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FACULTY NEWS (continued from front page):
- Lisa
Biswal has won a 2007 Young Investigator Award
from the Office of Naval Research. This prestigious
award is given to academic researchers early in their careers. The
honor, one of 24 presented nationwide in 2007, carries
a three-year, $300,000 award. The title of Biswal's proposal
is "Building Responsive and Structured Assemblies with Magnetic Colloids." "What
I'm interested in are systems we can control. We want to be able to create
smart structures," she said. Magnetic colloids are small spherical
particles, measuring about 800 nanometers, and contain tiny grains of
iron oxide. When subjected to a magnetic field, the colloids organize
themselves in linear chains. Biswal is researching methods for linking
the colloids, using proteins, DNA or other substances, so they remain
in a chain even when a magnetic field is removed. "The idea is to
create flexible structures that can bend but stay together, which could
have many applications. It could be used to mix chemicals in a `lab on
a chip.' It might be useful in separating the different parts of blood," Biswal
said. Coatings or new materials made of magnetic colloids, Biswal said,
might also be used to manufacture "smart clothing," resistant
Read
the details...
- Ramon
Gonzalez has received a 2007 NSF CAREER
award: NSF's prestigious and highly competitive
CAREER awards, which provide funding for five years of research,
recognize a young researcherss commitment to scholarship
Read
the details...
- Quantum dot recipe may lead to cheaper solar panels:
Research by Michael Wong and scientists at Rice's Center for Biological and Environmental
Nanotechnology revealed a breakthrough method for producing molecular
specks of semiconductors called quantum dots, a discovery that could clear
the way for better, cheaper solar energy panels.
Read
the details...
- Nikos Mantzaris and Michael
Wong have been promoted to Associate
Professors effective July 1, 2007.Congratulations Nikos and Mike!
- "Tiny technology promises big rewards. Some may
already be in your closet": This National Geographic
article features the many different uses of nanotechnology.
Several Rice University professors are cited in this article
including, Drs. Matteo
Pasquali, Jennifer
West, Vicki
Colvin, and Richard Smalley.
Read the article...
-
"Tiny Dreams for the Future of Transmission Capacity":
This article looks at the potential impact of carbon nanotubes
on the transmission of electrical power. It features the research
on nanotubes conducted by Drs. Smalley, Pasquali,
and Adams at the Richard E. Smalley Institute for Nanoscale
Science and Techonolgy.
Read
the full article...
-
75 Years at the Frontiers of Science - Gordon Research
Conferences: The Gordon Research Conferences(GRC),
originally named the AAAS-Gibson Island Conferences, were
established in 1931 to provide a forum for open discussion
of new developments in chemistry and related fields. Neil
E. Gordon was the founder of these conferences. Gordon’s
philosophy was, “Method must not interfere with learning.” In
keeping with that philosophy, the conferences were held in
relaxing, remote locations that fostered communication and
brainstorming. The attendees could speak freely of
ideas without having to be concerned about formal presentation
slides, being quoted, or harassing reporters. The conferences
afford opportunities for the newcomers in research to meet
with the well respected and established researchers in their
fields. The scientist that have attended these conferences
throughout the last 75 years all agree that the less restricted
discussion format has allowed them to grow in their own field
of study and enabled them to branch out into related fields
of study. Rice University’s own Dr.
Joe Hightower of the Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Department was greatly influenced by the Gordon Research
Conferences. Dr. Hightower was first invited to attend
the GRC in the summer of 1963. Dr. Hightower’s
activity in the GRC ranged from attendee to conference chair
to a trustee on the GRC board. Dr. Hightower was one
of the GRC conferees that was asked to write his story of
the GRC reflecting the impact it has had on his career. Read
the article...
- Michael Wong was
selected to receive the 2006 Hershel M. Rich Invention
Award. This award was established by Mr. Hershel M.
Rich and is presented annually to a Rice faculty or student who
have developed or invented an original invention. Dr. Wong was
chosen to receive this award for his invention entilted, "Method
to fabricate Microcapsules from Polymers and Charged Nanoparticles."
- Prof.
Michael S. Wong is being recognized with the Young Investigator
Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers Nanoscale
Science and Engineering Forum (AIChE NSEF) for advances made
in the development of superior nanoparticle catalysts for groundwater
purification and in the assembly chemistry and scalable production
of nanoparticles. This Award recognizes outstanding interdisciplinary
research in nanoscale science and engineering by an engineer
or scientist who has not yet reached the age of 35. He will receive
his Award at the AIChE Annual Meeting and give his Award Lecture
on November 15, 2006.
- Michael Wong has been named to
the 2006 list of the world's 35 Top Young Innovators by Technology
Review magazine. The annual TR35 list recognizes individuals
under age 35 whose innovative research in technology has a
profound impact on today's world. Prof. Wong was recognized
for pioneering work in nanotechnology. More..
- Michael S. Wong was chosen to receive the South Texas Section
- AIChE's Best Applied Paper Award for the paper entitled: "Designing
Pd-on-Au Bimetallic Nanoparticle Catalysts for
Trichloroethene Hydrodechlorination." His co-authors
are Dr. Michael O. Nutt and Dr. Joseph B. Hughes and the paper
was published in the journal Environmental
Science and Technology,
vol. 39, pp 1346-1353 in 2005. The members of the team are to
receive their awards on October 5, 2006.
- Michael Wong was
selected to receive a 3M Nontenured Faculty Award (January
2006).
- Blood and water: They're both liquid, but blood contains solids-platelets-flowing
within the liquid plasma. The mix of solid with liquid spells
the difference between a fuild flow easily simulated on desktop
computational fluid dynamics software and a flow analysis months
or years in the making - and even then, done only on a powerful
supercomupter. Those hard-to-model fuild flows typically have
more than one type of force acting on them or they contain a
mix of solids and liquids. CFD programs for these complex problems
can take years to write, even with the suercomputer's aid. Dr.
Marek Behr and Dr.
Matteo Pasquali are now at work writing a CFD application
that will help a heart-pump manufacturer analyze how blood would
move through different configurations of the pump. (2006) Read
the full article...
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