

February 2023   Group alumnus Jingshan Du receives the FIP Distinguished Student Award of the American Physical Society.

VPD Group and NUANCE Celebrate the Holiday Season

January 2023   New members joined our group at the annual holiday celebration.

Professor Dravid Gives Talk at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research Winter School

December 2022   Professor Dravid delivered the talk: "The Renaissance Era in Electron Microscopy: From Hybrid & In-Situ Microscopy to High Throughput & AI-enabled Discovery" at the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research 2022 Winter School.

Stephanie Ribet wins MRS gold graduate student award at MRS Fall

November 2022   Dravid Group member Stephanie Ribet gave a talk at MRS about her research on virtual detectors and beam modification in 4D-STEM, for which she was selected for a gold award (the highest level).

Nuance Fest 2022

October 2022   We had a great turn out to celebrate National Nano Day and learn about all things NUANCE on Friday October 7, 2022!

VPD Group welcomes 3 new doctoral students

September 2022   The VPD group is pleased to add 3 first-year doctoral students to the group: Alp Kulaksizoglu, Kelly Matuszewski, and Alfred Yan.

REU Student Stephanie Wang wins Best Poster at NNCI Summit

August 2022   Stephanie Wang, a rising sophomore at Case Western University working with the VPD group this summer through the SHyNE NNCI REU program, presented her work this week at the 2022 NNCI summit in Louisville, Kentucky. VPD Group student, Ben Shindel, was Stephanie's mentor in her exploration of heavy metals and tea.

Stephanie Ribet wins Student Presentation award at American Physical Society March Meeting

July 2022   Stephanie Ribet was awarded 1 of 6 Student Presentation awards at the APS March meeting. This competition was sponsored by GIMS with around 50 participants at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Her talk "Enhancing Contrast of Symmetry Breaking Materials" presented the work of her and her co authors: Colin Ophus (National Center for Electron Microscopy at Lawrence Berkeley Lab), as well as Prof. Vinayak Dravid and VPD Group Scientific Officer Roberto do Reis.

Chamille Lescott defends dissertation

June 2022   Chamille Lescott defended her thesis, Synthesis & Characterization of Self-assembled Polymer Nanocomposites, on June 13, 2022. Chamille has been with the VPD Group since 2017 and is co-advised by Evan A. Scott in BME, whose research focuses on synthesizing drug delivery devices for immunomodulation. In July, Chamille will start as an Assistant Professor of Instruction and First-Year Advisor in the McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University.

Stephanie Ribet wins 1st at Hilliard Symposium

May 2022   Stephanie Ribet won 1st place in the Hilliard Symposium with her talk, “The Phosphate Elimination and Recovery Lightweight (PEARL Membrane): A Sustainable Environmental Remediation Approach”. She was joined in the symposium by fellow VPD Group member Chi Zhang with her presentation, “Low Thermal Conductivity in Heteroanionic Materials with Layers of Homoleptic Polyhedra”.

Kelly Parker defends dissertation

May 2022   Kelly Parker defended her dissertation entitled "Soft Microscopy: Enhancing Imaging for the High-Throughput Characterization of Soft Materials". Kelly has been with Northwestern University and the VPD Group since 2016 and focuses on advanced sample preparation and microscopy methods to image soft materials, particularly small biological molecules such as proteins and protein assemblies.

Professor Dravid Speaks at TEDx NorthwesternU

May 2022   Professor Vinayak P. Dravid presented his talk, "Teaching an 'Old' Dog 'New' Tricks" at the 2022 Momentum conference.

VPD Group's Stephanie Ribet Places 3rd in MSSA 5K

May 2022   Last Saturday May 14th presented a beautiful day along the lakefront of Northwestern’s Evanston campus and the perfect weather to hold the Materials Science Student Association’s annual 5K walk & run! Hosted by the MSSA, this annual event is a fundraiser benefiting the Pedersen-McCormick Boys & Girls Club of Chicago and Letters to a Pre-scientist; this year there were close 100 people participating with a great showing from the NUANCE Center and VPD group! Held “virtually” last year, it was refreshing to be able to come together in-person and run/walk for a great cause!

How a sponge could help clean up microplastics in Chicago and the Great Lakes

May 2022   A team of Northwestern University engineers created a coating that, when applied to sponges, traps pollutants found in water.

VPD Group and NUANCE Represented in Middle East

February 2022   Professor Vinayak P. Dravid had the honor to join a small group of invited global speakers, including Nobel laureates Ben Feringa and Andre Geim, at the Thirteenth Annual International Workshop on Advanced Materials (IWAM 2022), held in Ras Al Khaimah (RAK) of UAE. Organized by Professor (Sir) Tony Cheetham, the conference included 3 days of lectures, poster sessions and discussions on the most recent advances in materials science. Professor Dravid presented his talk: Teaching “Old” Materials “New” Tricks: Waste Sponges and Foams for Energy, Environment and Sustainability as the first keynote talk of the workshop. The conference ended with palace banquet hosted by His Highness Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of UAE and Ruler of RAK.

Pearl Membrane Photo used for RMS Digital Calendar

January 2022   RMS has used Stephanie Ribet's Pearl-fect Membrane image for the April image of their digital calendar. "The Phosphate Elimination And Recovery Lightweight (PEARL) membrane, a reusable nanocomposite material, can be used to selectively sequester phosphate ions from polluted waters. From this false colored scanning electron microscope image, we can see the porous and hierarchical nature of the PEARL membrane, which leads to its effective remediation performance. (Hitachi S-3400 SEM)"

VPD Group Covid Detection Article Named One of the Most Downloaded Articles of Biosensors and Bioelectronics

December 2021   "Highly sensitive and ultra-rapid antigen-based detection of SARS-CoV-2 using nanomechanical sensor platform" was listed among the most downloaded articles from Biosensors and Bioelectronics. Dr. Dilip Agarwal, Dr. Vikas Nandwana, Dr. GS Shekhawat, and Dr. Vinayak Dravid were among the primary authors for this research article.

Yukun Liu has been awarded the HMCP Fellowship 2021-22

November 2021   Second year graduate student Yukun Liu won the Hierarchical Materials Cluster Program (HMCP) Fellowship for 2021-22. This is a one quarter fellowship covering tuition, travel funds, and a portion of their stipends for the winter quarter.

Jack Hegarty has been awarded the HMCP Fellowship 2021-22

November 2021   Second year graduate student Jack Hegarty won the Hierarchical Materials Cluster Program (HMCP) Fellowship for 2021-22. This is a one quarter fellowship covering tuition, travel funds, and a portion of their stipends for the winter quarter.

VPD Group's smart sponge featured on NBC News

October 2021   Researchers at Northwestern University developed a reusable sponge with a magnetic coating that attracts oil and can absorb more than 30 times its own weight and can be reused more than 40 times without losing its effectiveness.

New COVID-19 antigen testing method offers highly accurate results in under 3 minutes

October 2021   New variants to the COVID-19 virus have challenged the capacity of existing testing methods to deliver fast and consistently accurate test results, as PCR tests must be sent to labs and can take days to be returned. Furthermore, rapid antigen alternatives struggle to match up to the gold standard. But to effectively slow the rate of infection, spaces like schools and hospitals need ways to accurately identify infected individuals within their first days of infection as they’re walking in the door. Now, a novel antigen-based COVID-19 detection method developed in a Northwestern University laboratory demonstrated 100% accuracy in a blind test in five or fewer minutes from swab to signal.

Jingshan Du Receives Award for Excellence in Materials and Metallurgical Engineering

September 2021   Jingshan Du, who served as a research assistant in the Mirkin Research Group and the VPD Group, was selected as the recipient of the ASM Carl Samans Excellence Award. This is the highest student award given by the ASM Chicago Regional Chapter and carries a $1500 prize. The purpose of this award is to recognize and encourage outstanding graduate and undergraduate students to continue their pursuit of a career in materials science and metallurgical engineering. The award is named in honor of Dr. Carl Samans, who was a member of ASM for 47 years, past president and trustee of ASM International, Assistant Director of Research for American Oil (Amoco), and faculty member of Lehigh University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Penn State University. Du recently completed his Ph.D. at Northwestern and plans to join the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory as a postdoctoral research associate.

VPD Group welcomes 2 new doctoral students

September 2021   The VPD Group is pleased to add 2 first-year doctoral students to the group: Paty Meza and Michael Barsoum.

Stephanie Ribet wins Best Student Paper at 2021 Membrane Technology Conference

July 2021   Stephanie Ribet won best student paper at the 2021 Membrane Technology conference (MTC21) hosted by the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA). Stephanie shared VPD group research on the OHM sponge and PEARL membrane, nanocomposites used to sequester oil and phosphates from polluted waters, respectively. In addition to presenting on the remediation performance of these materials, she showed work done at the NUANCE center, where the team characterized the unusual architecture of these hybrid structures and their interactions with contaminants. For more information on the VPD group’s environmental research check out recent papers: OHM sponge: https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.iecr.0c01493 PEARL membrane: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2102583118

New 'Swiss Army knife' cleans up water pollution

May 2021   Phosphate pollution in rivers, lakes and other waterways has reached dangerous levels, causing algae blooms that starve fish and aquatic plants of oxygen. Meanwhile, farmers worldwide are coming to terms with a dwindling reserve of phosphate fertilizers that feed half the world’s food supply.

Kelly Parker Wins 3rd Place at Hilliard Symposium

May 2021   Kelly Parker was announced as the third place winner of this year's Hilliard Symposium with her presentation "Soft Microscopy: Advancing High-Throughput Characterization at Low-Voltage". Link to full story to come.

Potato Chips Inspire Novel Method for Water-Splitting

March 2021   Finding clean energy sources will be a key to mitigating climate change in the 21st century. Recent work by Northwestern Engineering could be part of the solution, and the result was inspired by a lowly lunchbox treat.

Women researchers shine in science spotlight

March 2021   More than a hundred attendees from around the world gathered virtually to celebrate International Women’s Day at the Women in Microscopy Conference. The event, co-hosted by Northwestern’s NUANCE Center, highlighted the work of female researchers, product specialists, and lab managers from universities, national labs, and microscope vendors. The VPD Group's own Stephanie Ribet was one of the two co-chairs that made this incredible event reality.

Stoicheia Announces Scientific Advisory Board

March 2021   "Stoicheia, a new technology startup that uses a nanotechnology-based approach to ultrahigh throughput materials discovery, today announced the first four members of its scientific advisory board. Bringing expertise in nanotechnology, materials science and clean energy, Richard Crooks, Vinayak Dravid, Edward Sargent and Peidong Yang joined the Stoicheia team, effective February 17. With the ability to perform millions of experiments simultaneously, Stoicheia’s technology can rapidly identify new materials with ideal properties for numerous applications, including for the energy, transportation, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries." Click to read the full article

Matthew Cheng Featured in MSA Student Spotlight

March 2021   "This month's Physical Sciences Student Spotlight is on Matthew Cheng. Matt is a 4th year PhD student at Northwestern University in the group of Professor Vinayak Dravid. Matt graduated from University of Illinois Urban-Champaign (UIUC) in 2016 from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Research Focus: Matt’s area of expertise is on characterizing 2D materials with an emphasis on high resolution electron microscopy. He works to establish structure-property relationships in 2D ferroic materials for next generation memory storage and quantum devices. This ties into larger efforts in the field of device development to miniaturize new technologies." Read the full feature here: https://www.facebook.com/MSAStudentCouncil/posts/4149230435098777

Kelly Parker Featured in MSA Student Spotlight

March 2021   "And Kelly Parker is in March's Biological Sciences Student Spotlight. Kelly is a fifth year PhD student at Northwestern University in Dr. Vinayak Dravid’s research lab. Her research involves characterizing soft and biological materials, specifically proteins, DNA, and other small biological molecules. Because these materials are both low-contrast and susceptible to beam damage when imaging, Kelly’s research focuses on improving contrast while avoiding high electron doses; this includes using low-voltages, particularly in scanning electron microscopes with transmission detection (STEM), for high-contrast, high-throughput imaging. Kelly’s work, thus, enhances the imaging tools required to answer questions related to the characterization of various biological materials." Read the full feature here: https://www.facebook.com/MSAStudentCouncil/posts/4149234878431666

Women in Microscopy Conference

February 2021   The Microscopy Society of America Student Council and Northwestern University’s NUANCE Center are excited to present a half-day conference to highlight women in microscopy in honor of International Women’s Day. Please join us for research talks and panels, featuring a keynote from Dr. Ilke Arslan, Director of the Center for Nanoscale Materials and the Nanoscience and Technology division at Argonne National Laboratory. The talks will include a diverse range of topics including cryo-EM, magnetism, and quantum imaging. Plus, our career panels feature vendors, lab managers, and researchers from both academic and federal labs who can provide insight on working in microscopy. We hope you can join us for our celebration of Women in Microscopy! All are welcome and encourage to attend.

