2016 2017 mse annual report by Boston University

Boston University College of Engineering Division of Materials Science & Engineering 2016-2017

www.bu.edu/mse

CONTENTS HIGHLIGHTS ..................................................................................................................................................... 3 MSE at a Glance ............................................................................................................................................... 3 Faculty Honors and Awards .......................................................................................................................... 4 Highlighted Honors.......................................................................................................................................... 7 New Additions To MSE Faculty .................................................................................................................. 18 Faculty Promotions ........................................................................................................................................ 18 Highlighted New Grants ............................................................................................................................... 19 FACULTY AND STAFF .................................................................................................................................25 Faculty ...............................................................................................................................................................25 Affiliated Faculty ........................................................................................................................................... 30 Division Administration ................................................................................................................................35 Division Committees .....................................................................................................................................35 GRADUATE PROGRAMS ........................................................................................................................... 36 Enrollment ........................................................................................................................................................37 Graduate Student Funding .......................................................................................................................... 38 Degrees Awarded ......................................................................................................................................... 39 Recruitment ..................................................................................................................................................... 41 Curriculum Enhancements ......................................................................................................................... 43 Community-Building Activities ................................................................................................................. 43 Graduate Student Professional Societies ................................................................................................ 44 Graduate Student Accomplishments ...................................................................................................... 46 MSE Colloquium Student Hosts ................................................................................................................ 46 RESEARCH ...................................................................................................................................................... 47 Research Highlights ...................................................................................................................................... 48 Materials Science & Engineering Colloquium Series ........................................................................... 84 MSE Shared Core Research Facility ......................................................................................................... 85 Research Laboratories ................................................................................................................................. 87 Visiting Committee Members ..................................................................................................................105

HIGHLIGHTS MSE AT A GLANCE ACADEMIC DEGREES PhD, MS, MEng FACULTY Appointed Faculty: 45 Affiliated Faculty: 36 STUDENTS IN FALL 2017* Doctoral: 35 MS: 46 MEng: 13 LEAP: 9 ALUMNI: 142 DEGREES GRANTED SINCE 2008 Doctoral: 29 Masters: 64 Masters With Practice: 2** MEng: 41*** Minors: 6*** * expected ** Masters With Practice was first offered in Fall 2014. *** MEng and Minor were first offered in Fall 2011.

FACULTY HONORS AND AWARDS MSE Faculty are highly successful and internationally recognized researchers. Here are a few of the awards and honors received in 2016-2017: SOUMENDRA BASU • PhD Student, Yang Yu, received best MSE Dissertation Award 2016 • Member, Organizing Committee for Symposium at HTCM 9, Toronto, Canada, 2016 • Member, Organizing Committee for Advanced Ceramic Coatings for Structural, Environmental, and Function Applications Symposium at ICACC ’16, Florida, USA, 2016 ENRICO BELLOTTI • Keynote Speaker, SMEOS 2016, Kruger Park, South Africa, September 12, 2016 KEITH BROWN • Gordon and Betty Moore Inventor Fellow Finalist • Moorman Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship DAVID COKER • Editorial Advisory Board, Journal of Molecular Simulation ALLISON DENNIS • KL2 Scholar Award • Dean’s Catalyst Award CHUANHUA DUAN • NSF Career Award • BU College of Engineering, Dean’s Catalyst Award KAMIL EKINCI • Visiting Professor, Seoul National University, South Korea, 10/10/16-10/16/16 • Lecturer, UNAM Colloquium, Bilknet University UNAM Colloquium, Bilknet University, Turkey MAXIM FRANK-KAMENETSKII • Honorary Degree PhD honoris causa, inauguration ceremony, Bogolyubov Institute of Theoretical Physics, Kiev Ukraine, June 30, 2016 MICHAEL GEVELBER • Awarded Judges Special Commendation for Impact: MIT Climate Colab Contest, 2016 JILLIAN GOLDFARB • Fulbright Scholar Award for research and teaching at University of Trento, Italy • NSF Travel Award to present at AIChE International Congress on Sustainability Science and Engineering, Suzhou, China 4

MARK GRINSTAFF • Fellow, Royal Chemical Society • Distinguished Chemist, New England Institute of Chemists DOUGLAS HOLMES • Postdoc Matteo Pezzulla received ICAM Scientist Travel Award: PHASME • Graduate Student Ahmad Mojdehi received Student Poster Award MALAY MAZUMDER • Co-chief editor, Particulate Science and Technology • IEEE Life Member J. GREGORY MCDANIEL • PhD Student Andrew Wixom awarded ME Outstanding Dissertation nd

• PhD student Alyssa Liem awarded Second Place, Best Student Paper Competition 172 Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Honolulu, Hawaii, 2016 ELISE MORGAN • Chairperson, NIH study section: Skeletal Biology, Structure, and Regeneration HAROLD PARK • IACM John Argyris Award for Young Scientists • Elected ASME Fellow SIDDARTH RAMACHANDRAN • Distinguished Visiting Fellowship, UK Royal Society of Engineering, 2016 EMILY RYAN • R&D 100 Award MICHELLE SANDER • AFSOR Young Investigator Research Award • Boston University MSE Innovation Grant • Full Conference Fellowship. International Workshop on Extreme Events and Rogue Waves, Bad Honnef, Germany, 2016 • PhD Student, Atcha Totachawattana, Invited talk on “Diversity and Inclusion in Academia,” SciX Conference, Minneapolis, 2016 • IEEE Photonics Society Most Innovative Chapter Award, 2016 SAHAR SHARIFZADEH • Hariri Junior Faculty Fellowship DIMITRIJE STAMENOVIC • Promoted to full Professor of Biomedical Engineering, January 2016

JOHN E. STRAUB • United Methodist Church Scholar/Teacher of the Year, Boston University 2016 BELA SUKI • Organizer and Session Chair, first Complexity Heaven meeting, Boston, December 2016 • Elected Fellow, Biomedical Engineering Society • Plenary lecturer, Swiss National Neonatal Conference, January 2016 ANNA K. SWAN • PhD student, Mounika Vutukuru, won BUnano student fellowship ALICE WHITE • National Academy of Sciences thank you letter for service on the NAS Panel JOYCE WONG • Charles De Lisi Distinguished Lecturer Award, 2017 MUHAMMAD ZAMAN • Boston University, Class of 2020 Matriculation Speaker • Elected Member, Global Young Academy • PopTech Culture Clash Speaker KATHERINE YANHANG ZHANG • PhD Student Jeff Mattson Finalist in PhD student paper competition, ASME Summer Biomechanics, Bioengineering, and Biotransport Conference, 2016 XIN ZHANG • 2016 IEEE Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award • Elected Fellow, AAAS • Elected Fellow, IEEE • Elected Fellow, AIMBE • Elected Associate Fellow, AIAA • Boston University Nanoscience Pilot Grant Award, January 2016 • Boston University Materials Science Innovation Grant Award, February 2016 • Boston University Dean’s Catalyst Award, May 2016 • Schlumberger/Boston University Innovation Award, May 2016 • Associate Director, Boston University Nanotechnology Innovation Center PETER ZINK • 2016 CTL Summer Faculty Fellowship

HIGHLIGHTED HONORS Sharifzadeh Named Hariri Junior Faculty Fellow ECE/MSE Faculty Selected as 2016 Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering Junior Faculty Fellow The Hariri Institute Junior Faculty Fellows program was established in 2011 both to recognize outstanding junior faculty at Boston University working in diverse areas of the computational sciences, as well as to provide focal points for supporting broader collaborative research in these areas at BU and beyond. Junior Fellows are selected by the Hariri Institute Steering Committee based on nominations received each spring, and are appointed for a three-year term. Commenting on the research profile of this sixth cohort of Junior Fellows, Professor Azer Bestavros, Founding Director of the Institute, noted that “as in previous years, it is extremely rewarding to observe the degree to which computing is fundamentally changing various fields,” adding that “the research achievements of this particular cohort of fellows demonstrate the benefit from making the leap from quantitative, statistically-driven research to computational, algorithmically-driven research, and is a tell-tale sign about the increasing importance of the Institute’s mission of bringing the computational lens to bear on our data-driven world.” Professor Sahar Sharifzadeh (ECE, MSE) was selected as an Institute Junior Faculty Fellow in fall 2016. She joined Boston University in fall 2014 as an assistant professor of electrical & computer engineering and materials science & engineering. Her research interests involve understanding and predicting the electronic properties of material using first-principles electronic structure theories. Professor Sharifzadeh obtained her B.S. in electrical and computer engineering from University of California, Berkeley in 2003 and Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Princeton University in 2009. She then joined the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as a postdoctoral fellow, and subsequently as a project scientist. Professor Sharifzadeh is also an affiliated faculty member in the Department of Physics at Boston University.

Professor Sahar Sharifzadeh

Professor David Coker, Director of the Center for Computational Science, states that “Sahar is a theoretical and computational materials scientist of national standing and a rising star in the international community in the field of many-body perturbation theory and correlated electronic structure methods development. In particular, she is one of the leading researchers implementing novel methodologies for studies of electronic structure of advanced molecular materials for energy research applications. Given Sahar’s strong upward trajectory in the highest quality research productivity and her pivotal role in developing research initiatives, I believe she is an excellent ambassador for computational science.” Full story available.

Duan Receives NSF CAREER Award Research and Outreach Will Focus on Carbon Nanofluidics By Sara Cody Professor Chuanhua Duan (ME, MSE) netted a prestigious National Science Foundation (NSF) Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) award in recognition of his outstanding research and teaching capabilities. He will receive more than half a million dollars over the next five years to pursue high-impact projects that combine research and educational objectives. Duan’s research will focus on developing an understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that affect the flow of water and ions through nanoscale graphene conduits.

Graphene sheets can be stacked horizontally to form channels, called graphene nanochannels, or rolled into carbon nanotubes. Image provided by Chuanhua Duan. “This exciting project is at the intersection of fluid mechanics, nanotechnology, and materials science,” said Professor Alice White (ME, MSE), chair of ME. “It will inform the design of novel nanoporous membranes with impact on some of the world’s largest challenges.”

Graphene, a flexible sheet of pure carbon one atom thick, is a material that allows surprisingly easy passage for liquids and ions with high selectivity. Graphene sheets can be stacked horizontally to form channels, called graphene nanochannels, or rolled into carbon nanotubes. These structures could potentially be used for water desalination, improving the efficiency of batteries and fuel cells, lab-on-a-chip technologies and other biomedical applications. However, when researchers have tried to repeat experiments, large discrepancies in the data attributed to variables such as curvature, ion density, and membrane structure have resulted. To address this challenge, Duan will use his NSF CAREER award to study water and ion transport in single graphene nanochannels and single carbon nanotubes with different sizes, surface properties, and substrate materials. He will also perform molecular dynamics simulations to elucidate underlying mechanisms revealed by his experimental studies. Using this combined experimental-computational approach, he expects to achieve a complete understanding of mass transport in carbon nanofluidic conduits. Duan will use animated characters to teach carbon nanofluidics to K-12 students. Image provided by Chuanhua Duan.

“My lab has developed a novel technique, inspired by capillary flow, to accurately measure water and ion transport in a single carbon conduit,” said Duan. “To fully understand the effect that each variable has on the process and resolve discrepancies in previously reported results, this level of accuracy is key.”