Imaging Breakthrough Leads to Further Understanding of Genome Structure and Function

January 2021   A combination of novel techniques helped shed light on how the genome is constructed.

New Work on 2D Materials Could Enable Cheaper and Effective Infrared Photonic Components

November 2020   A 2D-layered material may allow the development of superior infrared optical devices that are less expensive to produce

Yea-Shine Lee has been selected to participate in the HMCP Cluster 2020-21

November 2020   Yea-Shine Lee and Carolin Wahl were selected to participate in the Hierarchical Materials Cluster (HMCP) for 2020-21. The Hierarchical Materials Cluster provides new opportunities for cross-disciplinary student research and training by integrating the strengths of the Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry Departments in nanostructured materials research with the strengths of the Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering Departments in the measurement and modeling of physical properties

Carolin Wahl has been selected to participate in the HMCP Cluster 2020-21

November 2020   Carolin wahl has been selected to participate in the Hierarchical Materials Cluster(HMCP). The Hierarchical Materials Cluster provides new opportunities for cross-disciplinary student research and training by integrating the strengths of the Materials Science and Engineering and Chemistry Departments in nanostructured materials research with the strengths of the Physics, Electrical Engineering, and Mechanical Engineering Departments in the measurement and modeling of physical properties.

Songting Cai Wins The 2020 Weertman Fellowship

October 2020   Songting Cai has been selected to be the winner of the prestigious Weertman Doctoral Fellowship for her outstanding scholarly achievements and promise.

Jingshan Du winner of the 2020 IIN Outstanding Research Award

October 2020   Jingshan Du has been chosen to receive the 2020 International Institute for Nanotechnology (IIN) Outstanding Research Award in recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of nanotechnology research over the past year.

Stephanie Ribet Awarded the National Water Research Institute (NWRI) and American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) Fellowship 2020

September 2020   The National Water Research Institute (NWRI) and the American Membrane Technology Association (AMTA) fellowship is awarded to support graduate student water research projects. Stephanie's research project is titled, “Multifunctional Nanocomposite (MNS) Membrane for Nutrient Recovery.” Congratulations, Stephanie!

Meet Stephanie Ribet, PhD student in Dravid Group

September 2020   Stephanie Ribet is a third-year graduate student in the Dravid Group, which investigates atomic and nanoscale phenomena in advanced materials.

VPD Group welcomes 2 new doctoral students

September 2020   The VPD Group is pleased to add 2 first year doctoral students to the group: Yukun Liu and Jack Hegarty.

Songting wins the Terminal Year Fellowship

July 2020   Songting Cai was selected by the Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science to receive this year’s fellowship.

VPD Group Members Create Smart Sponge!

May 2020   Several VPD Group Members have created a highly porous smart sponge that can separate oil from water!

Akshay Murthy on TGS Spotlight

May 2020   Akshay Murthy has been featured in the TGS Spotlight.

Akshay Murthy Wins First Place in Hilliard Symposium!

May 2020   Akshay Murthy wins first place in student speaking contest in the Hilliard Symposium!

Dr. Akshay Murthy defends his thesis via Zoom!

April 2020   In light of the highly unusual circumstances, Dr. Akshay Murthy defended his thesis on April 10th via Zoom!

Hee Joon Jung of VPD Group Co-Authors Paper

April 2020   Hee Joon Jung, PhD has co-authored a research paper published in the online Journal Science about efficient, stable silicon tandem cells enabled by anion-engineered wide-bandgap perovskites.

The 2020 Microscopy & Microanalysis Scholar Awards

April 2020   This year, NUANCE is proud to announce we have three of our resident scholars and one of our collaborators receive this award!

'Atomic dance' reveals new insights into performance of 2D materials

February 2020   The article published in ACS Nano is titled "Direct Visualization of Electric-Field-Induced Structural Dynamics in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides" and Akshay Murthy is the lead author.

Songting wins PPG Fellowship

January 2020   Songting Cai was selected by the PPG Fellowship committee to receive this year's award.

New article published in Energy and Environmental Science

January 2020   Songting Cai is the first author of the article, which is titled "Discordant Nature of Cd in PbSe: Off-centering and Core-shell Nanoscale CdSe Precipitates Lead to High Thermoelectric Performance".

Chi, Matt, and Kelly attend ASU Winter School

January 2020   Chi, Matt, and Kelly attended the High Resolution Electron Microscopy Winter School at ASU to gain theoretical and hands-on experience with a variety of electron microscopes and techniques.

VPD group bids farewell to Qing

December 2019   Good luck Qing!

2D subgroup members present work at MRS

December 2019   Akshay Murthy and Jennifer DiStefano recently presented their work at the Fall MRS meeting in Boston

VPD Group welcomes 3 new graduate students

November 2019   We are pleased to add Carolin, Ben, and Yea-Shine

VPD group bids farewell to Ben Myers

October 2019   Good luck to Ben in his new role!

Xiaomi Zhang successfully defends her thesis!

October 2019   Dr. Xiaomi Zhang, a VPD Group graduate, defended her thesis on October 4th. Congratulations, Dr. Zhang!

Welcome 2019 Mat Sci graduate students! VPD group meetings posted here

September 2019   Click here for the details on available positions and the group meeting schedule.

Please join us for the 2019 VPD Group Picnic on October 2nd

September 2019   The VPD Group will be hosting a picnic on Monday, October 2nd from 4-6 PM in the Tech AB Wing Atrium on the second floor. There will be free food, music, and games for all.

NUANCE Fest is coming soon!

September 2019   NUANCE Center will host its annual NUANCE Fest and Open House on October 9, 2019

Jingshan Du wins Perkin Scholarship at SCI Meeting

September 2019   A VPD student, Jingshan Du, won the Perkin Scholarship last week from the Society of Chemical Industry American in Philadelphia.

Betrayal of classical atomic defect mechanism in a Quasi-1D material

September 2019   Dr. Hee Joon Jung is first author in new Nano Letters publication titled, "Unconventional Defects in Quasi-one-Dimension KMn6Bi5"

Dr. Eve Hanson visits Prof. Dravid and VPD Group

August 2019   VPD Group graduate, Dr. Eve Hanson, stopped by to visit the new AB space last week.

Prof. Dravid presents at M&M 2019

August 2019   Prof. Dravid gave his invited talk at M&M 2019 titled, "'Hybrid' Microscopy: Multimodal, Correlative and Dynamic Characterization of Soft and Hybrid Structures."

Three VPD Group students win second place at M&M 2019

August 2019   Three VPD students: Chi Zhang, Kelly Parker, and Songting Cai, won second place for their individual posters at the M&M 2019 Meeting. Congratulations!

Akshay Murthy named one of 2019 M&M Student Scholars

August 2019   Akshay Murthy, VPD student, was named one of the 2019 M&M Student Scholars at the M&M 2019 Meeting.

Prof. Dravid recognized as MAS Fellow (Inaugural Class 2019) at M&M 2019 Meeting

August 2019   Prof. Dravid was recognized as a member of the Inaugural Class of MAS Fellows by the President of MAS at the M&M 2019 Meeting in Portland, OR.

Prof. Dravid visits with former visiting scholar Prof. Jiaqing He and family

July 2019   Prof. Jiaqing He, current professor at SUSTECH and long time and current collaborator, visited Prof. Dravid in his new space over the weekend.

Prof. Dravid runs into former VPD student Dr. Jeff Cain

July 2019   While on travels to the Berkeley area, Prof. Dravid ran into former VPD student, Dr. Jeff Cain and his family.

Jann Grovogui and Xiaomi Zhang co-author article in Advanced Energy Materials

July 2019   Two VPD Group students, Jann Grovogui and Xiaomi Zhang, co-authored an article titled, "High Thermoelectric Performance in PbSe–NaSbSe2 Alloys from Valence Band Convergence and Low Thermal Conductivity" that was published in Advanced Energy Materials.

Chamille Lescott and Kelly Ann Parker awarded Ryan Fellowship

July 2019   Two VPD Group students, Chamille Lescott and Kelly Parker, were awarded the prestigious Ryan Fellowship. Congratulations Chamille and Kelly!

VPD Student's Family Visits Prof. Dravid

July 2019   Cesar Villa, a VPD Group student, brought his family to Prof. Dravid over the holiday weekend. It is always nice to meet the loved ones of our students!

Prof. Dravid attends Commencement

July 2019   Commencement is bittersweet. We bid goodbye to some fantastic students setting out on the next adventure. It also allows us to connect with colleagues in the ResearchNU community.

New article published in Science

June 2019   Prof. Dravid and student Jingshan Du were among authors of "Particle analogs of electrons in colloidal crystals" published in Science.

Chinmay Menon wins "Best Presentation" at Industrial Advisory Board summit

June 2019   Chinmay Menon, an undergraduate student in the VPD Group, won "Best Presentation" for his slide deck presentation at the Industrial Advisory Board summit

Dr. Yue Li successfully defends her thesis!

June 2019   Dr. Yue Li, a VPD Group and Backman Lab graduate, recently defended her thesis titled, "Multi-Scale ELectron Micrscopy Imaging Platform for Quantifying Genome Organization."

Danny Kostelancik presents senior project

June 2019   Danny Kostelancik, a VPD Group undergraduate student, presented his senior project on June 12th.

Jen DiStefano attends Science Outside the Lab Workshop in Washington D.C.

June 2019   Jen DiStefano attended the "Science Outside the Lab" in Washington D.C. The lab is sponsored by NNCI and helps students contextualize how their study interacts with policy and society.

Prof. Dravid welcomes KAIST faculty during MSE NU-KAIST Workshop

May 2019   Prof. Dravid welcomed visiting faculty from KAIST (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) during an MSE hosted NU-KAIST Workshop.

Xiaomi Zhang wins first prize at the Hilliard Symposium

May 2019   Xiaomi Zhang won first prize at the Materials Science and Engineering John E. Hilliard Symposium last night.

Prof. Dravid elected Fellow of the Microanalysis Society (MAS), Inaugural Class of Fellows 2019

May 2019   Prof. Dravid was elected Fellow of the Microanalysis Society, a part of the Inaugural Class of Fellows 2019.

VPD Group Participates in MSSA 5K

May 2019   VPD Group participated in the Materials Science Student Association (MSSA) 5K race over the weekend.