In addition to the research component of his CAREER project, Duan will fulfill the educational objectives by creating a module to teach carbon nanofluidics to K-12 students for the Technology Innovation Scholars Program (TISP). In addition, Duan will work with an animator to develop a cartoon that depicts fast-mass transport in carbon nanofluidics using anthropomorphized molecules.

“Science is global” Joyce Wong Presents De Lisi Distinguished Lecture, Highlights Collaboration and Research in Biomaterials to Treat Disease By Sara Cody Standing before a packed ballroom of colleagues and friends on April 25, Professor Joyce Y. Wong (BME, MSE), recipient of the 2016 Charles De Lisi Award and Distinguished Lecture, presented “Biomaterials to Detect and Treat Disease.” The award recognizes faculty members with extraordinary records of well-cited scholarship and outstanding alumni who have invented and mentored transformative technologies that impact quality of life.

Throughout her presentation, Wong stressed the important role global collaboration and how it has helped her research projects move forward. Photo by Dave Green Photography Wong recounted the experiences in her life that informed her career, from her parents, both chemists, inspiring her from an early age to pursue a career in science to a sabbatical she took in 2011, when she participated in a surgical observership in the cardiology department at Children’s Hospital Boston. “There is a high, unmet clinical need because eight out of every thousand infants are born with congenital heart defects, and the current solutions have a lot of problems,” said Wong. “Multiple surgeries result in scarring, limiting the tissue surgeons can work with and biological implants calcify over time. More importantly, synthetic grafts can’t grow with a child, so that’s why multiple surgeries throughout a patient’s lifetime are needed.” After observing the herringbone pattern of collagen under a microscope, Wong thought she could create a patch that could grow with the child by patterning and layering the collagen into sheets. Working in tandem with the Center for Regenerative Medicine and laboratory in Japan, she developed a patch made of collagen sheets derived from induced pluripotent stem cells—adult stem cells that have been reverted to undifferentiated stem cells so they can be induced into any cell type. “The environment at BU presents a lot of opportunities for collaboration and provides resources to push your research forward,” said Wong. “Next, we want to transition to translation to get this into a clinic. We recently

incorporated into a company where we will produce these patches as ‘band-aids’ that can help restore blood vessels that have been damaged from procedures like angioplasty or stenting.” Wong also discussed her latest project, which focuses on finding a better way to locate and treat the fibrin adhesions that sometimes develop after surgery. The adhesions stick internal organs together, causing abdominal and pelvic pain, as well as infertility in women. Wong is working on a non-invasive approach that uses ultrasound and tiny bubbles that can both enhance the ultrasound image and deliver drugs to the adhesion sites. “Using ultrasound, we want to be able to image using one frequency, and to destroy them (the adhesions) with another so we can essentially ‘see and treat’ surgical adhesions,” says Wong. “Currently we are collaborating with a laboratory in France to use their multichannel microfluidics technology to streamline the delivery of microbubbles, which would allow us to move forward with the technology.” The importance of collaboration was a common thread through Wong’s lecture, particularly on an international scale. She noted, and thanked, her collaborators, mentors and family who hail from a wide array of countries. “Science is global and the projects like the ones I have highlighted today are possible because of the collaborators from all over the world,” said Wong. “Working together allows research move from basic science to applied research, and provides a foundation for innovation. It’s critical that we keep this in mind as we move forward.” The DeLisi Lecture continues the College’s annual Distinguished Lecture Series, initiated in 2008, which has honored several senior faculty members. The previous recipients are Professors John Baillieul, (ME,SE), Malvin Teich (ECE) (Emeritus), Irving Bigio (BME), Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE), H. Steven Colburn (BME), Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE), Christos Cassandras (ECE, SE), Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE, Chemistry, MED) and M. Selim Ünlü (ECE, BME, MSE)

BU Names Kilachand Honors College Associate Directors: Linda Doerrer, Paul Lipton Lend Scientific Thought to “Visionary” Curriculum By Susan Seligson, BU Today. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi BU has named two associate directors of the Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Honors College, one with a background in the sciences and the other in creative interdisciplinary approaches to education, as well as in science. Their knowledge and expertise will help broaden students’ undergraduate experience both in the classroom and beyond, says the college’s director, Carrie Preston, Arvind and Chandan Nandlal Kilachand Professor and a College of Arts & Sciences professor of English. Professor Linda Doerrer (Chemistry, MSE) and Professor Paul Lipton (CAS), director of the interdepartmental undergraduate program in neuroscience, were chosen by a six-member search committee chaired by Preston. She says that they will bring “their experience building visionary programs” to their new roles.

Established in 2011 with a $25 million gift from University trustee Rajen Kilachand (Questrom’74), the Kilachand Honors College is a general education program with a current student population of 353, all housed Carrie Preston (center), with the new within the neoclassical contours of Kilachand Hall. associate directors, Paul Lipton and Linda Doerrer 10

The Kilachand curriculum, according to its mission statement, has several keynotes: “First, it attempts to integrate the arts, sciences, and professions and attempts to lower the barriers between pure and applied knowledge while avoiding an instrumental, utilitarian approach. Second, the curriculum explores the commonalities and differences of various disciplines’ ways of knowing by looking at specific problems in a wide range of fields. Third, the curriculum tries to connect teaching with research and creative activity by introducing students to their professors’ work and gradually preparing them to do research and partake in creative activity on their own. Finally, the curriculum pays close attention to ethical, aesthetic, and social issues in order to foster self-development and citizenship.” In a letter introducing the new associate directors to Kilachand students, faculty, and staff, Preston said that “Doerrer’s lab is investigating the use of highly fluorinated aryloxide and alkoxide ligands for C-H and O-H bond oxidations” and that a second research area of the lab is exploring “the behavior of quasi one-dimensional nanowires as templates for developing structure-property relationships in electronic conduction and single-chain magnetic behavior.” Doerrer offers a more user-friendly description: “I make new molecules that can help solve problems.” She describes herself as “a person passionate about clear communication, oral and written,” with a love of history that informs her teaching. “In 1900, some of what my group and I do might have been called metallurgy,” she says. “In 1200, it would be alchemy.” A vigorous advocate for women in science and engineering, she speaks eloquently of the honors college’s devotion to liberal arts and what she calls “the life of the mind. There is a constant reframing of human knowledge into different disciplines, and that has been going on for very long time, even when Aristotle tutored Alexander the Great.” Preston says the naming of associate directors in the sciences will help the college expand its multi-textured approach. “I’m a humanist interested in everything that makes us human,” says Preston, whose new book Learning to Kneel: Noh, Modernism, and Journeys in Teaching (Columbia University Press, 2016), chronicles her long-term practice of the highly specialized and nuanced Japanese dance form. “I needed associate directors in the sciences to supplement my knowledge,” she says. With its new triumvirate guiding it, Kilachand Honors College should be better equipped to give students what Preston refers to as “the critical skills and flexibility of mind to think about global challenges in all their complexity and from multiple perspectives.” After she was appointed director last September, she expressed her commitment to preparing Kilachand students “to consider the ethical dimensions and human impact of any action or decision, from technological advances to policy changes, scientific discoveries to business platforms.” In the coming years, she says, the Kilachand curriculum “will be enhanced to embrace challenges such as climate change and global health, and incorporate service learning as well as fieldwork, both locally and abroad.”

Three Members of ENG Faculty Named IEEE Fellows Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE), Professor Calin Belta (ME, SE, ECE) and Professor Stan Sclaroff (CS, ECE), have been named fellows with the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE).

Zhang was nominated for her “contributions to microelectromechanical systems.” Zhang has applied MEMS techniques to develop metamaterials, arrays of engineered structures that act like artificial atoms and exhibit unusual properties such as negative refractive indices and cloaking. In biomedicine, Zhang has developed a MEMS-based toolset that uses a unique sensing approach to analyze cellular behavior, yielding knowledge that could improve our understanding of cardiovascular, liver and other diseases and potentially lead to novel therapies.

Professor Tyrone Porter Elected to Acoustical Society of America Professor Tyrone Porter (ME, MSE) has been elected a fellow to the Acoustical Society of America (ASA), the highest honor a member can achieve, “for contributions to therapeutic ultrasound.”

“Tyrone is a valued leader in Mechanical Engineering, giving generously of his time to help move the department forward,” says Professor Alice White (ME, MSE), chair of ME. “This is well-deserved recognition for Tyrone’s innovative research using ultrasound techniques to deliver targeted medication in particular across the blood/brain barrier. I couldn’t be more delighted for him to receive this professional honor!” Porter’s research focuses on using physical methods (such as ultrasound) and biochemistry to circumvent natural barriers within the human body in order to deliver targeted therapies to affected areas. Not only does this have potential treatment applications for a variety of neurological diseases, but this technology could also be used in the military to treat traumatic brain injuries and combat nerve agents. The purpose of the ASA, founded in 1929, is “to generate, disseminate, and promote the knowledge and practical applications of acoustics.” The organization encompasses many different fields in addition to engineering, such as oceanography, architecture, and music. Porter will accept his fellowship certification at the ASA annual meeting, which will be held in Boston in June 2017.

ECE Symposium Honors Career of Professor Emeritus Theodore Moustakas By Sara Cody

Pictured from left to right: Professor Asif Khan (University of South Carolina), Dr. Robert C. Walker (CEO, RayVio), Professor Theodore D. Moustakas (Boston University), Dr. Yitao Liao (CIO, RayVio), Nobel Prize winner Professor Shuji Nakamura (University of California Santa Barbara), Professor Fernando Ponce (Arizona State University). Photo provided by Gabriella McNevin. Colleagues from around the world came to campus on Dec. 2 to honor the career of Professor Emeritus Theodore Moustakas (ECE, MSE) at a symposium focused on his signature innovation, a process that makes the glowing screens on today’s ubiquitous electronic devices possible, as well as other discoveries. The symposium, “III-Nitride Semiconductor Materials and Devices Symposium,” was fittingly held in the Photonics Center, a building Moustakas had a leading hand in creating.

“The ubiquity of Ted’s work in blue LEDs, used in laptops, cell phones and a myriad of other lighting and backlit devices, makes his work seminal to basically everyone in society today,” said Boston University President Robert A. Brown in his opening remarks. “However, to me, one of Ted’s most important contributions is as an early pioneering research leader at Boston University.” Moustakas invented and patented a process currently being used to create blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs), utilized in many devices today. When LEDs were invented more than 40 years ago, they were made with a compound called gallium arsenide, which emitted a faint red and green glow, and was used in products like digital clocks and calculator displays. It was hypothesized that a compound called gallium nitride, which emits a blue light, would produce a brighter light, but the structure of the semiconductor crystals at the time did not support the much-smaller blue wavelengths. Moustakas solved this problem by creating the buffer-layer process, a two-step method that bridges the gap between the semiconductor crystals and the blue wavelengths, publishing his findings in 1991. To this day, it is the only known way to make blue LEDs, and is still used in the technology that people interact with on a daily basis, such as smartphones, televisions and lightbulbs. Last year, BU and Moustakas won a $13 million judgment in federal court against three major companies which were determined to have willfully infringed on the patented technology he developed. The three Taiwan-based companies manufacture or package LEDs for consumer electronics for big-name electronics companies. Though these major companies were named on the initial case, they settled out of court while agreeing to licensing and confidentiality agreements. While Moustakas was publishing his findings with gallium nitride, Shuji Nakamura, an engineer from Japan who is now a Professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, was working on similar technology. Though initially Nakamura and Moustakas were competitors racing to patent their technologies, they remain cordial colleagues, and Nakamura gave a keynote speech about the blue LED technology at the symposium. In addition to Nakamura, the symposium hosted a variety of speakers, experts in the field of semiconductors, who came to speak about their own work and research and honor Moustakas’ career. Other speakers included: 1. 2.

Charles Eddy, US Naval Research Laboratory: “Advancing III-N Semiconductors in New Directions.” Professor Asif Khan, University of South Carolina: “High Al-content AlxGa1-xN Heterojunctions for Devices in the Deep Ultraviolet Part of the Spectrum.” Professor Philomela Komninou, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece: “Nanostructures and Interfaces in Epitaxial III-Nitride Semiconductors.” Eva Monroy, CEA Grenoble: “Plasma-assisted MBE of III-Nitride Semiconductors and its Applications to Intersubband Devices.” Professor Fernando Ponce, Arizona State University: “Microstructure and Polarization Properties of III-N Semiconductors.” Professor David Smith, Arizona State University: “Exploring III-Nitrides with Advanced Electron Microscopy Techniques.” Professor Tadeusz Suski, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw: “From High-Pressure Bulk GaN Crystals to InGaN/GaN Quantum Structures and Light Emitters.”

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Along with Moustakas’ contributions to the field of LEDs, he was also a key player in the quest to build the Photonics Center, which was established in 1993. Today, the Photonics department is a robust collaborative of faculty and graduate students who create new light-based materials, devices and systems, and use them to impact society. When Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE), director of the Photonics Center, spoke about the history of the building, he credited Moustakas’ leadership in writing a complex grant proposal that led to funding by the Department of Defense. “Ted, along with his colleagues, wrote a beautifully rich document with very high technical detail filled with great ideas about how the Boston University Photonics Center could transform both defense and society,” said Bifano.

“Today, the three core values of the Photonics Center are we lead interdisciplinary research, we share community resources and we promote technology translation. There is no doubt that the lead person in establishing this was Ted Moustakas.” When Moustakas stood to provide closing remarks for the symposium, he recounted his life experience that led him to BU. Born in a small village in Greece during the World War II, at a time of political upheaval and civil war in his country, his hometown did not have electricity until he was a teenager. He recounted a formative experience he had growing up that forever altered his outlook on life, when his high school teacher gave him a book written by Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis that included the famous quote “reach what you cannot.”

Zhang Named AAAS Fellow By Sara Cody Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for her “distinguished contributions to the field of micro/nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS), addressing a wide range of important problems in advanced materials, biophotonics and energy.”

“Elevation to AAAS fellow is a richly deserved honor for Xin,” says Professor Alice White (ME, MSE), chair of ME. “It recognizes her impressive body of work using MEMS devices to enable groundbreaking interdisciplinary experiments from terahertz optics to cell biology. We are so proud to call her a colleague!”

Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE)

Zhang has applied MEMS techniques to develop metamaterials, arrays of engineered structures that act like artificial atoms and exhibit unusual properties such as negative refractive indices and cloaking. She has focused on creating metamaterials in the terahertz range (wavelengths between optical and microwave frequencies) that may ultimately be used for imaging, chemical detection, surveillance and high-speed electronic circuits.

In biomedicine, Zhang has developed a MEMS-based toolset that uses a unique sensing approach to analyze cellular behavior, yielding knowledge that could improve our understanding of cardiovascular, liver and other diseases and potentially lead to novel therapies. In the energy domain, Zhang has explored microfluidic applications in the mid-IR range, and developed micro gas chromatography and microfluidic communication systems designed to improve the efficiency and safety of oil and gas extraction. AAAS is the largest general scientific society in the world and publisher of the journal Science. The fellowship, a AAAS tradition dating back to 1875, is an honor awarded to members by a panel of their peers. Recipients are selected for “their efforts toward advancing science applications that are deemed scientifically or socially distinguished.” Zhang will receive her award at the next AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston in February.

Goldfarb Receives Fulbright Award By Sara Cody Professor Jillian Goldfarb (ME, MSE) is the recipient of a Fulbright award for teaching and research for her project “Global Insights into Sustainable Energy Engineering and Sustainable Solutions for Municipal Solid Waste Management.” She will travel to the University of Trento in Italy to complete her appointment in Spring 2017.

“Working with international collaborators we will advance research on a critical problem that directly affects the sustainability of urban communities and quality of life across the globe,” says Goldfarb. “I am looking forward to teaching in a different educational system and learning best practices from new colleagues that I can bring back to my classrooms at BU. It is an honor to represent BU and the U.S. in this exchange.” Goldfarb has been a faculty member at BU since 2013 and has focused her research on the generation of energy and its impact on the environment. Her Professor Jillian Goldfarb Fulbright project will continue the work she began at BU’s Initiative on Cities by addressing municipal solid waste management in urban areas and identifying an environmentally compliant, cost-effective and long-term strategy for solid waste management. She will also teach a course in sustainable energy engineering at the University of Trento during her appointment, and will continue to teach that course at BU when she returns. “This Fulbright award is the result of groundwork laid by Jillian over several years and her research topic is aligned with the department’s focus on sustainable energy,” said Professor Alice White (ME, MSE), chair of the Mechanical Engineering Department. “We are eager to incorporate the course materials that she develops into our curriculum. Winning a Fulbright brings honor not only to Jillian, but also to the department and the college.” The Fulbright award program, established in 1946 by its namesake, Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, is a federally funded program sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs under the U.S. Department of State.

Professor Klapperich Elected to BME Society Leadership Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, MSE), has been elected to leadership positions in the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES), the field’s principal professional society.

Professor Klapperich, associate dean for Research and Technology Development, will join the Board of Directors for a term spanning 2016-2019. The board is the main governing body of BMES and performs tasks ranging from electing an executive director to managing society resources and public image while maintaining accountability. “It’s a great honor to participate in the leadership of BMES,” said Klapperich. “It gives us a great avenue to promote the field and engage in efforts to diversify and strengthen the pool of students and advanced trainees in biomedical engineering.”

ENG Professor Among Three Recipients of Endowed Professorships By Susan Seligson, BU Today The first Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professorship goes to Professor Keith Brown (ME, Physics, MSE), whose research focuses on how the nanostructure—a level between microscopic and molecular—of materials affects the way light, heat, electrons, and molecules move through systems. Brown’s multidisciplinary research focuses on soft materials—liquids, polymers, emulsions, and gels. “I am extremely honored and grateful for being appointed the inaugural Moorman-Simon Interdisciplinary Career Development Professor,” says Brown, who received a PhD in applied physics from Harvard and a bachelor of science in physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “BU has proved to be a supportive environment for our efforts to work across disciplines and this professorship will amplify our impact and allow us to deeply embrace the interdisciplinary nature of our work.” This year Brown received ENG’s Materials Science and Engineering Innovation Award. “Thanks to the extraordinary generosity of our alumni and donors, three new Career Development Professorships are supporting the success of a whole new cohort of talented junior faculty, laying the foundation for important new discoveries in interdisciplinary research, and advancing our understanding of rapidly emerging fields from business to data science,” says Jean Morrison, University provost and chief academic officer. “We are excited for these exceptional young faculty members and the possibilities for their research and teaching in the years ahead.” Professor Keith Brown (ME, Physics, MSE)

This story originally appeared in BU Today.

Zhang Receives Technical Achievement Award Recognized by IEEE Sensors Council for MEMS Research By Sara Cody Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) is the recipient of the 2016 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Sensors Council Technical Achievement Award (advanced career) for her “distinguished contributions to the field of micro/nanoelectromechanical systems, addressing a wide range of important problems in advanced materials, biophotonics and energy.”

The award honors a member of the council who has made outstanding contributions to the field of sensors, evidenced by publications and patents. Zhang has published more than 130 journal articles and received recognition for excellence in research and education. In the area of advanced materials, Zhang has applied MEMS techniques to develop metamaterials, arrays of engineered structures that act like artificial atoms and exhibit unusual properties such as negative refractive indices and cloaking. She has focused on creating metamaterials in the terahertz range (wavelengths between optical and microwave frequencies) that may ultimately be used for imaging, chemical detection, surveillance and high-speed electronic circuits.

In biomedicine, Zhang has developed a MEMS-based toolset that uses a unique sensing approach to analyze cellular behavior, yielding knowledge that could improve our understanding of cardiovascular, liver and other diseases and potentially lead to novel therapies. In the energy domain, Zhang has explored microfluidic applications in the mid-IR range, and developed micro gas chromatography and microfluidic communication systems designed to improve the efficiency and safety of oil and gas extraction. The IEEE Sensors Council is an organization that fosters community among the engineers who work with sensors by providing publications, conferences and technical committees that serve as a platform to share knowledge among its members. Zhang will attend the award presentation at the IEEE SENSORS 2016 Conference in Orlando, Fla. in November.

Harold Park Elected ASME Fellow Associate Professor Harold Park (ME, MSE) has been elected a fellow to the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), an honor bestowed on only 3 percent of members. Park’s research on computational nanomechanics and multiscale computational engineering has resulted in key contributions to the field of mechanical engineering.

According to his award citation, Park was nominated because his work demonstrated “the key roles that nanoscale surface effects have in controlling the plastic deformation mechanisms, novel physical properties and failure mechanisms of crystalline nanowires.” He has also developed new computational methods to use atomic theory to predict dynamic fracture pathways in brittle materials. This important knowledge will allow for the use of efficient computational methods “to tackle nanometer-scale mechanics phenomena with high accuracy.” ASME, founded in 1880, is a not-for-profit professional organization that enables collaboration, knowledge sharing and skill development across all engineering disciplines, while promoting the role of the engineer in society. The fellowship distinction is conferred by the ASME Committee of Past Presidents to recognize candidates on their outstanding Associate Professor Harold Park (ME)

engineering achievements.

NEW ADDITIONS TO MSE FACULTY Professor Xi Ling (Chemistry, MSE) researches the fundamental science of and applications of nanomaterials. Prior to joining Boston University, she worked as a postdoctoral associate at MIT. She received a PhD in Physical Chemistry from Peking University in 2012. Professor Michael Albro (ME, MSE) focuses his research on the role of mechanical loading and extracellular matrix interactions on the regulation of signaling molecules in the extracellular environment of biological tissues. He earned a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Columbia University and worked under a Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Imperial College of London before coming to Boston University. Professor Timothy Barbari (BME, MSE) has research interests spanning biomaterials, hydrogels, membranes, biomolecular transport and binding, and biosensors. He received a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin and has more than 25 years of teaching experience. Professor Barbari joined Boston University in 2012 in administrative roles and as a Professor of Biomedical Engineering before his additional appointment to Materials Science and Engineering this year.