Kelly Parker, VPD student, parent's visit Prof. Dravid and VPD Group

May 2019   Prof. Dravid met the visiting parents of a VPD student Kelly Parker.

VPD Group publishes article in Advanced Materials

May 2019   Advanced Materials recently published an article co-authored by Prof. Vinayak Dravid and Dr. Gajendra Shekhawat as well as several other members of the VPD group and NUANCE titled, "Spatial Mapping of Hot‐Spots at Lateral Heterogeneities in Monolayer Transition Metal Dichalcogenides". Poya Yasaei and Akshay Murthy are first authors of this study, which examined the role interfaces within 2D play on heat dissipation properties within these systems.

Akshay Murthy presents at MRS spring meeting

May 2019   Akshay Murthy, a graduate student in the VPD group, presented his work at the Materials Research Society Spring meeting in Phoenix.

Jingshan Du Receives IPMI Sabin Metal Ron Bleggi Student Award

April 2019   Jingshan Du, a Dravid Research Group PhD Candidate, was awarded the IPMI Sabin Metal Ron Bleggi Student Award. He will be travelling to Reno, NV in June to give a short talk.

VPD Group bids farewell to Karl!

April 2019   Dravid Group wishes the best of luck to Karl Hujsak, former Dravid PhD candidate, at his new position!

Prof. Dravid attends Ambani wedding

April 2019   Prof. Dravid visited Mumbai, India to attend the beautiful wedding of Akash and Shloka Ambani.

Prof. Dravid invited to talk at Chevron

April 2019   Prof. Dravid traveled to San Francisco at the end of March to give two talks at the Richmond Technology Center (Chevron), as well as make a visit to Stanford University.

Welcome Giuditta!

April 2019   Undergraduate student Giuditta joins the Dravid Group as the newest member of the 2D materials subgroup

Visit from Dr. Stanley Chou, Sandia National Laboratories

April 2019   Former Dravid Research Group graduate, Dr. Stanley Chou, paid a visit to the VPD Group last Monday, April 8th.

Jennifer DiStefano selected as student writer for Duke SciPol

April 2019   Jennifer DiStefano, Dravid Group Ph.D. Candidate, was recently selected as a student writer for Duke SciPol.

Jingshan Du attends American Chemical Society National Meeting

April 2019   Jingshan Du, Dravid Group PhD candidate, attends ACS National Meeting in Orlando, FL.

VPD Group hosts Dr. Cary Hayner of NanoGraf Corporation

March 2019   VPD Group was visited by Dr. Cary Hayner - Northwestern University alum, and Co-Founder and CTO of NanoGraf Corporation.

Prof. Dravid presents at 2019 ChemPhysMat conference

March 2019   Prof. Vinayak Dravid recently traveled to India to present at the 2019 ChemPhysMat conference, celebrate a colleague's birthday and attend a memorial event for the late BoT Shyam Kothari.

New Publication in 'Science'

March 2019   NUANCE's Professor Vinayak P. Dravid, was co-author on a study on understanding and predicting polyelemental, multiphasic nanoparticles which was published in Science's March 1 issue.

Annelise Riles, Executive Director of the Buffett Institute, visits NUANCE

March 2019   Annelise Riles, Executive Director of the Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Studies at Northwestern University visited NUANCE and met with Professor Dravid on February 27, 2019.

Jen DiStefano wins AAAS award

March 2019   VPD Group member Jen DiStefano was awarded for her poster presentation at the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual meeting.

VPD Group tours new facility

February 2019   The VPD Group will be moving into a new facility in the A/B wing of the Tech Institute later this year. The group toured the facility, which is still under construction, in January.

Committee on Extraterrestrial Sample Analysis Facilities Releases New Report

January 2019    The Committee on Extraterrestrial Sample Analysis Facilities, of which NUANCE’s Center Director, Professor Vinayak P. Dravid is a committee member, released a new report on the future needs of extraterrestrial sample analysis facilities.

Karl Hujsak defends thesis

January 2019   Karl Hujsak successfully defended his thesis just before the holiday break.

VPD Group bids farewell to two postdocs

January 2019   As 2018 came to a close, VPD Group said goodbye to two postdoctoral fellows, Poya Yasaei and Yuan Li.

Qing Tu presents at MRS fall meeting

December 2018   Qing Tu, a postdoc with VPD Group, presented his paper at the MRS fall meeting in Boston.

Qing Tu presents work at American Vacuum Society symposium

November 2018   Qing Tu gave a presentation at the American Vacuum Society's 65th international symposium.

Jen DiStefano & Kelly Parker present research at SWE conference

October 2018   VPD Group's Jen DiStefano and Kelly Parker attended the 2018 Society for Women in Engineering Conference in Minneapolis earlier this month.

Fernando Castro successfully defends thesis

October 2018   VPD Group's Fernando Castro successfully defended his thesis Monday.

Professor Dravid speaks at Shanghai materials genomics workshop

October 2018   Professor Vinayak Dravid was invited to be a keynote speaker at the 2018 International Workshop on Materials Genomics at Shanghai University.

Please join us for the 2018 VPD Group Picnic on October 1st

September 2018   The VPD Group will be hosting a picnic on Monday, October 1st from 4-6 PM in the Cook Hall Atrium. There will be free food, music, and games for all.

Roberto dos Reis joins VPD Group as Scientific Officer

September 2018   Roberto dos Reis has joined VPD Group as its new Scientific Officer.

Welcome 2018 Mat Sci graduate students! VPD group meetings posted here, the group has 3 open positions!

September 2018   Click here for the details on available positions and the group meeting schedule.

Dravid Group exchanges with Park Group at UChicago

August 2018   Several members of VPD Group recently visited and exchanged research presentations with members of Jiwoong Park's group at the University of Chicago.

VPD Group accepting post-doc applications

August 2018   A postdoctoral research associate position is immediately available at Northwestern University in the area of “Cryo Electron Microscopy” of proteins, related biomolecular structures, complexes and their conformational dynamics under external stimuli.

Jingshan Du mentors future nanoscience researcher

August 2018   VPD Group Ph.D. candidate Jingshan Du spent the summer contributing to the future of nanoscience research by mentoring an undergraduate researcher.

Family fun at VPD Group

July 2018   Some of VPD Group's youngest members visited the lab recently.

VPD Group publishes in Chemistry of Materials

July 2018   An article by multiple members of VPD Group was recently published in "Chemistry of Materials."

VPD Group welcomes tiny new member

July 2018   VPD Group has a tiny new addition: member Abha Singh's daughter Aahana, who was born on Sunday!

Eve Hanson and Ben Myers graduate

June 2018   Northwestern University’s commencement celebrations took place on Friday. VPD Group had two graduates in the Class of 2018: Eve Hanson and Ben Myers.

VPD Group mentee graduates with honors

June 2018   Tiffany Zheng, an undergraduate senior mentored by VPD Group member Vikas Nandwana, has been selected to graduate with honors.

VPD Group members Ryoo and Singh moving to new positions

June 2018   VPD Group members Soo-Ryoon Ryoo and Abha Singh will each be leaving Northwestern to start new positions.

Professor Dravid visits JEOL Japan

June 2018   Professor Vinayak Dravid recently visited the factory of microscope manufacturer JEOL in Japan.

Kelly Parker awarded National Science Foundation fellowship

June 2018   Kelly Parker, a second year PhD student in the VPD group, was awarded the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (NSF GRFP) fellowship.

Findings from VPD Group alumnus enable faster computer processing

June 2018   Dr. Jeff Cain, formerly a PhD student in the VPD group, recently had his work published in the Journal of Applied Physics titled Controlled synthesis of 2D MX2 (M = Mo, W; X = S, Se) heterostructures and alloys.

Nandwana wins Visualization Competition at Computational Research Day

May 2018   Dr. Vikas Nandwana, a postdoc in VPD Group, won the Northwestern Information Technology department's visualization competition.

VPD group participates in MSSA 5K

May 2018   This weekend members of Dravid group participated in the Materials Science Student Association 5K, which raised money for Junior Science Club. This is an organization that promotes science with middle school students.

Vikas Nandwana speaks at Seven Minutes of Science symposium

March 2018   Postdoctoral Fellow Vikas Nandwana presented his research at the Ready Set Go program's "Seven Minutes of Science" symposium.

Vikas Nandwana presents at MBP preceptor event

February 2018   Postdoctoral fellow Vikas Nandwana presented on behalf of VPD Group at the Masters of Biotechnology Program preceptor event.

VPD postdocs present at American Chemical Society national meeting

February 2018   Abhalaxmi Singh and Soo-Ryoon Ryoo attended and gave oral presentations at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Washington, D.C.

Eve Hanson successfully defends thesis

February 2018   Eve Hanson successfully defended her dissertation on Feb. 19.

Vikas Nandwana presents at Blitz Talks

February 2018   VPD Group postdoctoral fellow Vikas Nandwana presented his research at the Medical Scientist Training Program Blitz Talks.

VPD Group hosts annual picnic

January 2018   VPD Group had its annual picnic October 1 in Cook Hall.

VPD Group Members attend Center for Electrochemical Energy Science (CEES) All Hands Meeting

November 2017   Fernando Castro, Jinsong Wu, Kai He, and Cesar Villa attended the Center for Electrochemical Energy Science (CEES) All-Hands Meeting where Fernando and Cesar presented posters.

Dravid Group develops new ultrasound bioprobe technique

November 2017   Professor Dravid and Gajendra Shekhawat developed a new imaging technique to peer inside living cells, the work was featured in McCormick and published in Science Advances.

Jen's image chosen for Royal Microscopy Society's 2018 Calendar

November 2017   Jen's MoS2 nanostars image will be featured in the Royal Microscopy Society's 2018 Calendar and is a finalist for the MRS Science as Art competition.

Karl presents for SPIE-MRSEC seminar series

November 2017   As part of the SPIE-MRSEC student seminar series, Karl presented his talk "Accelerating Materials Characterization with Machine Learning".

VPD Group welcomes 3 new graduate students

November 2017   We are pleased to add Matt Cheng, Chamille Lescott, and Chi Zhang.

VPD Group Celebrates Halloween

October 2017   Several group members were in the Halloween spirit, check out their costumes here.

Cesar attends ABAA-10

October 2017   Cesar attended to the 10th edition of the International Conference on Advanced Lithium Batteries for Automobile Applications (ABAA-10) in OakBrook, IL.

VPD Group Picnic Photos

October 2017   Thanks to all those who came and helped out with the picnic! Click here to see photos.

Fernando wins first Annual Dravid and NUANCE Croquet Event (ADANCE)

October 2017   Fernando beat Cesar, Hee Joon, Jann, Karl, Xiaomi, and Will in the event at NUANCE Fest.

VPD Group Picnic on October 6th

September 2017   Come for food, games, and music October 6th from 4-6 PM in the Cook Hall Atrium!

Professor Dravid catches up with Dr. Matt Jones

September 2017   Professor Dravid meets up with Mirkin group alumnus Matt Jones at the Liquid Phase Electron Microscopy Conference in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

Welcome 2017 Mat Sci new graduate students! VPD Group has 4 open positions

September 2017   Click here for the details on available positions

Qingyuan successfully defends!

September 2017   Qingyuan passes his defense! Congratulations Dr. Lin!

Professor Dravid meets Qingyuan's son Aiden

September 2017   Qingyuan's son Aiden visits Northwestern and meets Professor Dravid.

Good luck Yifan!

September 2017   Visiting scholar Yifan's stay at Northwestern comes to an end.