FACULTY PROMOTIONS Harold Park promoted to full professor In 1999, Professor Harold Park (ME, MSE) was stumped for a career. The recent Northwestern University graduate found his friends’ chosen paths—banking, consulting, finance—un-thrilling. Punting, he chose to remain at Northwestern to pursue graduate work in mechanical engineering, his undergraduate major. Midway through, he found his passion when he did a project that used a computer to model structures from A to A (atoms to airplanes). He later earned a PhD from Northwestern. Today, his field of computational mechanics has revolutionized any number of technologies, he says: “Car crashes are simulated and analyzed on computers, nuclear weapons are tested virtually on computers, the reliability of your cell phone is tested virtually on computers.” As for Park, he develops computation techniques that could help design artificial muscles and other technology. His prowess in the lab has helped earn him a slot among the 16 faculty who have just been promoted to full professor (mechanical engineering at the College of Engineering, in Park’s case) on the Charles River Campus. Park says that sharing his passion with students typically means teaching via problem-solving. “I look for the slow head nod, like ‘Yes! This makes sense!’ That’s when I know what I’m teaching is sinking in,” says Park, who has written more than 120 journal articles and coauthored the book Nano Mechanics and Materials: Theory, Multiscale Methods and Applications. He received the John Argyris Award for Young Scientists from the International Association for Computational Mechanics and a CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers.

Scott Bunch promoted to associate professor Professor Scott Bunch (ME, MSE) is an expert on the nanomechanical properties of a new class of 2-D atomically thin materials like graphene. He is creating novel devices that test these materials’ physical properties, devices that have potential for important societal challenges, such as water quality. He is a past recipient of an NSF CAREER Award.

HIGHLIGHTED NEW GRANTS Announcing the 2017 MSE Innovation Grant Winners Congratulations to the winners of the 2017 MSE Innovation Grants! The idea behind BU MSE Innovation Grants Program is to create a low overhead way of encouraging innovation and risk taking in a national funding environment that makes this increasingly difficult. Each year we will be awarding about five awards of approximately $10k each. Any faculty member (any rank) in the extended BU MSE community is eligible for the award. It is a one-time, non-recurring award that can be used for equipment, salary for a student or post doc, travel by a BU person to another location, travel by someone else to BU or any other legitimate research expense. The idea is to enable real innovations to take place and encourage far out thinking. 2017 MSE Innovation Grant winners:

MSE Innovation Grant Winners, left to right: Professors Xi Ling, Rama Bansil, Chanhua Duan, Douglas Holmes, Alice White, Ren Zhang, Michael Albro, and Sean Andersson Professor Xi Ling (Chemistry, MSE)

Chemical Vapor Deposition of Two-dimensional Boron Monolayer and Heterostructures Two-dimensional (2D) boron joined the family of 2D materials recently, and attracted much attention in a short time. There are many boron polymorphs with different properties from metal to semiconductor. Among them, g phase 2D boron monolayer shows semiconducting properties with direct band gap at about 2.25 eV, which indicates that it has giant potential in optoelectronic devices. Also, the stability in air and anisotropic structures make it more applicable for multifunctional devices. However, obtaining the high quality and large-area 2D boron monolayer is still in the early stage. Here, I propose to use multi-zone chemical vapor deposition method to synthesize the 2D boron monolayer crystal and potentially hybrid it with other 2D materials developing in our lab to form the heterostructures. The successful growth of the 2D boron will open the door for the properties and applications exploration, and facilitate the collaboration with other colleagues at BU in the future. Professor Rama Bansil (Physics, MSE)

Microfluidic Studies of Bacteria Chemotaxis in Viscoelastic Polymer Solutions and Gels Many bacteria move through highly viscous environments to reach their colonization niche. In particular, we focus on the gastric ulcer and cancer causing bacterium Helicobacter pylori, which moves across the viscolelastic, gel-like mucus layer in the stomach to colonize on the epithelial cell surface lining the stomach wall. We have examined the swimming behavior of these helical-shaped bacteria by using video optical microscopic to track them in various solutions and gels. The innovation project goes a step further by using microfluidic approaches to mimic the physiological situation where the bacterium directs its motion from the cavity of the stomach towards the epithelial cell surface, using gradients in concentration of chemicals such as urea and gastric juice secreted by the stomach glands. These studies will help us understand not only how bacteria swim

in response to chemical gradients, but also how they in turn influence the rheological properties of their host medium to create a unique, locally structured environment best suited for their own survival. Professor Chuanhua Duan (ME, MSE)

Rapid and Scalable Patterning of Conjugated Polymer Thin Films with Controlled Morphology Conjugated polymers (CPs) are organic macromolecules that are characterized by a backbone chain of alternating double- and single- bonds. Because of their high solution processability and excellent semiconductor properties, CPs, especially in their thin film forms, have found various promising applications in electronics, photonics and photovoltaics. Further development of CB-based technologies requires addressing two critical manufacturing challenges of CP thin films: 1) accurate control of CP thin film morphology including molecular conformation and inter-chain structure; 2) rapid formation of patterned CP thin films with high spatial resolution and controlled thickness. Since these two challenges cannot be simultaneously resolved by existing manufacturing methods, we propose to prepare patterned CP thin films using a new technique titled pervaporation-assisted molding in nanofluidic channels. In this technique, polymer solution will be introduced into nanochannel molds that are temporarily bonded to the device substrates. Pervaporation will be employed on the sidewall of the nanochannels to rapidly remove solvent and promote thin film self-assembly with controlled morphology along the nanochannels. We will systematically investigate the speed, morphology control and scalability of this new technique. Success of this proposed research would result in an ideal manufacturing technique for thin film formation and patterning, which will not only boost CP-based organic electronics and photonics, but will also advance other emerging applications involved with patterned polymer/nanoparticle thin films. Professor Douglas Holmes (ME, MSE)

Morphing and Growth of Soft Structures Soft and thin structures can dramatically deform in response to small amounts of external force, and controlling these deformations has been the focus of significant research efforts among physicists, biologists, and engineers in the last decade. The ability to produce a generic structure that can be morphed into a desired shape has important implications for a wide array of industries, ranging from hierarchical manufacturing to deployable structures and actively morphing wings. By tailoring the swelling and growth of soft materials, we aim to create deformable structures that can be reconfigured into a desired shape by altering their local geometry with various stimuli, e.g. chemical, electrical, thermal. We have demonstrated the controlled morphing of sheets into shells by using a novel approach of residual swelling, where rubber plates are prepared with a localized excess of free monomer chains. The diffusion of this residual solvent locally stretches and shrinks the sheet causing it to morph into a 3D shape. The resulting structure is a geometric composite â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it combines different intrinsic geometries within a material to produce shapes that differ from their individual components. With this research endeavor, we will study and quantify the connection between geometry and the resulting structural and dynamical instabilities of geometric composites. This mechanistic understanding is necessary to develop technological pathways for advanced, active structures that operate in complex environments, and will provide fundamental insights into the connection of geometry and topology for morphing and design of multifunctional soft materials. Professor Alice White (ME, MSE) and Professor Ren Zhang (ME)

Dynamic 3D Scaffolds for Tissue Engineering In vivo, cells are in a dynamic 3D environment with biochemical and physical cues. The physical properties (i.e., mechanical stiffness, topography) of the extracellular matrix play an important role for cell migration, proliferation and differentiation. However, it is challenging to create a cell culture environment with tunable mechanical properties and dynamic actuation capability for more physiologically relevant in vitro model development. We propose to fabricate cell scaffolds through direct laser writing (DLW) based on two-photon polymerization (TPP) in flexible hydrogels, which will be subsequently coated with a thin biocompatible metal 20

oxide layer using atomic layer deposition (ALD). In this way, the structure design flexibility with submicron resolution and the potential piezoelectric actuation properties can be combined to generate an active and responsive cell culture environment. The dynamically movable in vitro 3D structures would mimic the real cell surroundings in tissues, and thus facilitate the development of biocompatible nano-platforms for clinical translation. Professor Michael Albro (ME, MSE) and Professor Sean Andersson (ME, SE)

Fluorescent Colocalization Microscopy for Novel Quantification of Cellular Activation of TGFâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;đ?&#x203A;˝ Transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) is a highly potent multifunctional cytokine that modulates the growth, differentiation, and survival of most cells and tissues in the body. TGF-beta has drawn considerable interest in recent years due to the contribution of highly elevated TGF-beta activity in tissues towards the progression of many pathologies, including cancer, tissue fibrosis, and musculoskeletal degeneration. To this end, the major regulatory feature of TGF-beta stems from its overwhelming presence in tissues in an inactive complex, termed latent TGF-beta, that must first undergo molecular activation, through the action of cell secreted enzymes, before being able to act on cells. Interestingly, despite the well-documented importance of TGF-beta activation in health and disease, a robust technique to measure the rate of activation does not exist. This project aims to develop an innovative materials scienceâ&#x20AC;¨strategy to allow for the first-ever direct measurement of the cellular activation rate of latent TGF-beta. To achieve this aim, we will utilize an innovative fluorophore labeling scheme and colocalization fluorescence microscopy to monitor and quantify the activation of the molecule. This TGF-beta activation quantification strategy can, in principle, be implemented for any cellbased tissue system, allowing for the development of insights into many TGF-beta related pathological conditions, which can potentially be utilized for the development of novel molecular inhibition strategies to treat disease progression.

NSF Training Grant Funds New Neurophotonics Initiative Using Light to Explore the Brain By Sara Cody Interdisciplinary research that uses light to understand how the brain functions will receive a major boost under a new $2.9 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant announced recently. The five-year grant will allow the establishment of a new graduate-level program of study that focuses on understanding and influencing brain function using light. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our quest to understand how neural activities at the cellular scale drive computation, behavior, and psychology is motivated not only by curiosity, but also by our desire to understand and treat brain diseases that involve disruptions or deterioration of neural circuitry â&#x20AC;&#x201C; including Alzheimerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, traumatic brain injury, Parkinsonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis,â&#x20AC;? said Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE), director of the Photonics Center and the grantâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s principal investigator. â&#x20AC;&#x153;A rapidly evolving frontier in this area of research is the use of light to study, control, and image neurons and neural circuits.â&#x20AC;? The NSF selected only 16 projects for the prestigious program, with the neurophotonics program only one of two focusing exclusively understanding the brain. According to program Director and Research Assistant Professor Helen Fawcett (ME), BU is already a national leader in this area thanks to strong academic programs in neuroscience, biomedical engineering and photonics, as well as world-class research centers that focus this area. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Our researchers in these areas have made profound discoveries, developed new tools, and catalyzed emerging markets in these disciplines,â&#x20AC;? says Fawcett. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There is no better place in the world to pursue research opportunities and career paths focused on understanding brain structure and function.â&#x20AC;?