ISEN and McCormick highlight Eve's battery commercialization paper

September 2017   Eve's battery commercialization paper was recently published online in MRS Energy and Sustainability and profiled online by McCormick and the Institute of Sustainable and Energy at Northwestern!

Xiaomi and Jann attended ICT 2017

August 2017   Xiaomi and Jann attended the International Conference on Thermoelectrics in Pasadena, CA, and Xiaomi presented on her recent thermoelectric findings.

Fernando represents VPD group at DoE PI Meeting in Washington, DC

July 2017   Fernando participated in the EFRC-Hub-CMS PI meeting in Washington, DC. He gave a poster presentation and organized a social outing for other graduate students.

Karl visits collaborators in Germany

July 2017   Karl visits Germany for 2 weeks. He is hosted by Prof. Dr. Rafal E. Dunin-Borkowski.

Dravid group paper receives ACS Nano cover

May 2017   The paper is titled "High Throughput Synthesis of Multifunctional Oxide Nanostructures within Nanoreactors Defined by Beam Pen Lithography" and was a collaboration between the Dravid and Mirkin groups.

VPD Group Alumnus Awarded

May 2017   Elizabeth Dickey, PhD, returns to accept award for distinguished career

Qingyuan receives SPIE scholarship

May 2017   Qingyuan was awarded a 2017 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE.

Xiaomi passes her Qualifying Exam

April 2017   Congratulations to Xiaomi for passing her Qualifying Exam!

Vikas presents at 2017 ACS Spring Meeting

April 2017   Vikas recently attended the ACS Spring meeting held in San Francisco and gave 1 oral and two poster presentations.

VPD Group Member Jann Grovogui accepted to attend Nanotechnology and Policy SOtL Program

April 2017   As part of the Science Outside the Laboratory Program, Jann will have an all expense paid trip to Washington, DC to meet with lawmakers and other people of influence regarding nanotechnology policy and legislation.

Professor Dravid reviews energy research with Dr. Eric Toberer

April 2017   Professor Dravid discusses thermoelectric materials and other energy policies with young Colorado School of Mines faculty, Eric Toberer.

Vikas' image selected to be displayed in ABRF Meeting

March 2017   Vikas' image of a magnetic nanoflower was displayed as one of the cool and exciting images at the 2017 ABRF Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Professor Dravid meets Jeff's newborn son, Liam Cain

March 2017   Professor Dravid meets with Jeff, Kelcie, and Liam for the first time.

VPD and Fernando Attend ICARBM and IUSSTF

March 2017   Professor Dravid and Fernando attend the Advanced Rechargeable Batteries & allied Materials (ICARBM) Conference and the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum (IUSSTF)

Vikas publishes paper in Chemistry of Materials

February 2017   Vikas has recently published a new paper "High-Density Lipoprotein-like Magnetic Nanostructures (HDL-MNS): Theranostic Agents for Cardiovascular Disease" in Chemistry of Materials

Vikas presents the CAPS webinar

February 2017   Vikas was selected and presented a 45 minute webinar on Magnetic Nanostrucutres as part of the Northwestern Cancer Center's Chemistry and Physical Sciences (CAPS) program

Dr. Byungha Shin gives talk at NU

February 2017   Dr. Byungha Shin gives a Dravid Group special research talk on "Emerging Materials for PV and LED: CZTS and Hybrid Perovskites"

2D subgroup welcomes its newest member, William "Liam" Cain!

February 2017   Congratulations to Jeff and Kelcie Cain on their handsome, happy new addition!

VPD Group Student visits University of Texas-San Antonio

January 2017   Fernando visited the Yacamán Group at the University of Texas at San Antonio to gain more experience with aberration-corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy (STEM)

Jingshan and Cesar win Hierarchical Materials Cluster Program (HMCP) Fellowship

January 2017   This fellowship will cover tuition, travel funds, and a portion of their stipends.

Good Luck Heguang!

November 2016   Visiting scholar Heguang's stay at NU comes to an end

VPD Group Adds 3 New Graduate Students

October 2016   We are pleased to add Kelly Parker, Will Kellogg, and Songting Cai

Dr. Larry Drummy gives talk at NU

October 2016   As part of the Frontiers in Nanotechnology Seminar Series, Dr. Drummy presented on “Tomographic and In-situ characterization of soft matter”

Jeff Cain Visits Sandia National Laboratory

September 2016   He had the opportunity to work as a visiting scientist with Dr. Stan Chou

Jeff Cain Wins Outstanding Researcher Award from IIN

September 2016   The award recognizes graduate students and postdoctoral associates for exceptional contributions to the nanotechnology field

VPD Group Picnic on October 7th

September 2016   Come for food, games, and music!

David wins 2nd prize in the ASM International Undergraduate Materials Design Competition

September 2016   The competition is based on the submission of design-focused project reports that describe work that was performed as part of the capstone course or as a team project by undergraduate engineering students

Jeff Cain Wins Terminal Year Fellowship

September 2016   The fellowship will cover the remainder of his PhD tenure

Evan wins Meister Summer Research Award

September 2016   The award allowed him to complete a summer research project titled: Magnetic Nanostructure-Hydrogel Composites for 3D Printing Applications

Dr. Kai He gives invited talk at ACS National Meeting

September 2016   The talk was titled "Probing sodium insertion mechanism in graphene oxides by in situ TEM"

Energy Subgroup publishes in ACS Nano

September 2016   The paper discusses the reactions of sodium (and lithium) with Se-nanotube in an effort to develop high capacity sodium-ion batteries for energy storage

Welcome 2016 Mat Sci new graduate students! VPD Group has 4 open positions

September 2016   Click here for the details on available positions

VPD group hosts 3 REU students

August 2016   As part of the Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program, 3 undergraduate students had the opportunity to work alongside VPD group members

Strong VPD Group Showing at 2016 Microscopy and Microanalysis Conference

July 2016   Several members of the VPD group and NUANCE, including Professor Dravid himself, shared their research through several poster and oral presentations at this year’s Microscopy and Microanalysis conference in Colombus, Ohio

Vikas wins the Katten Muchin Rosenman Award

July 2016   The award was given for his presentation at the 8th Annual Lurie Cancer Center Symposium

2D Subgroup publishes review article in COSSMS

June 2016   The article is titled "Emerging opportunities in the two-dimensional chalcogenide systems and architecture"

Scientists develop "Ultimate Discovery Tool"

June 2016   The tool offers the ability to rapidly test millions of different nanoparticles rapidly in order to determine the best particle for a particular application

Vikas' image is selected as one of the top 12 images by National Nanotechnology Initiative

June 2016   The images will be up for voting from June 6th to June 17th in the nationwide image contest

Vikas Nandwana publishes paper in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces

June 2016   The paper is titled "Engineered Theranostic Magnetic Nanostructures: Role of Composition and Surface Coating on Magnetic Resonance Imaging Contrast and Thermal Activation​"

Dravid Group begins new 3D Printing Project

June 2016   The printer will be used to print hydrogel and MNS nanocomposites

Jeff Cain publishes paper in ACS Nano

May 2016   The paper is titled "Growth Mechanism of Transition Metal Dichalcogenide Monolayers: The Role of Self-Seeding Fullerene Nuclei"

Fernando attends MRS conference and ASU Microscopy Workshop

April 2016   The MRS conference gave him an opportunity to give a poster presentation on his work

Jann Grovogui Awarded Federal Funding through NSF GRFP Fellowship

March 2016   This funding will help him research thermoelectric materials for waste heat energy capture and conversion

Fernando Receives Travel Grant for MRS

February 2016   The HMCP travel grant will allow him to present his work on "Li-Ion Conversion Reaction Battery Anodes with Metal-Metal Oxide Multilayer Architecture"

Fernando gives talk as part of Graduate Student Speaker Series

February 2016   The VPD group member spoke to students, teachers, and administrators at Vernon Hills High School

VPD openings for undergraduates

February 2016   VPD Group has open positions for undergrads. Click here for the details

Vikas and Xin Awarded Postdoc Professional Development Travel Award

February 2016   The two VPD group members received awards to assist in traveling to conferences, seminars, and meetings

Samsung GRO funding awarded

January 2016   Jinsong Wu, Vinayak Dravid and others awarded funding for exploration of novel metal fluoride electrodes for high capacity lithium-ion batteries

ISEN research project “Probing battery electrochemistry in situ at atomic scale”

January 2016   Jinsong Wu, Vinayak Dravid, Mark Hersam and Dr. Jeffrey Elam granted ISEN research project

Vikas featured on Helix Magazine

December 2015   HELIX magazine recently published an article featuring Vikas' image of magnetic nanostructures

Vikas received an honorable mention at a scientific image exhibition

November 2015   Vikas' image selected as one of the top 12 images at NU

Ryan Fellowship Quarterly Meeting

November 2015   Jeff presented his research at the Ryan Fellowship Quarterly Meeting

Materials Research Society- Fall Meeting 2015

November 2015   Three Dravid group members presented their research at the 2015 Fall MRS meeting

VPD Graduate Student Awarded HMCP Fellowship

November 2015   Xiaomi awarded Hierarchical Materials Cluster Program Graduate Fellowship

Vikas awarded Katten Muchin Rosenman Travel Scholarship

November 2015   Vikas received Katten Muchin Rosenman Travel Scholarship​ for the 2015 MRS Fall meeting in Boston

Vikas presented the first CAPS webinar of year 2015-2016

October 2015   VPD member presented in a video conference presentation

VPD-NUANCE annual picnic!

October 2015   VPD Group & NUANCE Members celebrated annual picnic

Eve and Qingyuan Received HMCP Conference Funds

October 2015   VPD members received travel funds

VPD alumnus Dan making good progress in Boeing

October 2015   VPD alumnus in Boeing

Vikas' poster selected in NUPF Symposium

September 2015   VPD group member will present in the Third Annual NUPF Symposium

MRS abstracts accepted for oral presentation

September 2015   Three VPD group members are going to present on 2015 MRS Fall Meeting

VPD alumnus Felix having a blast in his MD-PhD program

September 2015   Great news from VPD alumnus Felix in NYC Mt. Sinai.

Eve Visits NIMS in Tsukuba, Japan

September 2015   VPD group member visits Japan

Welcome 2015 Mat Sci new students! VPD Group has 4 open positions.

September 2015   4 VPD openings for 2015 new graduate students. Click here for the details

Vikaś's image selected as top ten images of Northwestern

August 2015   VPD group member won Scientific Images Contest 2015

Shaleen Vasavada has been accepted to the University of Illinois College of Medicine

July 2015   Former VPD Group Member Accepted to Medical School

Jeff and Qingyuan awarded Ryan Fellowship

July 2015   VPD members named Ryan Fellows due to their exceptional promise as scholars

New Publication from VPD Group

June 2015   Qingyuan's first author paper published on NanoLetters

Welcome our visitor from NTU!

June 2015   VPD group meets Prof. Sierin Lim of NTU

Qingyuan Lin received Fellowship in Leadership

May 2015   VPD member awarded Fellowship in Leadership at Northwestern

VPD undergrad received Meister Award

April 2015   David Chae is the recipient of the Meister Award of 2015

VPD member reveived Honorable Mention for the NSF fellowship

April 2015   Eve Hanson received an Honorable Mention for the NSF fellowship

Hitachi HD-2700 STEM imaging at Harvard

March 2015   VPD members traveled to Harvard to use the Hitachi HD-2700 STEM

New Opening for Post-Doctoral Research Associate

March 2015   Opening for Distinguished Post-Doctoral Research Associate in “Scanning Probe Microscopy”

Fernando started his new year in HRTEM winter school in Arizona

January 2015   VPD graduate student attend Winter School on High Resolution Electron Microscopy

VPD group featured on 'India Abroad'

January 2015   Dravid team's research highlighted on India Abroad

Farewell Noma!