In addition to the rigorous academic program and collaborative environment between world-class researchers, Fawcett noted that one of the most important components for their successful application was the focus on promoting diversity within the new discipline. “The key to our success, according to the debriefing we received from NSF, was our strong focus on immersive education of a diverse community of students in this emerging area of research,” said Fawcett. “In particular, we committed to supporting a substantial number of trainees who are women or underrepresented minorities. The reviewers noted that we were already a highly effective group of researchers committed to this exciting field, and hoped that an NRT traineeship grant would help us to expand workforce diversity and serve as a national model for graduate education in the interdisciplinary field.” In addition to working in conjunction with the mission of the Business Innovation Center, the program aligns with the Photonics Center’s NSF-funded Industry/University Cooperative Research Center on Biophotonics Sensors and Systems, which connects neurophotonics faculty with leading industry researchers to pursue applied research based on academic discoveries. The program will be added to the new National Science Foundation Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate award that seeks to advance knowledge and improve pathways to the professoriate and success for historically underrepresented minority students “The NSF grant recognizes our commitment to continuing to diversify our training programs in science and engineering,” says Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, ME, MSE), associate dean for research. “It is very exciting because the program will build on the longstanding strengths at BU in photonics and neuroscience.”

ENG Key Partner in Newly Announced $80 Million Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA Institute The College of Engineering has been selected as a key partner in a major, federally supported initiative aimed at creating a new industry that may one day manufacture living tissue and organs at scale for rapid delivery to patients. The US Department of Defense has funded a nation-wide consortium of government, academia and industry, known as the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), to create the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA Institute (ATB). The DOD is committing $80 million to the effort, which will be combined with $214 million contributed by the 87 partners in the initiative. The institute is part of a broader US government initiative to create new manufacturing industries – and jobs – suited to the needs of the 21st century. ARMI will be headquartered in Manchester, NH, and has as its board chairman inventor Dean Kamen, a member of the College’s Engineering Leadership Advisory Board. According to College of Engineering Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen, “Our unique research strengths at the intersection of tissue engineering, nano-technology, and photonics and optics position the College of Engineering – and associated researchers in the College of Arts & Sciences and School of Medicine – to play a major role in creating a new industry that holds the promise of advancing our society in ways we could have hardly imagined just a short time ago.” Combining expertise in tissue engineering, advanced manufacturing and other areas, ARMI aims to create a new ecosystem that will engineer human tissue – and even whole organs – at scale and deliver it to patients on a near-just-in-time basis and at a reasonable cost. While the DOD is interested in medical applications for the military, it also is encouraging novel commercial use. “Creating a whole new industry and related infrastructure holds promise not just for seriously ill patients, but for creating new manufacturing jobs in America,” Lutchen added. “This country is uniquely positioned to lead the 22

development of a biofabrication industry and we look forward to working with our partners on projects that create these life-saving technologies and products, and deliver them to people in need.” ARMI aims to create a robust biofabrication manufacturing ecosystem by integrating the diverse research and industrial efforts in 3D biofabrication, high-throughput cultures, bioreactors, storage methodologies, and realtime monitoring and sensing, among others. Members are working on a host of challenges associated with engineering living tissue and keeping it alive long enough to reach patients. Professor David Bishop (ECE, Physics, ME, MSE), head of the Materials Science & Engineering Division, will coordinate BU’s involvement in the initiative. As a key member of the consortium, Boston University will have the opportunity to propose research projects and to join other projects funded by the consortium. BU is one of just 26 academic partners; others include Harvard, Yale and Stanford universities, MIT and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, among others.

Sander Receives Air Force Research Grant By Sara Cody Professor Michelle Sander (ECE, MSE) has won a prestigious Young Investigator Research Award from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). Fewer than one in four of the 230 applicants were awarded funding under the program this year.

Sander’s laboratory research centers on novel ultrafast laser sources at infrared wavelengths and photo thermal imaging techniques in the midinfrared wavelengths. Her AFOSR project proposal, “Cell Membrane Dynamics in Infrared Nerve Stimulation and Blocking,” will focus on stimulating nerves using infrared lasers to understand the biophysical mechanisms of how cells will interact with infrared electromagnetic waves.

Professor Michelle Sander (ECE, MSE)

“I am very excited to have this opportunity to study how optical infrared light can be used to stimulate or inhibit nerves and the associated underlying biophysical mechanisms,” says Sander. “In the long term, this technology has the potential to advance therapeutic approaches for nerve control, pain management and neurological diseases.”

The AFOSR research grant award recognizes researchers within five years of obtaining their doctorate degrees who “show exceptional ability and promise for conducting basic research.”

Bjorn Reinhard Awarded 3 Year National Science Foundation Research Grant Professor Bjorn Reinhard (Chemistry, MSE) recently received 3 Years of research funding for his proposal titled: “OP: Plasmonic Enhancement of Chiral Forces for Enantiomer Separation.”

An object is chiral if it cannot be mapped to its mirror image by rotations and translations alone. Chiral molecules can exist a priori in two nonsuperimposable mirror images, that is, enantiomeric forms. Enantiomers can differ in their chemical behavior and reactivity, which can have drastic consequences. In drugs, for instance, one enantiomer may have a desired physiologic effect, while the other enantiomer can be inactive or even harmful.

The most infamous example is thalidomide (“contergan”), for which one enantiomer is an effective sedative, whereas the other is teratogen. Administration of the racemic mix to pregnant women led to the birth of thousands of children with malformed limbs. This example illustrates the need for highly sensitive detection and especially separation of chiral biomolecules in research and drug development. The proposal will help develop a new general separation scheme that uses chiral light matter interactions enhanced by resonant plasmonic antennas to separate enantiomers through discriminatory chiral forces acting on different enantiomers. The new technique will have important analytical and preparative applications. It will facilitate both to monitor the enantiomeric purity of chiral species and provide the means to separate enantiomeric or diastereomeric mixtures. This story was originally posted on http://www.bu.edu/chemistry/2016/09/26/bjoern-reinhard-awarded-3year-national-science-foundation-research-grant/

Dean’s Catalyst Award Provides Funding for New Research Initiatives By Sara Elizabeth Cody The College of Engineering has funded seven new projects through the Dean’s Catalyst Award (DCA) grant program. The projects will be granted more than $630,000 over the course of two years to develop novel techniques to advance these technologies. This year’s DCA-winning projects are: • • • • • • •

Nanoparticle based multiplexed detection of cancer associated circulating MicroRNAs Professor Chuanhua Duan (ME, MSE) and Professor Irina Smolina (BME) Rapid and sensitive antibiotic susceptibility testing based on bacterial fluctuations in a nano-channel Professor Kamil Ekinci (ME, MSE) and Professor Deborah J. Stearns-Kurosawa (MED) Metamaterial-enabled magnetic resonance imaging enhancement Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) and Professor Stephan Anderson (MED) Fluid dynamic modeling of anomalous bloodstain patterns to improve forensic analysis Professor James Bird (ME, MSE) and Senior Lecturer Gregory Martin (BME) Using FPGA-enhanced clouds for universal high performance computing Professor Martin Herbordt (ECE) and Professor of the Practice Orran Krieger (ECE, CS) Controlling the spatial pattern of particle deposition in the lung Professor Bela Suki (BME, MSE), Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE, Chemistry, MED) and Senior Research Scientist Erzsebet Bartolak-Suki (BME) Plasmonic metasurfaces for highly integrated directional light-emitting devices Professor Roberto Paiella (ECE, MSE), Professor Allison Dennis (BME, MSE) and Professor Michelle Sander (ECE, MSE)

Established by Dean Kenneth R. Lutchen in 2007 and organized by a faculty committee, the annual DCA program encourages early-stage, innovative, interdisciplinary projects that could spark new advances in a variety of engineering fields. By providing each project with seed funding, the awards give full-time faculty the opportunity to generate initial proof-of-concept results that could help secure external funding.

FACULTY AND STAFF FACULTY MICHAEL ALBRO Research Assistant Professor, ME Mechanobiology, extracellular matrix, tissue engineering • PhD, Columbia University, 2010

KAREN ALLEN Professor, Chemistry Protein structure and function through X-ray diffraction and enzyme kinetic studies • PhD, Brandeis University, 1989

RAMA BANSIL Professor, Physics Polymers, Soft Materials and Biological Gels • PhD, University of Rochester, 1975

TIMOTHY BARBARI Professor, BME Biomaterials, hydrogels, membranes, biomolecular transport and binding, biosensors • PhD, University of Texas at Austin, 1986

SOUMENDRA N. BASU Professor, ME; Associate Division Head, MSE Thin films for energy, photonic, electronic, and superconducting applications: thermal barrier and environmental barrier coatings for gas turbine and fuel cell applications, environmental degradation of materials at elevated temperatures, structure and stability of interfaces, and characterization of structure and phase transformations in materials using electron microscopy techniques • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1989

ENRICO BELLOTTI Professor, ECE Computational electronics, semiconductor materials and device simulations, power electronics, parallel computing • PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 1999

DAVID BISHOP Professor, ECE, Physics; Division Head, MSE Low temperature physics; mechanical properties of materials at low temperatures; MEMS and NEMS; MEMS in lightwave networks; all-optical switching; superconductivity and superfluidity; magnetic vortices in superconductors and their phase transitions; nanotechnology; Casimir effect and Casimir oscillators; VLSI cooling using nano-patterned structures; energy efficient networking; electron coherence effects in metallic nanostructures at low temperatures; cybersecurity and protecting critical infrastructure • PhD, Cornell University, 1978

KEITH BROWN Assistant Professor, ME, Physics Nanoscale transport processes that span nanophotonics, biomaterials, electronics, and heat. Advanced scanning probe techniques for imaging and manipulating nanomaterials

SCOTT BUNCH Associate Professor, ME Experimental Nanomechanics of 2D Materials, Molecular Transport through Porous Graphene, Graphene Adhesion, Mechanical Properties of 2D Materials, Graphene Balloons and Atomic Drums • PhD, Cornell University, 2008

DAVID CAMPBELL Professor, Physics, ECE General nonlinear phenomena and complex systems; novel electronic materials, including conducting polymers and organic and high tc superconductors; electron transport in semiconductor superlattices • PhD, Cambridge University, 1970

LUCA DAL NEGRO Associate Professor, ECE Nano-optics, optical materials, light in complex media, nanoplasmonics, computational electromagnetics • PhD, University of Trento, Italy, 2003

ALLISON DENNIS Assistant Professor, BME Semiconductor quantum dots as nanoscale sensors • PhD, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009

LINDA DOERRER Associate Professor, Chemistry Synthetic inorganic chemistry • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996

KAMIL EKINCI Associate Professor, ME Nanomechanics, nanofluidics, nanophotonics, applications of MEMS and NEMS • PhD, Brown University, 1999

SHYAMSUNDER ERRAMILLI Professor, Physics, BME Biological materials • PhD, University of Illinois, 1986

GRETCHEN FOUGERE Associate Dean of Outreach and Diversity, Engineering • PhD in Materials Science and Engineering (Nanotechnology), Northwestern University, 1995

MICHAEL GEVELBER Associate Professor, ME, SE Development of control and sensing systems for electrospinning of nanofibers, plasma spray, ebeam deposition, crystal growth, CVD, and intelligent building HVAC systems • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988 26

RUSSELL GIORDANO Associate Professor and Director of Biomaterials, Department of Restorative Sciences and Biomaterials, GSDM Fabrication of multiple-phase interpenetrating ceramic composites • DMD, CAGS, DMSc, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 1991

JILLIAN GOLDFARB Research Assistant Professor, ME Chemical Thermodynamics, Chemical Kinetics, Pyrolysis and Combustion, Renewable Energy, Novel Materials for Energy and Environmental Applications, Materials Characterization and Environmental Degradation • PhD, Brown University, 2008

SRIKANTH GOPALAN Associate Professor, ME Fuel cells, chemical thermodynamics, kinetics, and transport phenomena to model the behavior of electrochemical systems • PhD, University of Utah, 1997

MARK GRINSTAFF Professor, Chemistry, BME Polymers, biomaterials, nanomaterials, wound repair, tissue engineering • PhD, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992

MALIKA JEFFRIES-EL Associate Professor, Chemistry Development of organic semiconductors-materials that combine the processing properties of polymers with the electronic properties of semiconductors • PhD, The George Washington University

CATHERINE M. KLAPPERICH Associate Professor, BME, ME Diagnostics for the developing world, microfluidics, bio-micro electromechanical systems (BioMEMs) • PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2000

XI LING Assistant Professor, Chemistry Fundamental science and applications of nanomaterials • PhD, Peking University, 2012

KARL LUDWIG Professor and Chair, Physics Surfaces, real time x-ray studies during thin film processing, phase transitions • PhD, Stanford University, 1986

MALAY MAZUMDER Research Professor, ECE Solar energy systems, particle engineering, material science, electrostatic processes, self-cleaning solar panels, respiratory drug delivery • PhD, University of Arkansas, 1971

ELISE MORGAN Associate Professor, ME, BME Mechanical behavior of biological materials, mechanical stimulation of tissue differentiation, micromechanics of multiscale media, damage mechanics • PhD, University of California, Berkeley, 2002

THEODORE MOUSTAKAS Professor Emeritus, ECE, Physics Growth, properties and applications of wide bandgap semiconductors of the GaN family; the materials are grown by Molecular Beam Epitaxy (MBE) and Hydrate Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) Device applications include optoelectronic devices covering the spectral range from deep UV to terahertz (LEDs, Laser Diodes, Optical modulators, Detectors) • PhD, Columbia University, 1974

ROBERTO PAIELLA Associate Professor, ECE Optoelectronic devices based on semiconductor quantum-confined systems and photonic nanostructures • PhD, California Institute of Technology, 1998

UDAY B. PAL Professor, ME Energy conversion and storage, green manufacturing, high temperature electrochemistry • PhD, Pennsylvania State University, 1984

TYRONE PORTER Associate Professor, ME, BME; Associate Director, Center for Nanoscience and Nanobiotechnology Development of novel stimuli-responsive colloidal micro- and nano-particles for diagnostic imaging, targeted drug delivery, and theranostic applications • PhD, University of Washington

SIDDHARTH RAMACHANDRAN Professor, ECE Optical physics of guided waves, Micro- and nano-structured optical fibers, High-power fiber lasers and fiber sensors, Biomedical imaging and microscopy with optical fibers, Classical and quantum communications • PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1998

EMILY RYAN Assistant Professor, ME Computational modeling of energy systems, pore scale phenomena, porous media, reactive transport, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, fuel cells, electrochemistry, competitive adsorption and multi-scale systems. • PhD, Carnegie Mellon University, 2009

VINOD K. SARIN Professor, ME Materials science, surface modification, physical and chemical vapor deposition, consolidation of ceramics/composites, structure/property consolidations, and transparent optical ceramics • ScD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971

SAHAR SHARIFZADEH Assistant Professor, ECE Predicting the functional behavior of novel materials using first-principles electronic structure methods • PhD, Princeton University, 2009

KEVIN SMITH Professor, Physics, Chemistry Electronic structure of materials • PhD, Yale University, 1988

DIMITRIJE STAMENOVIC Professor, BME Cellular mechanics, rheology of soft tissues and cells, respiratory mechanics, mechanics of foam-like structures • PhD, University of Minnesota, 1983

JOHN E. STRAUB Professor, Chemistry Theoretical and computational chemistry and biophysics • BS, University of Maryland, 1982 • PhD, Columbia University, 1987

ANNA K. SWAN Associate Professor, ECE, Physics Development of nanoscale optical self-interference microscopy, optical properties of carbon nanotubes • PhD, Boston University, 1993

OPHELIA K.C. TSUI Professor, Physics Synthetic and biological macromolecules • PhD, Princeton University, 1996

SELIM ÜNLÜ Professor; ECE, BME, Physics; Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Programs, College of Engineering Photodetectors, nano-optics, high resolution and solid immersion lens microscopy, subsurface imaging of semiconductor devices and circuits, biophotonics: biosensor fabrication and biological imaging techniques • PhD, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1992

ALICE WHITE Professor, Chair of ME Nanofabrication, optical materials, optoelectronic integration and packaging, thermal management, 3D printing • PhD, Harvard University, 1982

JOYCE WONG Professor, BME Biomaterials, nanomaterials, biointerfaces for diagnostic imaging, therapeutics, tissue engineering • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1994

MUHAMMAD ZAMAN Professor, BME Systems biology of cancer, cell adhesion and migration in 3D environments, cellular mechanics, applications of BME in the developing world • PhD, University of Chicago, 2003

XIN ZHANG Professor, ME Fundamental issues and applications of Micro- and Nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS or micro/nanosystems) • PhD, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 1998

LAWRENCE ZIEGLER Professor and Chair, Chemistry Ultrafast femtosecond laser measurements in a variety of materials, femtosecond carrier relaxation dynamics and optical properties of wide range of materials, which includes liquids, supercritical fluids, photo dissociative molecules, biologically important species and wide band gap semiconductors. Nanostructured plasmonics resonances are exploited for biosensing applications of pathogen, cancer, and body fluid detection • PhD, Cornell University, 1978

AFFILIATED FACULTY PAUL BARBONE Professor, ME Theoretical and computational (bio) mechanics and (bio) acoustics, medical (ultrasound) imaging • PhD, Stanford University, 1991

THOMAS G. BIFANO Professor, ME; Director, Photonics Center Deformable mirrors, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), adaptive optics, biophotonic microscopy, astronomical telescope instrumentation, laser wavefront control • PhD, North Carolina State University, 1988

JAMES BIRD Assistant Professor, ME Interfacial fluid dynamics, fluid-solid interactions, microfluidics, electrohydrodynamics, drops and bubbles • PhD, Harvard University

JOHN CARADONNA Associate Professor, Chemistry Mechanism of action of non-heme iron metalloenzymes and synthetic complexes involved in oxygen activation and catalytic substrate oxidation processes • PhD, Columbia University, 1985

CLAUDIO CHAMON Professor, Physics Strongly correlated quantum matter and out-of-equilibrium dynamics of classical and quantum systems • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1996

CHRISTOPHER CHEN Professor, BME Application of microfabrication and nanotechnology to cell and tissue engineering, and regenerative medicine • MD, Harvard Medical School, 1999 • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1997

XIN CHEN Assistant Professor, Chemistry Physical surface chemistry of soft materials • PhD, Stanford University, 2005

LAISHENG CHOU Professor of Biomaterials; Professor and Director of Oral Medicine, GSDM Molecular biocompatability of implant materials • DMD, Shanghai No.2 Medical University, 1977 • CAGS in Oral Pathology, University of California San Francisco, 1988 • CAGS in Oral Medicine, University of California San Francisco, 1989 • PhD, University of British Columbia, 1997

DAVID COKER Professor, Chemistry; Director, Boston University Center for Computational Science Theoretical and computational chemistry, excited state dynamics in condensed phase complex systems • PhD, Australian National University, 1986

CHUANHUA DUAN Assistant Professor, ME Micro/nanofluidics, energy conversion and storage, phase change heat transfer • PhD, University of California, Berkeley

MICHAEL EL-BATANOUNY Professor, Physics Magnetism at surfaces • PhD, University of California, Davis

GERRY FINE Professor of the Practice, ME Product design and innovation, manufacturing/operations strategy and management, formation and management of technology ventures, advanced manufacturing techniques • PhD, California Institute of Technology

MAXIM FRANK-KAMENETSKII Professor, BME DNA structures, DNA topology, triplex DNA, DNA functioning, PNA (peptide nucleic acid), DNA detection • PhD, Moscow Physical-Technical Institute, 1967 • DSci, Institute of Chemical Physics, Russian Academy of Science, 1971

DOUGLAS HOLMES Assistant Professor, ME Elasticity, geometry, structural stability, mechanics PhD., University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2009

GUILFORD JONES Professor Emeritus, Chemistry Photochemistry and photophysical properties of dyes, dye probes, and chromophore conjugates of polymers and proteins, design of photosynthetic models (photoactive peptides) that are capable of charge transport • PhD, University of Wisconsin, 1970

WILLIAM KLEIN Professor, Physics Statistical physics of materials, phase transitions and kinetics of phase transitions • PhD, Temple University, 1972

J. GREGORY MCDANIEL Associate Professor and Associate Chair, ME Structural acoustics, automotive brake squeal, biological vibrations, and ocean wave energy • PhD, The Georgia Institute of Technology, 1992

AMIT MELLER Associate Professor, BME and Physics Nonpore force spectroscopy of RNA folding kinetics, DNA switches and transcription initiation kinetics, RNA helicases activity, mapping transcription factors interaction with DNA, ultra-fast DNA sequencing, novel optical methods for single molecule detection • PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), 1998

PRITIRAJ MOHANTY Professor, Physics Nanoscale materials, mechanical properties • PhD, University of Maryland, 1998

THEODORE MORSE Professor, ECE Photonic material processing, optical fiber fabrication, lasers, and sensors, high power double clad fiber lasers • PhD, Northwestern University, 1961

DAN NATHANSON Professor and Chair, Department of Restorative Sciences and Biomaterials, GSDM Biomaterials with emphasis on esthetic restorative materials • DMD, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, 1972 • Advanced Restorative Dentistry, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 1975 • Research Fellowship in Dental Materials, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, 1976 • MSD, Dental Public Health, Boston University School of Dental Medicine, 1985 • Advanced Prosthodontics, Boston University School of Dental Medicine, 1990

HAROLD PARK Professor, ME Surface effects on the mechanical properties of nanoelectromechanical systems, coupled physics (thermomechanical, optomechanical, electromechanical) analyses of nanomaterials, mechanics of graphene, multiple scale modeling of solids, atomistic modeling of metal nanowires • PhD, Northwestern University, 2004

RICHARD POBER Research Associate Professor, GSDM Ceramics engineering, interpenetrating phase materials, mechanics of materials, materials design, process design, and equipment design • ScD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1971

ANATOLI POLKOVNIKOV Professor, Physics Quantum dynamics of interacting systems, phase space methods, cold atoms, strongly correlated systems • PhD, Yale University, 2003

CLAUDIO REBBI Professor, Physics Computational methods applied to the study of quantum chromodynamics (QCD, the theory of interacting quarks and gluons), of theories of electroweak symmetry breaking, and of graphene • PhD, Università degli Studi Torino, Italy

BJÖRN REINHARD Professor, Chemistry Photophysical properties of nanoparticles and the applications of these nanoparticles to biological sensors and devices • Dr. rer. nat., Technical University Kaiserslautern, Germany, 2003

MICHELLE SANDER Assistant Professor, ECE Femtosecond lasers; ultrafast photonics and nonlinear processes; fiber and integrated optics; frequency combs; infrared spectroscopy and biomedical applications • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2012