December 2014   Tsunenori Nomaguchi to return to Hitachi

New High Impact Publications from VPD Group

December 2014   Professor Dravid co-authored in one article recently published on Nature Chemistry

Dravid Lab Researchers Report First Early Stage Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease

December 2014   Debilitating Disease Set to Affect Millions of Americans Still Lacks Effective Diagnosis or Treatment

Fernando Castro Receives Scholarship to ASU EM Workshop

November 2014   Electron Microscopy Workshop will Enhance Dravid Group Research in Fundamental Materials Studies

VPD Graduate Students Awarded HMCP Fellowship

November 2014   Three VPD graduate students awarded Hierarchical Materials Cluster Program Graduate Fellowship

Welcome VPD new group member!

November 2014   VPD group member Fengyuan gave birth to her baby

Welcome Professor Ran and Xiaomi

October 2014   Welcome Ran and Xiaomi!

New VPD Article Published on High Impact Journal

September 2014   Our facile synthesis method for high quality ultrathin layers of 2D crystals has been published on ACSNano

PhD Open Positions: Fall 2014

September 2014   Openings in Multifunctional Oxides for Nanopatterning & Advanced Microscopy; Unconventional Atomically-Layered 2-D Structures and Architecture; Microscopy of Energy Materials in Batteries & Thermoelectrics; and “Soft Microscopy” for SPM and Microscopy of Nano-Bio-Hybrids.

Immediate Postdoc Positions Available!

September 2014   At least two postdoctoral positions are available related to synthesis of nanostructures and their applications to biomedicine. One position is focused on chemical/solution synthesis of nanostructures while the second position aims to explore biomedical applications of nanostructures.

Microscopy and Microanalysis 2014 in Hartford

August 2014   Fengyuan Shi presented in Microscopy and Microanalysis 2014 in Hartford, CT

Happy Birthday Professor Dravid!

July 2014   VPD Group members celebrate Professor Dravid's birthday

Former VPD PhD student Bin Liu Proposed to his girlfriend at graduation ceremony

June 2014   Bin Liu proposed to his girlfriend during the hooding ceremony

VPD Graduate Students Hooded

June 2014   Three VPD graduate student get hooded

VPD Group Meets Professor Shivaprasad of JNCASR

May 2014   Meetings Foster Collaboration in Transport Phenomena of GaN

Professor Dravid hosted Special Seminar for Prof. S.M. Shivaprasad

May 2014   Prof. S.M. Shivaprasad from India visited Northwestern and gave talk at Materials Science & Engineering Department

Yi-Kai Huang Successfully Defended His Dissertation

May 2014   Yi-Kai defended his PhD dissertation:"Synthesis, Characterization and Properties of Functional Nanomaterials: Metal Oxides and Layered Materials"

Professor Dravid gave talk on Elastic Strain Engineering Live Broadcast

May 2014   Professor Dravid talked about 'Strain Mediated Phenomena in Nanostructured Oxides and Chalcogenides'

Unveiling of the NU Formula SAE Car

April 2014   Dan Charles lead the Composites team for NU Formula SAE Car this year

New Publication from VPD group

April 2014   Thermoresponsive magnetic hydrogels based on poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) encapsulation of Fe3O4 magnetic nanostructures (MNS).

Dravid Lab Researchers Again Shatter Thermoelectric Record

April 2014   Interdisciplinary Team Achieves ZT of 2.6 in New Nature Publication

Congratulations to Karl Hujsak, 2014 NSF Graduate Fellow

April 2014   Prestigious fellowship to enable creative solutions in nanoscale imaging

Karl Hujsak visits collaborators in Basel, Switzerland

March 2014   Week-long visit will explored new collaborations in the field of biophysics and diagnostics

Professors Mirkin and Dravid to Head New $55 Million Nano-Medicine Institute

March 2014   Institute will engender new breakthroughs in hard to treat disorders and diseases

Protochips Poseidon 500 holder arrives in NUANCE

February 2014   New Protochips Poseidon 500 in situ electrochemical cell for the Hitachi HT7700 S/TEM installed

Shih-Han Lo to Join Intel Corp.

February 2014   Shih-Han Lo has received an offer to join Intel Corp., Hillsboro, OR.

High Impact Publications from VPD Group

February 2014   Publications from VPD Group came out on high impact journals

VPD Group member contributes to Nature publication

February 2014   Eric W. Roth contributes to a recent article in Nature

VPD Group member begins work with Intel Corporation

February 2014   Shraddha Avasthy settles in as a Process Engineer

VPD Group affiliates publish in Scientific Reports

January 2014   Paper reveals synergic effects of Si and graphene

Professor Dravid accepts editorial position with materials science journal

January 2014   Current Opinion in Solid State & Materials Science focuses on reviews of developing areas

VPD Group members celebrate their colleagues' success

December 2013   Shraddha and Chaoyi prepare for the next phase in their career

Karl Hujsak receives PSOC fellowship

November 2013   VPD Group member receives fellowship from NU PSOC Center

Shraddha Avasthy Defends Dissertation

November 2013   VPD Group Member Successfully Defends Dissertation

VPD Group Member Awarded for Outstanding Research

October 2013   Yi-Kai Huang is a recipient of the 2013 IIN Outstanding Research Award

VPD Group - NUANCE 2013 Picnic

October 2013   Students, staff and family enjoy a nice afternoon

VPD Group - NUANCE Annual Picnic scheduled

September 2013   Annual Picnic scheduled for October 11th

VPD Group Research Opportunities Announced

September 2013   Open Positions for New PhD Graduate Students: Fall 2013

Bin Liu at Intel

September 2013   Recent VPD Group PhD transitions into career with Intel Corporation

Alzheimer's Research Noted in Scientific American Mind

August 2013   Professors Dravid and Klein highlighted in August issue

Happy Birthday Professor Dravid!

August 2013   VPD Group members celebrate Professor Dravid's birthday

VPD Group Researcher in Switzerland

August 2013   Shraddha Avasthy worked with Prof. Mueller at ETH Zurich

Professor Dravid Speaks at EMSI in Kolkata

July 2013   Professor Dravid delivered a plenary address to the 34th annual meeting of the Electron Microscope Society of India.

VPD Undergraduate Interns with Boeing

July 2013   Daniel Charles begins second internship with Boeing

VPD Group Undergraduate Awarded Fellowship

June 2013   Conner Dykstra receives Chemistry of Life Processes Institute Summer Scholars Fellowship

VPD Group Undergraduate Completes Senior Project

June 2013   Alex Freedman's project utilized optical microscopy, AFM and Raman spectroscopy

Professor Dravid Delivers Keynote Address in Ankara, Turkey

June 2013   Professor Dravid opened the two-week conference on renewable energy

VPD Graduate Students Hooded

June 2013   Aiming Yan and Stan Chou attended the McCormick PhD Hooding Ceremony with Professor Dravid

VPD Group Member Presents at PSOC-sponsored Symposium

June 2013   Shraddha Avasthy presents at H Foundation Basic Science Symposium

VPD Graduate Students Successfully Defend Dissertations

June 2013   Aiming Yan and Stan Shihyao Chou Celebrate with Family and Colleagues

VPD Group Member Receives Corbin Scholarship

May 2013   Felix Richter receives the Corbin Scholarship

NU Undergraduate, Jack Cavanaugh, Selected for MRSEC Summer REU

April 2013   NU undergraduate, Jack Cavanaugh, was selected for the MRSEC Summer Research Experience for Undergraduates

VPD Group member, Jeff Cain, Receives Federal Funding for Research

April 2013   VPD doctoral student receives NSF and DoD fellowships

Professor Dravid visits Hitachi High-Tech in Hitachinaka City, Japan

February 2013   Professor Dravid visits Hitachi High-Tech in Hitachinaka City, Japan

Northwestern Students and Scholars participate in 2013 Indo-US Workshop near Bangalore

January 2013   Professor Vinayak Dravid and other NU faculty presented at JNCASR in India.

NNIN Director Visits Northwestern

January 2013   Professor Roger Howe of Stanford University visits Professor Dravid and other NU faculty

Northwestern Faculty Speak at AFOSR in Washington, D.C.

January 2013   Professors Dravid and Mirkin delivered talks at AFOSR 2013 Natural Materials, Systems and Extremophiles Program Review

Professor Dravid Speaks at North Shore Senior Center

January 2013   Professor Dravid discusses developments in nanotechnology and biomedicine

VPD Undergrad Anticipates Future in Medicine and Academia

November 2012   Felix Richter has worked in Professor Dravid's lab for over 3 years

VPD Group Picnic on October 6th

November 2012   Come for food, games, and music!

VPD Group Member Interns with Next Generation Materials in St. Louis

October 2012   Daniel Charles works on carbon fiber composites during internship

VPD Group Welcomes new Pre-Doctoral Research Fellow

October 2012   Hsin-Wei Wu will focus on characterizing thermoelectric materials

VPD Graduate Students HoodedVPD Group celebrates Annual Picnic 2012

October 2012   VPD Group celebrates Annual Picnic 2012.

Changqiang Chen and Shih-han attended the 2012 EFRC All-Hands Meeting at Michigan State University

October 2012   Changqiang Chen and Shih-han attended the 2012 EFRC All-Hands Meeting at Michigan State University. Shih-han presented a poster. The title of her poster is "Understanding and Tailoring PbTe and PbSe -based Bulk Thermoelectric Materials by Advanced Electron Microscopy".

Alex Freedman acted as lighting designer and master electrician for ETOPiA's production of "The How and the Why" by Sarah Treem

October 2012   Alex Freedman acted as lighting designer and master electrician for ETOPiA's (Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts) production of "The How and the Why" by Sarah Treem

Alex Freedman participated in the "Finding Nano" program at TUM (Technische Universität München)

October 2012   Alex Freedman participated in the "Finding Nano" program at TUM (Technische Universität München) in Munich

Bin Liu has just defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Bin!

October 2012   Bin Liu has just defended his PhD thesis. Congratulations Bin!

Prof. Vinayak Dravid and his staff at NUANCE have been awarded 2012 Outstanding Core Facility Award

September 2012   Congratulations on this outstanding achievement!

Prof. Dravid's Nature article got published. Congratulations Prof. Dravid!

September 2012   Prof. Dravid's Nature article got published. Congratulations Prof. Dravid!

NUANCE Center Introduction Video

September 2012   NUANCE Center Introduction Video

Prof. Dravid and McCormick Dean Julio M. Ottino recently traveled to India

September 2012   The photos and coverage of their visit is on McCormick web portal - http://www.mccormick.northwestern.edu/news/articles/2012/09/india-collaborations.html

Prof. Dravid visits Institute of Metal Research (Chinese Academy of Sciences) in Shenyang

September 2012   Prof. Dravid visits Institute of Metal Research (Chinese Academy of Sciences) in Shenyang

Aiming Yan presented a poster in the Inauguration of the NU-NIMS Center for Materials Innovation

September 2012   Aiming Yan presented a poster in the Inauguration of the NU-NIMS Center for Materials Innovation

Stanley Chou returned from his visit to the Brinker lab at UNM/Sandia National Lab (SNL)

September 2012   Stanley Chou returned from his visit to the Brinker lab at UNM/Sandia National Lab (SNL)

HD2300 STEM has been moved to EPIC and QBIC’s shared Cryo-Bio-EM facility, located in Silverman Hall 0B540.

August 2012   On Thursday, August 16th, the HD2300 STEM has been moved to EPIC and QBIC’s shared Cryo-Bio-EM facility, located in Silverman Hall 0B540.

VPD group attended Microscopy & Microanalysis 2012 Meeting held in Phoenix, AZ, July 29- August 2.

August 2012   VPD group attended Microscopy & Microanalysis 2012 Meeting held in Phoenix, AZ, July 29- August 2.

Dan Charles is working for Boeing in the Next Generations Materials lab in St. Louis

August 2012   Dan Charles is working for Boeing in the Next Generations Materials lab in St. Louis

We celebrated Prof. Dravid's birthday with a surprise party!

August 2012   We celebrated Prof. Dravid's birthday with a surprise party!

Felix Richter gave a presentation at Reserach Experience for Undergraduate Closing Symposium, August 15 2012

August 2012   Felix Richter gave a presentation at Reserach Experience for Undergraduate Closing Symposium, August 15 2012

Shraddha Avasthy delivered a talk at the 14th International Scanning Probe Microscopy Conference

August 2012   Shraddha Avasthy delivered a talk at the 14th International Scanning Probe Microscopy Conference

Jinsong Wu presented a poster in the M&M 2012 Meeting, held in Phoenix, AZ.

August 2012   Jinsong Wu presented a poster in the M&M 2012 Meeting, held in Phoenix, AZ.

Nasim Alem, an alumnus of Material Science and Engineering, has accepted a faculty position...

July 2012   Nasim Alem, an alumnus of Material Science and Engineering, has accepted a faculty position...

VPD Lab Meeting Presentation for the Summer 2012

July 2012   VPD Lab Meeting Presentation for the Summer 2012

Congratulations Shraddha!

July 2012   Shraddha Avasthy received the terminal year fellowship for one quarter.

Prof. Dravid and Prof. Chad Mirkin visited India

July 2012   Prof. Dravid and Prof. Chad Mirkin visited India

Vinayak Dravid creates materials to more efficiently harness electricity from heat-generating systems

July 2012   Vinayak Dravid creates materials to more efficiently harness electricity from heat-generating systems

Governor Pat Quinn Visits NU for Innovation Economy Conference

July 2012   Prof. Vinayak Dravid meets with Governor Quinn.

Stanley S. Chou will conduct research at the laboratory of Prof. C. Jeff Brinker

July 2012   Stanley S. Chou will conduct research at the laboratory of Prof. C. Jeff Brinker, Sandia National Laboratories as a part of Prof. Dravid’s NSF-CMMI project

This summer, Max Frantz will be working with Shihhan and Yi-kai

July 2012   Summer of REU 2012

Bin Liu Receives Offer to Join Intel Corp.

July 2012   Congratulations on your new job!

The Weinberg Conference and Travel Grant will fund Felix's travels

June 2012   The Weinberg Conference and Travel Grant will fund Felix's travels to the American Chemical Society 244th National Meeting

Summer Wu, a senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, is working with Kirsten Viola

June 2012   Summer of REU 2012: Summer Wu, a senior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy, is working with Kirsten Viola this summer....

This summer Felix will be working with Mrinmoy!

June 2012   Summer of REU 2012

This summer, Dan Charles will be working for Boeing in the Next Generations Materials lab in St. Louis

June 2012   This summer, Dan Charles will be working for Boeing in the Next Generations Materials lab in St. Louis

Shaleen Vasavada has been awarded a Weinberg Undergraduate Research Grant

June 2012   Congratulations to Shaleen Vasavada!

Prof. Dravid attended NIBIB's Inaugural Meeting

June 2012   Prof. Dravid attended NIBIB's Inaugural Meeting

Felix Richter has been awarded ...

May 2012   Congratulations on your terrific presentation and both awards!

VPD group bade farewell to Jiaqing

May 2012   Wish you all the best in your future endeavours... He will be joining as a Principal investigator at the level of Professor, Nanostructures and Nano Energy Materials Group Leader and a TEM lab director at Frontier Institute of Science and Technology (FIST), Xi’an Jiaotong University (XJTU), China

Congratulations Felix!

May 2012   Congratulations Felix!

Image Produced by NUANCE Electron Microscopy Specialist, Eric Roth, Published in Nature.

May 2012   An image produced by NUANCE electron microscopy specialist, Eric Roth, was published in Nature.

Aiming has got the Student Poster Award

May 2012   Aiming has got the Student Poster Award

Undergraduates Alex Freedman and Daniel Charles will present posters at the 4th International Congress on Ceramics

April 2012   Undergraduates Alex Freedman and Daniel Charles will present posters at the 4th International Congress on Ceramics

Congratulations!

March 2012   Felix Richter has been selected to participate...

Congratulations to Yi-Kai Huang!

February 2012   Yi-Kai Huang has been selected for a MRSEC Fellowship

Prof. Dravid met with the Brazil Higher Education Mission: Midwest Delegation.

February 2012   Prof. Dravid met with the Brazil Higher Education Mission: Midwest Delegation.

Shih-Han Lo and Yi-Kai Huang attended 2012 Winter School

January 2012   Shih-Han Lo and Yi-Kai Huang attended 2012 Winter School

Jiaqing He and Shih-Han Lo attended Energy Frontier Research Center...

October 2011   Jiaqing He and Shih-Han Lo attended Energy Frontier Research Center, Revolutionary Materials

Conner Dykstra was selected to participate in the Undergraduate Research Internship

October 2011   Conner Dykstra was selected to participate in the Undergraduate Research Internship

Luke Brewer Receives KJF Heinrich Award

September 2011   Luke Brewer is the 2011 recipient for the KJF Heinrich Award from the Microanalysis Society

VPD Group & NUANCE Annual Picnic!

September 2011   VPD Group & NUANCE Annual Picnic!

Stan Chou attended ACS meeting and presented talks!

August 2011   Stan Chou attended ACS meeting and presented talks on two topics

Manish K. Jaiswal joined the group as a visiting scholar

August 2011   Manish K. Jaiswal a graduate student from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay joined

Yoshiki Yonamoto joined the group as a visiting scholar

August 2011   Yoshiki Yonamoto from Hitachi

Dr. Gina Mirela Mustata presented a talk

August 2011   at the "IVth International Meeting on AFM in Life Sciences and Medicine",

Professor Dravid hosted a contingent of faculty from Nanyang Technological University

August 2011   Professor Dravid hosted a contingent of faculty from Nanyang Technological University

Drs. Jiaqing He, Jinsong Wu, and Shuyou Li joined Professor Dravid

July 2011   at the International Workshop on Advanced Electron Microscopy and Applications in Materials Science

Professor Vinayak Dravid was elected as........

July 2011   Professor Vinayak Dravid was elected as........

The Northwestern University CEMRI proposal

July 2011   The Northwestern University CEMRI proposal was recommended for support over a six-year period

Professor Vinayak Dravid Hosted Dr. Subi Jacob George, Dr. T. Govindaraju and Dr. Tapas Kumar Maji

June 2011   From JNCASR

Marcel Grdinic, Callie DeMay and Leigha Ingham worked in our group

June 2011   Marcel Grdinic, Callie DeMay and Leigha Ingham worked in our group

Conner Dykstra, Felix Richter and Sara Styke started work in our group as an REU

June 2011   Conner Dykstra, Felix Richter and Sara Styke started work in our group as an REU

Professor Vinayak Dravid was elected to Faculty Honor Roll for Excellence in Teaching

June 2011   Congratulations Prof. Vinayak Dravid

Bin was selected to Kellogg Summer Program 2011

May 2011   PhD students selected into this program for 2011 summer

Yi-Kai, Shih-Han, Aiming attended the 2011 APS/CNM/EMC User Meeting

May 2011   Congratulations Yi-Kai, Shih-Han, Aiming!

Dr. Mrinmoy De and Dr. Datta Late presented posters at the Indo-US workshop at Northwestern University

March 2011   Dr. Mrinmoy De and Dr. Datta Late presented posters at the Indo-US workshop at Northwestern University

Dr. Mustata Wins 2nd Place Poster Award at Berlin Symposium!

October 2010   At the SPM & OPTICAL TWEEZERS Symposium – in Berlin - Mirela Mustata receives the 2nd place SPM poster award for her poster presentation.

Dr. Dattatray Late from JNCASR, India joined as a Postdoctoral Fellow

September 2010   Welcome Dr. Dattatray Late

Good Labs versus Bad Labs

September 2010   Good Labs versus Bad Labs

James Sbarboro Attending Grad School!

September 2010   James Sbarboro will be attending the NU Graduate School of Weinberg this Fall for his Masters in Neurobiology and Physiology.

Congratulations to Shih-Han Lo!

September 2010   Shih-Han Receives a Nanoscale Science & Engineering Center (NSEC) Fellowship!

Felix Richter, a NU undergrad and CCNE REU...

August 2010   REU Presentations at the Closing Symposium

Kathy Ku, Former Group Intern, Summers in Uganda

August 2010   Kathy Ku, Former Group Intern, Summers in Uganda

VPD Group & NUANCE Annual Picnic

August 2010   August 20th group members and family and friends gathered for the annual picnic.

Gerik Zatorski, NSEC REU, Presents “Patterning Nanoscale Ferroic Oxides”

August 2010   REU Presentations at the Closing Symposium

NSEC REU, Jonathan Lin

August 2010   REU Presentations at the Closing Symposium

Picnic Snapshot of Jiaqing He and Family

August 2010   Picnic Snapshot of Jiaqing He and Family

Sarah Stykes and Anisotropic Magnetic Nanostructure Research

August 2010   REU Presentations at the Closing Symposium

Kai Song and Family Attend the Annual Picnic!

August 2010   Kai Song and Family Attend the Annual Picnic!

High School Summer Intern

August 2010   Stefan Bulic, a Libertyville High School student, interned in our Atomic -Nanoscale Characterization Experimental (NUANCE) facility.

Alumnus Elizabeth Dickey to become Texas Tech Dean!

July 2010   She will become dean of the Edward E. Whiticare Jr. College of Engineering on Jan. 1, 2011.

Guest Speaker, Dr. Swapan Pati

July 2010   Dr. Pati presents "Structures and Electronic Properties of DNA Systems."

Soo-Hyun Tark Graduates with his Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering !

June 2010   He is continuing his research as a Postdoctoral Fellow in the VPD Group

2009 REU Chris Ojeda Update

June 2010   I finished my junior year and am a NanoBio REU at Johns Hopkins for the summer. My project works on gold nanoparticles for drug delivery and using a novel compound to stabilize them and improve their functionality.

Priyanka Sharma Finally Arrives!

June 2010   Priyanka is a visiting predoctoral fellow from the Institute for Microbial Technology (IMTECH), India.

Gilberto Visits from University of Texas at San Antonio

June 2010   First year Ph.D. student in Physics, J Gilberto Casillas-Garcia, joined our group under the Partnership for Research & Education of Materials (PREM)

How Small Can You Go?

June 2010   This presentation, given by Dan Herr, Director of Nanomanufacturing at the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC) was well attended.

Our Former High School Intern

June 2010   Kathy Ku's first year at Harvard sure has been a busy one!

Felix Richter Selected for the CCNE REU Summer Program!

June 2010   Only 4 undergraduates are selected each summer for the NSF-sponsored Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) program. Congratulations!

Welcome Suguna Narayan!

June 2010   Suguna is joining our group over the summer

Research Assistant Professor Title for Dr Jiaqing He!

June 2010   Dr. He becomes a Research Assistant Professor in the Chemistry Department after a unanimous vote!

IUSSTF Award Visiting Scholars

May 2010   A warm welcome to the first students arriving for collaborative NU-JNCASR research.