ANDERS SANDVIK Professor, Physics Computational research on interacting quantum many-body systems • PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1993

AARON SCHMIDT Assistant Professor, ME Nanoscale energy transport, ultrafast laser metrology, and laser-material interaction • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2008

DANIEL SEGRÈ Associate Professor, BME, Bioinformatics Program, Biology Evolutionary adaptation and dynamical regulation of metabolism in microbes and microbial communities • PhD, Weizmann Institute of Science, 2002

ANDRE SHARON Professor, ME; Director, Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation Electromechanical machine design, control, automation, biotech/biomedial instrumentation and devices, and rapid microdiagnostics platforms • PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988

MICHAEL SMITH Associate Professor, BME Mechanotransduction via the extracellular matrix, fibronectin, engineered cell culture platforms for regulating and measuring cell behavior in vitro • PhD, University of Virginia, 2004

H. EUGENE STANLEY Professor, Physics, BME Statistical physics of materials, including liquids, networks and financial systems • PhD, Harvard University, 1967

BELA SUKI Professor, BME Biomechanics of tissues and extracellular matrix, the ensemble behavior of complex biological systems, nonlinearities in biological systems • PhD, Jozsef Attila University (Hungary), 1987

JOE TIEN Associate Professor, BME Vascularization of biomaterials; quantitative physiology of engineered tissues; biomaterials for microsurgical applications; lymphatics; interstitial transport; inverse problems in vascular imaging; vascular biophysics; thermodynamics of complex systems • PhD, Harvard University, 1999

KATHERINE YANHANG ZHANG Associate Professor, ME, BME Mechanobiological behavior of soft biological tissue and extracellular matrix, cardiovascular mechanics, multi-scale modeling of biological composites, micro and nanomechanics of thin film devices • PhD, University of Colorado at Boulder, 2003

PETER ZINK Lecturer and Research Assistant Professor, ME Novel materials development for electrochemical applications • PhD, Boston University, 2010

DIVISION ADMINISTRATION

DAVID BISHOP Division Head

SOUMENDRA N. BASU Associate Division Head

KARL LUDWIG Associate Division Head

RUTH MASON Division Director

ELIZABETH FLAGG, Ed.M. Graduate Programs Manager

CHERYL STEWART Communications Manager

LAWRENCE ZIEGLER Associate Division Head

DIVISION COMMITTEES Leadership: David Bishop, Chair Soumendra Basu Karl Ludwig Larry Ziegler Linda Doerrer Srikanth Gopalan Ted Moustakas Ruth Mason

Scheduling: Soumendra Basu, Chair Ruth Mason Elizabeth Flagg

MSE Innovation Grants: Srikanth Gopalan, Chair Harold Park David Bishop Karl Ludwig Larry Ziegler Linda Doerrer Soumendra Basu

Graduate Programs/ Admissions Committee: Soumendra N. Basu, Chair Scott Bunch Linda Doerrer Srikanth Gopalan Sahaar Sharifzadeh Elizabeth Flagg

MSE Colloquium: Ophelia Tsui, Chair (Fall) Sahar Sharifzadeh, Chair (Spring) Ruth Mason Cheryl Stewart

PhD Qualifying Exam: Srikanth Gopalan, Chair Soumendra N. Basu Enrico Bellotti David Bishop Uday Pal Siddharth Ramachandran Sahar Sharifzadeh Ophelia Tsui Elizabeth Flagg

GRADUATE PROGRAMS Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Programs Post-bachelorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PhD Post-masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s PhD Through coursework, collaborative training projects and dissertation research, MSE PhD students learn to apply analytic and advanced computational methods and the latest techniques to current problems in biotechnology, nanotechnology, electronic and photonic devices, energy processing and more. Research areas include clean energy, solid-state lighting, photonics and fiber optics, biomaterials and soft tissues, and MEMS and bioMEMS applications.

Master of Science (MS) The Master of Science (MS) degree in Materials Science and Engineering offers thesis and non-thesis tracks that prepare students for a research-focused career creating ground-breaking applications for new materials and modifications of existing ones. A variety of fields are open to well-trained materials science researchers, including energy, health care, information technologies and homeland security.

Master of Engineering (MEng) The non-thesis Master of Engineering program is suited to industry professionals who wish to further their careers by acquiring deep technical knowledge, supplemented with business fundamentals and critical management skills. The degree program can be completed in as little as one year of full-time study (part-time study is also an option), and students may concentrate in biomaterials; materials for energy and environment; electronic/photonic materials; or nanomaterials.

Master with Engineering Practice Any master student interested in the With Engineering Practice option must apply and complete an approved internship integral to their program of study. This degree option allows a student to develop additional technical and professional skills.

ENROLLMENT 77 | Number of students enrolled in the MSE graduate programs, 2016-2017 2 | Number of students enrolled in the MSE minor, 2016-2017

Table 1: STUDENT BREAKDOWN US

International

Total

Female

Male

Female

Male

PhD

MEng

LEAP

Minor

TOTAL

4 2

Table 2: STUDENT POPULATION BY PROGRAM, 2008 TO 2017

GRADUATE STUDENT FUNDING

Table 3: GRADUATE STUDENT FUNDING FOR AY 2016-2017 MEng

Dean's Fellows Graduate Teaching Fellows Division Fellows Research Assistants Independent

Tuition Scholarship TOTALS

PhD

Total

5.5

19.5

Table 4: RESEARCH ASSISTANT FUNDING BY AGENCY

DEGREES AWARDED

29 | Number of PhDs awarded since the Division was founded in 2008-2009 3 | Number of students awarded their PhD degrees this year (Table 6) 64 | Number of MS degrees awarded since the Division was founded in 2008-2009 16 | Number of students awarded their MS degrees this year (Table 7) 41 | Number of MEng degrees awarded since the program was offered in Fall 2011 5 | Number of students awarded their MEng degrees this year (Table 8) 2 | Number of Masters with Practice degrees awarded since the program was offered in Fall 2014 1 | Number of Masters with Practice degrees awarded this year (Table 9) 6 | Number of students awarded their undergraduate minor since the program was offered in 2011-2012 1 | Number of students awarded their undergraduate minor this year (Table 10)

Table 5: DEGREES AWARDED

Table 6: PHD DEGREES AWARDED AY 2016-2017 Last Name Cetin

First Name Deniz

Advisor

Dissertation Title

Gopalan

Gillard

Scott

Sarin

Nothern

Denis

Moustak as

Thermodynamic Stability of Perovskite and Lanthanum Nickelate-Type Cathode Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Physical Vapor Deposition and Defect Engineering of Europium Doped Lutetium Oxide Inverted Vertical Algan Deep Ultraviolet LEDS Grown on P-SIC Substrates by Molecular Beam Epitaxy 39

Table 7: MS DEGREES AWARDED AY 2016-2017 Last Name

First Name

Advisor

Abago

Sandra

Ryan

Bao

Haowei

Pal

Chang

Chen

Pal

Chern

Margaret

Dennis

Gao

Yujie

Gopalan

Gillard

Scott

Sarin

La Centra

Ricci

Gopalan

Liu

Chenchen

Pal

Liu

Lena

Klapperich

Lloyd

Alexis

Pal

Ting-Yi

Bansil

Wagenbach

Christa

Ludwig

Wang

Ruofan

Pal

Wang

Yisu

Pal

Zhen

Yichao

Pal

Zhou

Kun

Gopalan

Table 8: MENG DEGREES AWARDED AY 2016-2017 Last Name First Name Advisor Bashaw

Taylor

Pal

Chu

Haw-Jing

Gopalan

Fraser

Robert

Gopalan

Jin

Xiaorui

Pal

Zhu

Zhikuan

Gopalan

Table 9: MENG WITH PRACTICE DEGREE AWARDED AY 2016-2017 Last Name First Name Advisor Gao

Changjian

Pal

Table 10: MINOR DEGREE AWARDED AY 2016-2017 Last Name First Name Advisor Beach 40

Alexa

Vakili

RECRUITMENT In academic year 2016-2017 the MSE program received 302 applications of which 97 were admitted, and 35 matriculated. For Fall 2017 we received 296 applications, 163 were admitted and of those offers of financial aid were made to 32 students, including fellowships and half tuition scholarships. We expect 24 students to matriculate in Fall 2017. The BU MSE program competed directly with top programs in materials science. Of the 32 students expected in Fall 2017, all five PhDs are fully funded and four MS students have partial tuition scholarships. The new students come from strong programs, including: Beijing Jiaotong University Beijing University of Science and Technology Boston University Cornell University Huazhong University of Science and Technology Indiana University - Bloomington Kalamazoo College Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science National Tsing Hua University Northeastern University Pace University - New York Pennsylvania State University Purdue University - West Lafayette Rice University Saint Joseph's University Shanghai Jiao Tong University University of Bergen University of California - San Diego University of Connecticut University of Manchester University of Maryland - College Park University of Texas - Austin University of Wisconsin - Madison Zhengzhou University

The entering PhD class has a mean undergraduate GPA of 3.53 and mean GRE Quantitative score of 163.

Table 9: ADMISSIONS RESULTS FOR 2016-2017

Applicants

Degree MS MEng LEAP PhD Totals

Matriculants

Admissions

MS MEng LEAP PhD Totals MS MEng LEAP PhD Totals

Domestic

International

Female Male Female Male Totals 3 10 40 82 135 2 4 6 18 30 4 9 13 15 30 28 51 124 24 53 74 151 302 1 8 12 27 48 2 2 3 5 12 1 4 5 8 15 3 6 32 12 29 18 38 97 1 3 4 11 19 1 1 2 0 4 1 2 3 1 3 2 3 9 4 9 8 14 35

Table 10: ADMISSION PROJECTIONS FOR FALL 2017

Applicants

Degree MS MEng LEAP PhD Totals

Admissions

MS MEng LEAP PhD Totals

Stud. Accepts

Domestic International Female Male Female Male Totals 5 13 32 80 130 4 3 15 19 41 5 7 12 13 22 26 52 113 27 45 73 151 296 5 10 25 65 105 3 2 12 15 32 4 5 9 5 6 2 4 17 17 23 39 84 163

MEng

LEAP

PhD

Totals

CURRICULUM ENHANCEMENTS GRS CH 751 Advanced Topics in Physical Chemistry was added to the Electives list. The Provost’s Office requested that all College of Engineering programs prepare Graduate Outcome documents for annual review, due in October of each year. Each Materials Program document outlines Learning Outcomes, the URL where the outcomes are published, Evaluation methods, Program Reviews, Curricular Changes Due to Assessment, and Annual Program Assessment Schedule. The Division submitted the report and documentation by the deadline in November 2016. http://www.bu.edu/provost/planning/program-learning-outcomes-assessment/learning-outcomesbyprogram/#eng