Kai Song's Newest Arrival!

May 2010   Kai Song, Ph.D.and Research Associate, is the proud father of William Song

Dr. S. Sivaram, Director of National Chemical Laboratory!

May 2010   Dr. S. Sivaram is a polymer chemist, mentor and science manager of distinction.

Shraddha attended the CMOS Emerging Technologies Conference

May 2010   Shraddha Avasthy (graduate student) attended the CMOS Emerging Technologies Conference

Welcome to Aditya Sood!

May 2010   He joins our group as a visiting predoctoral fellow from IIT Kanpur, India

Materials Research Society Fellow!

April 2010   Vinayak Dravid was named fellow of the Materials Research Society at the Spring Meeting in San Francisco.

We'll Miss You, Vera!

April 2010   Vera returned to Singapore after working within our group for over a year.

Shraddha attended PSOC Atomic Force Microscopy Workshop

April 2010   Shraddha Avasthy (graduate student) attended the 'PSOC Atomic Force Microscopy Workshop' at Arizona State University

Another DHS Award Extension! Congratulations Again!

April 2010   Stan (Shihyao Chou), a participant in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Scholarship and Fellowship Program, has been granted another extension of his DHS award through the 2010-2011 academic year.

Voted Favorite Professor Again!

April 2010   Students voted for their favorite faculty members as part of balloting for ASG's

Welcome Dhwanil Damania!

March 2010   Dhwanil, a Ph.D. student in Biomedical Engineering, joins our group members in collaborative research for the NU PS-OC (Physical Sciences-Onocology Center) grant.

Dr. Shekhawat wins $50,000 Veeco Labs Energy Innovation Grant Award!

March 2010   The $50,000 award will purchase the most powerful AFM ever built by Veeco

Our Collaborative IUSSTF Award supports Indo-US Joint Research between JNCASR Bangalore and Northwestern University.

March 2010   Professor Narayan visits from JNCASR!

A Life-Long Learner! Professor Dravid never stops Learning... ...

February 2010   Vinayak successfully completed The Kellogg Center for Biotechnology Management certificate program: "Management Skills for Innovative University Leaders."

Suresh Donthu, a former VPD Group member, research associate and PhD graduate, stops by to say Hello!

February 2010   Dr. Donthu is currently with Exponent Consulting in Maryland where he uses his expertise in materials science and metallurgical engineering to conduct failure analysis investigations of engineering systems.

Bin Liu Accepts Argonne National Laboratory's Guest Graduate Appointment!

January 2010   Bin will be associated with Dr. Seungbum Hong of the Materials Science Division as part of Argonne's educational program extended to graduate students.

"Snowflake" to be Displayed in Cohen Commons

January 2010   Optical microscopy image of snowflake from the fractal gelation of complex sol including the precursors for Barium titanate and Cobalt ferrite. Courtesy of Professor Dravid.

Tao Sun Receives PhD and Joins Argonne National Laboratory!

January 2010   A recent PhD group graduate, Tao Sun, joins Argonne National Laboratory

Another PhD Graduate!

November 2009   After successfully defending his thesis in November Soo-Hyun Tark graduates in December.

Global McCormick Coordinator Hosts Hamburg Delegation!

November 2009   Professor Dravid welcomed Onno Huckmann, the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany, Senator Axel Gedaschko, from the State Ministry for Economic and Labour Affairs of Hamburg

Mengchun Pan Conference Presentation!

October 2009   At the 2009 Materials Science and Technology conference in Pittsburgh, PA, Mengchun presented "Effect of deposition temperature on surface morphology and magnetic properties in epitaxial CoFe2O4 thin films deposited by MOCVD"

Bin Liu's MRSEC equipment proposal was awarded!

September 2009   The Radiant Technologies Precision Premier II 100v Ferroelectric test system is being added to the VPD Group Lab!

Felix Richter, 2013 Intern Undergraduate

September 2009   Felix's area of interest is nanostructure synthesis and their analysis in biological systems.

Shih-Han Lo receives a 2009- 2010 NSEC Fellowship!

September 2009   The Nanoscale Science & Engineering Center for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies provides graduate student fellowships each year to talented students!

Undergrad Katie Jaycox Interns with VPD Group!

September 2009   Katie will be working part time at the NUANCE Center assisting the Art Institute with particle size analysis and learning the ins and outs of electron microscopy.

Prasad Kelkar Leaves for Cornell Temporarily!

September 2009   VPD Group Research Associate, Prasad Kelkar, temporarily moves to Ithaca, New York.

Arvind Srvistrava joins Nanosonix as Principal Scientist!

September 2009   We'll miss Arvind but luckily he will be visiting periodically to use our instruments in our NUANCE Center!

Dr. Fengwei Huo Presents "Polymer Pen Lithography" at Nanopatterning Subgroup Meeting

August 2009   At the Nanopatterning subgroup meeting on August 3rd, Dr. Fengwei Huo, from Professor Mirkin's group (NU) gave a talk, entitled "Polymer Pen Lithography".

Soo-HyunTark receives the NSEC 2009 Outstanding Researcher Award!

August 2009   The Nanoscale Science and Engineering Center (NSEC) for Integrated Nanopatterning and Detection Technologies selects students and postdoctoral associates who have made exceptional contributions over the past year.

A Surprise Birthday Celebration for Our "Ageless" Professor

August 2009   Happy Birthday

VPD Group Picnic - A Farewell to Summer and REU's

August 2009   VPD Group Picnic - A Farewell to Summer and REU's

KECK Foundation Supports Development of a Unique STEM:

August 2009   The W.M. Keck Foundation has approved a compelling proposal, Inorganic Signature of Life (ISL), by Tom O'Halloran, Teresa Woodruff and Vinayak P. Dravid, to understand the role of inorganic signal pathway (esp. Zn) during the earliest time of "life", i.e., the fertilization of female egg

Ben Ties the Knot!

August 2009   Dorota Rozkiewicz, PhD, IBNAM Research Professor and Ben Myers, EPIC Facility Manager got married on August 21st!

Mrinmoy De becomes our Laboratory Manager!

July 2009   Since joining the VPD group he has demonstrated the skills necessary to organize, implement and maintain our laboratory.

Another Future VPD Group Member?

July 2009   Stan Chou's family celebrated the addition of Elisa on July 24th at 9:03pm.

Yoshio Bando Visits!

July 2009   Chief Operating Officer of International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, Fellow of the Institute for Materials Science, and Visiting Professor at the University of Tokyo and Waseda University, Dr. Bando visited and gave a talk on "In-Situ Transport Measurements of Novel Nanotubes under TEM."

$3,000 is Awarded to Stan Gutionov !

July 2009   Not only is Stan accepted into the CCNE REU program but wins the Weinberg College Summer 2009 Research Grant to fund his project,

Siddarth Shah returns to IITB

June 2009   As a visiting predoctoral scholar, Siddarth worked in the field of Nanoparticles synthesis and their surface functionalization.

Summer of 2009 REU's

June 2009   As pictured left to right:

Tao Sun Graduates !

June 2009   Dr. Tao Sun graduates in Cook Hall.

Seungbum Hong presents "Piezoelectric Force Microscopy"

June 2009   A materials scientist at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory, he received the Young Investigator Outstanding Achievement Award

Ben Murphy Walks the Walk!

June 2009   Ben received his Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and remains a member of the VPD Group.

Mohammed Aslam Returns to Visit for Just a Bit More Research!

June 2009   This summer he returned for just a bit more research, as a faculty sabbatical fellow.

She had how many Acceptance Letters? 8!

June 2009   Kathy Ku, the VPD Group internship student from Maine Township High School East, finally decided! She plans to attend Harvard this fall.

Argonne National Laboratory Scientist Visits!

May 2009   Dr. Bernd Kabius, a materials scientist, spoke to the VPD Group about the "Aberration Corrected Microscope."

Prad Prabhumirashi Returns to Visit!

May 2009   A 2006 graduate, Dr. Prabhumirashi stopped by to visit the VPD Group.

"Excellent Oral Presentations"

May 2009   Shraddha Avasthy and Arvind Srivastava presented at the GRC Nanolithography Review held at the University of Wisconsin.

Another Ph.D. Produced from the VPD Group!

April 2009   Congratulations to Tao for his successful defense for his PhD thesis

Spring Cleaning in the Student Office!

March 2009   Perhaps not the break from studies and research everyone would have liked but great satisfaction of a job well done!

He Does It Again! Congratulations, Stan!

March 2009   Shihyao Chou, a participant in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Scholarship and Fellowship Program, has been awarded an extension of the Department of Homeland Security award

Dr. Robert F. Klie's visit

March 2009   Dr. Robert F. Klie, Nanoscale Physics Group, University of Illinois at Chicago speaks on the"Atomic-Scale Studies of Complex Oxide Interfaces using Aberration Corrected Z-Contrast Imaging and EELS."

Congratulations to Jonathan!

February 2009   Congratulations Jonathan on being one of the 15 students to be selected for the CCNE REU summer program.

Professor Dravid Elected FELLOW of the Microscopy Society of America

February 2009   Professor Dravid elected fellow of the Microscopy Society of America

National Science Foundation Visitors

February 2009   The Program Director of the Office of International Science and Engineering, John Tongas, and Shireen Yousef, visited to discuss the NSF Global Initiatives Program.

Bin, Mengchun, and Aiming won scholarship to attend CHREM Winter School at ASU

January 2009   Bin Liu, Mengchun Pan and Aiming Yan won scholarships to attend CHREM Winter School at Arizona State University!

"Nanotechnology a Decade Later: Perspective and Prospects"

January 2009   Professor Dravid presented keynote lecture at the 12th annual SANKEN symposium in Osaka, Japan.

"Science, Technology, Education and Policy (STEP): In the Right Direction for Energy and Sustainability"

January 2009   Professor Dravid participates as an International Speaker at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit in Science City, Ahmedabad, India.

Michael Radler, Ph.D.

November 2008   Scientist at Dow Chemical Company, Visits the VPD Group for recruiting and collaborative discussions.

"Softer" side of VPD Group Moving to Silverman Hall!

November 2008   The Richard and Barbara Silverman Hall for Molecular Therapeutics will will be home to more than a dozen research groups as well as several shared core facilities for the imaging and manipulation of biological molecules.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry Visits!

October 2008   Dr. Robert H. Grubbs, winner of the 2005 Nobel Prize in Chemistry visited campus.

Visitors from China!

October 2008   The VPD Group welcomed a group of professors and executives affiliated with Jinan University

Reliance Industries Limited

September 2008   Arun Aneja, Ph.D., Chief Science & Technology Officer at Reliance Industries, Ltd., INDIA visits!

Welcome New Group Members!!

September 2008   We would like to welcome our three New Graduate students to the VPD group.

Congratulations Tao!!

August 2008   Tao Sun was recently selected to receive the NSEC Outstanding Researcher award.

Dr. Jiaqing He joins the VPD group!

August 2008   Dr. Jiaqing He joins the VPD group as a research associate. Jiaqing comes to NU from Brookhaven National Lab.

Another award for the VPD Group!!!

August 2008   Ann Snyder won the McCormick STAR award for outstanding service.

Baby Boom in the VPD Group!!

July 2008   Soo Hyun and his wife Emily welcomed Brandon, a healthy boy born on July 31, 2008.

2008 Graduation of VPD Group Members

June 2008   We had quite a few graduates this year!

VPD group welcomes the class of summer 2008 REUs!

June 2008   Pictured: Top row: Vinayak Dravid, Siddartha Shah (IIT Bombay), Stan Gutiontov, Jonathan Lin Bottom row: Rajeev Khattar (UIUC),Sok Yee Yew (NTU Singapore), Sara Rothwell (Carleton College), Saranya Sathananthan (UT Knoxville), Not pictured: Ankit Gupta (UIUC) and Nishima Wangoo (IMTECH India)

Prof. CNR Rao receives an honorary degree from Northwestern University

June 2008   Professor C.N.R. Rao, president of JNCASR, Bangalore, India, received an honorary degree from NU at the commencement ceremony on June 20, 2008.

RF Installation completed!

May 2008   After many trials and tribulations, the RF system has finally been installed in VPD lab. This unique capability will allow non-invasive thermal activation for multitude of our research programs, from Alzheimer's therapy to killing of pediatric brain tumor (targeted thermal activation!).

The "boss" wins the Fulrath Award

April 2008   Professor Dravid has won yet another award! This time the "Richard M. Fulrath" Award from the American Ceramics Society, for enhancing US-Japan bilateral scientific interactions.

Goodbye Muto-san!!

April 2008   Atsushi Muto, visiting engineer from Hitachi High Technologies America completed his visit here at Northwestern and the NUANCE Center.

Congratulations Sam!!!

April 2008   After couple years of research internship in VPD group, Sam Nayak secured admission a number of institutions such as Stanford and CalTech/UCSD.

Congratulations Ambrose and Ken!!!

April 2008   Ambrose was accepted to the Statistics graduate program at Harvard University and Ken was accepted to the PhD program in Materials Science and Engineering at Northwestern University.

Zixiao and Tao's Images were chosen to be showcased in McCormick materials and on the NSF image of the day!!!

March 2008   Zixiao and Tao were asked by the McCormick marketing department to provide images of their work from the SEM and from the FIB.

Stan Chou wins the Homeland Security Fellowship!!

March 2008   The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has selected Stan to receive the coveted U.S. Department of Homeland Security Fellowship.

Ben Murphy Joines the VPD group!

March 2008   Ben Murphy a BS/MS student in Mechanical Engineering has joined the VPD group to work with Stan Chou on MOSFET sensors.

Congratulations Zixiao!!!

March 2008   Zixiao has defended her PhD thesis and will be leaving us for the warmer climes of the Bay Area.

Hello Sujing!!

March 2008   Sujing has started working as a TEM postdoc with the EPIC facility of the NUANCE center.

New acquisition at NIFTI/NUANCE: Veeco Bioscope-II

February 2008   We have purchased with the help of NSEC and State of Illinois funds a Veeco bioscope.

Arvind has a new addition to his family!!!

January 2008   Congratulations to Arvind - VPD group Senior Research Associate on the birth of his son Tanav (wt. 7.5lb, 20inches) at 11.52pm on 26th of Jan.

Welcome Dr. Hrushikesh Joshi!!

December 2007   Dr. Hrushikesh Joshi arrived in December 2007 as our new post doc.

Visitors to the VPD group

November 2007   Dr. RA Mashlekar, former director of CSIR, India, and a celebrated scientist/manager of Indian science and technology, visited Northwestern in November 2007.

Welcome Dr. Hrushikesh Joshi!!

November 2007   Suresh defended in November and left Evanston for the Washington DC belt-way area to make trouble at Exponent Technical Consulting.

Reliance visitors to NUANCE and VPD:

October 2007   High ranking officials from Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), India, visited VPD and the NUANCE center, to discuss innovation in nanotechnology and models for characterization centers.

Citation Recognition for Aslam's paper!

October 2007   Aslam's article is on the most cited list in Crystal Growth and Design from January – March 2007.

Congratulations Rachel and Ambrose!!

October 2007   Rachel Frey completed her senior thesis and graduated in December. Ambrose Lin has completed his senior thesis and is working with the VPD group for the next two quarters before he is on his way to graduate school.

Welcome new members of the VPD group!!

October 2007   We would like to welcome our five new graduate students to the VPD group.

Tao is officially a "GEMS"!

October 2007   Tao Sun has been awarded one of only three "Graduate Excellence in Materials Science (GEMS)" Diamond awards by the Basic Science Division of the American Ceramic Society.

"Lotus in Pond" selected as a finalist in "Science as Art": 2007 MRS Fall Meeting

October 2007   Aslam, Zixiao and Shuyou worked together to obtain an image of zinc oxide using an ESEM. The petals are ZnO single crystal clusters nucleated and grown from lithography-defined seeded ZnO areas, by means of a room temperature chemical process.

Good bye Dr. Aslam and Best Wishes Professor Aslam!!

October 2007   Dr. Aslam and his family left the US for India after the postdoctoral stint at VPD group.

Congratulations Sam, on Intel Talent Recognition!!

October 2007   Sam Nayak, our high school intern, was declared a semifinalist in the Intel Science Talent Search. Well done!!

FIVE New Research Projects Funded!

September 2007   VPD group has achieved 100% batting average with 5 out of 5 recent major research proposals funded! These will help to boost our fall 2007 recruiting needs, substantiate our industrial collaborations, enhance our international outreach and uplift our research initiatives in constrained nano-bio structures and microscopy.

Welcome Mr. Muto!

September 2007   Atsushi Muto from Hitachi High Technology America will be working with the VPD group and the NUANCE Center to enlighten us with innovative SEM techniques.

Suresh earns another distinction!

September 2007   Suresh is one of the five students chosen for the top-level named graduate student awards to be presented at the 2007 AVS International Conference, Seattle, Washington.

Welcome Kanhu Barick!

September 2007   Kanhu Chanan Barick, a graduate student from the Indian Institute for Technology Bombay (IITB) Mumbai is working with the VPD group for the next three months.

Cover Art!

September 2007   NSEC REU Jesse Hall's paper from the work he did with Zixiao Pan was featured on the cover of the latest edition of Nanoscape.

Outstanding Researcher Award to Arvind!

August 2007   Arvind (second from right) won the coveted and competitive NSEC distinguished researcher award

Congratulations Professor Aslam!!!

August 2007   Aslam was recently hired as an Assistant Professor in the department of Physics at the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IITB) Mumbai.

VPD to represent US delegation to South Africa

August 2007   Professor Dravid will represent the US delegation at the joint meeting between University of Zululand and the International Center for Materials Research (ICMR), in July 2007.

A "Bundle of Joy" delivered to the Aslam Family!!

July 2007   A beautiful baby girl - Ameena born on July 25, 2007 9:15 AM (July 2007) 20 inches 6 lbs 7 oz.

VPD to serve on "nanotechnology" panel at pan-IIT 2007 Global Meeting

July 2007   Professor Dravid has been invited to serve on a special panel - Nanotechnology Beyond the Moore's Law - at the pan-IIT 2007 Global Conference to be held in Santa Clara, CA, July 2007.

Tao Sun presented at ACA 2007 annual meeting in Salt Lake City

July 2007   Presentation topic: In situ real-time investigation of kinetics of nucleation and growth of sol-gel derived functional oxide thin films

Welcome REU Students!!!!

June 2007   As part of NSEC and MRSEC, we have the opportunity to host undergraduate students from around the country to learn more about our research and contribute in our lab. We have five students with us this summer.

Welcome Zixiao's mom!!!

June 2007   Zixiao's mom visited NU and her daughter and was given a top-quality NUANCE lab tour this June from the boss himself.

More sleepless nights at Argonne!!!

June 2007   Tao and Zixiao's application for beamtime was approved by DOE. GISAXS experiment will be performed at 8-ID-E beamline of Advanced Photon Source in Argonne National Laboratory.

Nasim Alem graduates with a PhD!

June 2007   Nasim successfully defended her PhD in January 2007.

VPD to present on "Academic Day" at Children's Memorial Hospital and Research Center

May 2007   VPD will present our group's nano-biomedical research on the "Academic Day" event at CMH and CMRC on April 6, 2007.

Soo-Hyun Wins CNM Student Poster Prize!

May 2007   Soo-Hyun Tark of Northwestern University captured the Student Poster Award at the CNM Users Meeting

Office for Research CenterPiece Live scheduled for May 7, 2007

May 2007   A new initiative by NU's office for research (OR) will have an inaugural event called CenterPiece Live

Congratulations Suresh!

April 2007   Suresh won the Graduate Student Silver Award at MRS Spring 2007

First Place! Blue Ribbon!

April 2007   Suresh Donthu won first place in the "Science as Art" competition

Beamtime Approved at Advanced Photon Source, ANL

March 2007   Tao and Zixiao's application for beamtime was approved by DOE. X-ray nanodiffraction experiment will be performed at 2-ID-D beamline of Advanced Photon Source in Argonne National Laboratory.

Suresh and Zixiao win top award!

February 2007   Suresh Donthu and Zixiao Pan presented a poster related to VPD group technology development, which received the first place at the Applied Research Day organized by InNUvation

Group collaborator Professor Jinwoo Cheon to visit NU and CCNE

February 2007   VPD group's CCNE collaborator, Professor Jinwoo Cheon will visit NU and deliver a seminar on February 12, 2007.

VPD to represent US at the US-India forum workshop in New Delhi, India

February 2007   VPD will represent the US delegation at the US-India forum on Nanostructures

Vinayak P. Dravid - Invited Waters Annual Symposium Speaker

February 2007   Professor Dravid was invited to give a talk at the Eighteenth James L. Waters Annual Symposium "Scanning Probe Microscopies — STM, AFM, SNFUH" at the PITTCON 2007 conference at McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois.

Nanofabrication facility at ANL

January 2007   Zixiao and Tao's application for nanofabrication facility was approved by Center for Nanoscale Materials in Argonne National Laboratory.

Silver Award winner

November 2006   Zixiao is a Graduate Student Silver Award winner at the Materials Research Society

Everly Fellowship

November 2006   Zixiao also won the Everly Fellowship (Terminal Year Fellowship), Northwestern University

VPD to present invited talk at SPM workshop, Purdue University, IN

October 2006   Professor Dravid has been invited to participate in the Purdue Birck Nanotechnology Center workshop on SPM.

Professor Dravid represents Northwestern in South Korea

October 2006   Professor Dravid was one of a handful of US representatives at the opening of the Yonsei University's Center for Nano-Bio Structures in October 2006

VPD to present invited talk at Intel Corporation, Oregon

October 2006   Professor Dravid will deliver an invited talk at the famed Intel Corporation's R&D center in Hillsboro, Oregon, related to Ultrasound Holography. Anchored by an unrestricted gift of $100,000 by Intel, we have developing the innovative non-destructive imaging technique based on ultrasound holography. He will also meet several of our VPD group alumni who are at this Intel site, including: Xiwei Lin, Kevin Johnson, Nazir Poonawala and Weida Qin.

Another outstanding award for the VPD group!!

October 2006   Suresh has won the 2006 IEEE Sensors Council President's award

NU-McC and IIT Bombay MoU Signing Ceremony

September 2006   Professor Dravid will serve as the MC at the MoU signing ceremony between NU McCormick and IIT Bombay, in September 2006.

Zixiao won Roland B. Snow Award

September 2006   Zixiao won Roland B. Snow Award, the American Ceramic Society annual conference, 2006!

VPD appointed as the "Global Czar" for McCormick international collaborative initiatives

September 2006   Professor Dravid has been appointed as the coordinator for McCormick global engagement initiatives and serves as an advisor to Dean Julio Ottino on all matters related to McCormick's international collaborative initiatives, spanning UG and graduate education, outreach and research activities.

VPD to represent US delegation at Nano-2006, Bangalore, India

August 2006   Professor Dravid will represent the US contingent at the Nano-2006 global conference in Bangalore, India, Aug. 21-24, 2006.