COMMUNITY-BUILDING ACTIVITIES MSE facilitated social events and supported the BU student chapters of ASM International and the Materials Research Society professional societies. SOCIAL INTERACTION In addition to the events listed below, the ASM and MRS Student Chapters were given a budget to enhance their outreach and to organize several student-only activities. Their activities are outlined in the Graduate Student Professional Societies section. Students were invited to the following events and meetings in AY 2016-2017: September 2, College of Engineering Orientation September 2, ISSO Orientation September 2, Division Orientation September 2, Welcome Lunch, Sichuan Gourmet September 2, ENG Masters Cocktail Reception September 23, Materials PhD Orientation, Graduate Student Social September 30, ISSO Seminar Lunch & Learn October 7, MSE Presentation Bootcamp October 21, MSE Presentation Bootcamp November 18, Divisions/CISE Thanksgiving BBQ December 6, MSE Industry Roundtable: Tatiana Sokolinski (’15 MEng), Scientist at C2Sense January 27, MSE Mid-Winter Indian Buffet Social February 1, CISE Industry Roundtable, John-Nicolas Furst, Akami Technologies February 23, Open House Welcome Dinner February 24, Open House Graduate Student Lunch April 17, MSE/CISE/ME Industry Roundtable: Ning Duanmu (’05 MFG PhD), Director of Engineering, Amastan Technologies May 5, Annual Cinco de Mayo Graduate Student Lunch & Graduation Celebration All Student Association of Graduate Engineers (SAGE) events (at least 2 monthly) All ASM and MRS activities CISE Seminar Series Career Development Office Seminar Sessions and Speaker Series

GRADUATE STUDENT PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES BU MATERIALS RESEARCH SOCIETY (MRS) STUDENT CHAPTER

Officers and Advisors President – Tom Stark Vice President – Erin Roberts Secretary – Deniz Cetin Treasurer – Gozde Erdem Faculty Advisor – Soumendra N. Basu Faculty Advisor – David Bishop

BU ASM INTERNATIONAL STUDENT CHAPTER

ASM Officers President – Paul Gasper Vice President – Scott Gillard Treasurer – Thomas Villalon Jr. Secretary – Thomas Villalon Jr. Faculty Advisor – Soumendra N. Basu The main outreach effort of the ASM Student Chapter is to provide volunteers and logistical help for the BUASM Materials Experience, co-organized by ASM-Boston Chapter and the ASM BU Student Chapter. ASM Boston has helped organize the BU-ASM Materials Experience at Boston University for the past 4 years and this year was the 6th. This year it was hosted on May 16th. It is a one-day program to excite and encourage high school students to pursue careers in materials science and/or applied science and engineering disciplines. Held on May 22nd, the BU ASM Materials Experience Day 2017 was an all-day event in which about 60 local high school students came to BU and learned about Materials Science and Engineering. Student groups were led by a graduate student volunteer, and participated in 6 modules, which were led by local ASM Central Massachusetts Chapter industry members and helped by other graduate students. In all, about 15 BU graduate students helped. The event was quite the success! All student groups arrived safely, and participated in every module throughout the day. In addition, high school students got a tour of the BU College of Engineering, hopefully encouraging them to pursue further education in the engineering field. Thank you to all the students and volunteers! Modules: 1. Materials Testing with Instron 2. Polymers and 3D Printing 3. Shape Memory Alloys 4. Corrosion and Batteries 5. Cryogenics 6. Spartan Materials Forming with Fay Butler Fabrication

GRADUATE STUDENT ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Last Name

First Name

Wagenbach

Christa

Wang

Ruofan

Advisor

Honor or Award

Ludwig

August 2016, The National School of Neutron and X-Ray Scattering

Ludwig

2017 Ewha Luce International Seminar, South Korea Student Travel Grant, The American Ceramic Society, 41st international conference and expo on advanced ceramics and composites (ICACC 2017)

Pal

Deniz Cetin Wins MSE Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award

MSE Outstanding Dissertation of the Year Award: Deniz Cetin (MSE PhD, 2017) Advisor: Professor Srikanth Gopalan “Thermodynamic Stability of Perovskite and Lanthanum Nickelate-Type Cathode Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells” This research investigated alternative, novel cathode materials for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which are clean energy systems with high electrical conversion efficiency. A rational design approach was applied to achieve thermodynamic stability in this cathode material system. This research also resulted in a patent application. Deniz Cetin at graduation ceremony

MSE COLLOQUIUM STUDENT HOSTS MSE Colloquium student hosts help arrange the speaker’s schedule and help with logistics for their visit to BU. The faculty hosts and the Division administrators appreciate their assistance! The following students were student hosts for the 2016-2017 academic year: Emma Anquillare Paul Gasper Ariel Hyre Sydney Langueux Evan Muller Mustafa Ordu Thomas Villalon Ruofan Wang Xunjie Yu 46

RESEARCH BIOMATERIALS research encompasses areas such as tissue engineering, design of biomolecules and biopolymers, biosensors, laser spectroscopy and more to create innovations in health care. Over the last decade exciting developments in materials-based technologies range from lab-on-a-chip devices to drug delivery systems to novel engineered tissues.

ELECTRONIC AND PHOTONIC MATERIALS research is invested in III-V nitrides, carbon nanotubes, fiber optic sensors, quantum dots and computational modeling. Engineering breakthroughsâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;like the blue LEDâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; were produced by Boston University labs and interdisciplinary researchers continue to explore myriad applications in such areas as health care, national defense and information systems.

MATERIALS FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT can help produce cleaner and more efficient sources of energy to address our present energy-related concerns and steer society to a more sustainable future. Active research areas include clean energy conversion, hydrogen generation and storage, fuel cells, green manufacturing and biofuels/metabolics.

NANOMATERIALS research is concentrated in areas such as coatings, composite materials, photo-acoustic microscopy, nanoscale materials, and multi-scale modeling. Research, often conducted with industry partners, spans a range of application areas, including mechanics and fluid dynamics at the nano-scale, and developing enhanced materials processing capabilities for opto-electronic applications, advanced engines and power systems.

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Nanoscale 3D Printing Enables Bioelectronic Medicine Research

The nanoclip printing process. a) The base is printed first and b) two CNTf conducting electrodes are manually inserted. c) The top half of the clip is printed. d) The final device contains two “trap doors” on flexible hinges that allow the nerve to pass through and rest on the interior, locking it inside. Image from the Journal of Neural Engineering. When Professor Alice White (ME, MSE, Physics, BME) came to BU in 2013 as chair of Mechanical Engineering, she was keen to encourage the sort of cross-disciplinary research she had experienced as chief scientist at the storied Bell Labs. For her own research, she set up a powerful 3D-printing tool with nanoscale resolution—at the time, one of only three labs in the country with this tool. In addition to her personal projects, she hoped to attract collaborators whose research could be advanced using this capability. An early realization of this hope came when, at the invitation of BU President Robert A. Brown, she gave a presentation to visitors from Singapore about her laboratory’s ability to design and print on such a small scale. Afterward, she was approached by Professor Timothy Gardner (Biology, BME), who had also presented, about his research challenge in measuring nerve activity in songbirds. Their collaboration blossomed quickly. The fruit of their collaboration, a nanoclip just twice the width of a human hair, is the focus of the cover article in the June issue of the Journal of Neural Engineering. Gardner’s research team was working on experiments to stimulate and measure electrical activity in tiny nerves in zebra finches. But they found the attachment they used was too big and stiff for the delicate nerve, causing damage that led to inaccurate measurements. “Professor Gardner mentioned how the current technology for attaching to the peripheral nerve in a zebra finch was cumbersome and caused damage and scarring,” said White. “We had a conversation in the morning about that challenge, came up with a solution, designed it that afternoon, printed it overnight and, the next morning, had the first version in Professor Gardner’s hands.” “The nerve interface devices that are required to advance this emerging field must be very small, but also must be very securely attached to nerve for prolonged periods of time,” said Research Assistant Professor Timothy Otchy, “Though our lab had quite a bit of experience developing microelectrodes, we found that reliably making devices at that small of a scale was extremely challenging.” Otchy is managing Gardner’s laboratory while Gardner spends a year as one of the first employees in Elon Musk’s headline-grabbing new start up in this field, Neuralink. Birdsong is not only an important avian communication tool, it also provides a reliable platform to study nerve damage because of its high sensitivity to change and the easily quantifiable outputs it produces. One of the areas Gardner focuses his research on is the emerging field of bioelectronic medicine, or controlling nerves by blocking 48

or stimulating signals, which could provide a better alternative to treat a variety of diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain and many others. Charles Lissandrello, (ME’09,’12,’15), working as a postdoctoral associate in White’s laboratory, spearheaded the design of the device, working in tandem with Gardner’s research team. Two initial designs proved ineffective or unwieldy, but the third design was successful. “The design described in our paper had two ‘trap doors’ with flexible hinges that would allow the nerve to pass through and lock the nerve inside, with a semi-cylindrical interior where the nerve could rest. Using our device, we were able to both stimulate and record neural activity successfully,” said Lissandrello. “Ultimately, the nanoclip is a tool which addresses many challenges associated with interfacing with small-diameter nerves in the peripheral nervous system and we hope it will enable others to conduct studies which would not have been previously possible.” According to White, while this technique may not lend itself to mass-produce large batches of these tools, the fast turnaround time between design, production and implementation made it a great option for conducting science experiments because they happen on a much smaller scale. White will continue to work with Gardner’s research group to speed up the printing process so it could become scalable for manufacturing. She also intends on extending the nanoclip design to include optical sensing, where optical fibers are incorporated into the sensor for use in areas such as optogenetics. “The feedback from the surgeon about the ease of use was quickly incorporated in the design, which had several iterations. Because we could run through the iterations quickly, it made this a successful experiment,” said White. “It’s a simple thing, but it fulfilled a need to move the science forward and I look forward to more opportunities to collaborate with other faculty researchers in the future.”

3D-Printed Patch Helps Guide Growing Blood Vessels Novel Method Provides Potential Treatment for Ischemia By Sara Cody Ischemia results when narrowed, hardened or blocked blood vessels starve tissue, often resulting in heart attack, stroke, gangrene and other serious conditions. Surgery can correct the problem in large vessels, but treatment is much more complex in vessels that are smaller or damaged by prior treatment. Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), director of the Biological Design Center, is developing a method using 3D-printed patches infused with cells that offer a promising new approach to growing healthy blood vessels. Chen – together with clinical partners C. Keith Ozaki, MD, FACS, a surgeon at Brigham and Women’s Hospital who has expertise in leg ischemia, and Joseph Woo, MD, the head of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University – have developed a patch that fosters the growth of new vessels while avoiding some of the problems of other approaches. Their research is published in the new issue of Nature Biomedical Engineering. “Therapeutic angiogenesis, when growth factors are injected to encourage new vessels to grow, is a promising experimental method to treat ischemia,” said Chen. “But in practice, the new branches that sprout form a disorganized and tortuous network that looks like sort of a hairball and doesn’t allow blood to flow efficiently through it. We wanted to see if we could solve this problem by organizing them.” Chen and his colleagues designed two patches with endothelial cells — one where the cells were pre-organized into a specific architecture, and another where the cells were simply injected without any organizational structure. In vivo results demonstrated the patches with pre-organized structure reflected a marked

improvement in reducing the prevalence of ischemia, while the patches with no organization resulted in the “hairball” situation as described by Chen. “This pre-clinical work presents a novel approach to guide enhanced blood flow to specific areas of the body,” said Ozaki. “The augmented blood nourishment provides valuable oxygen to heal and functionally preserve vital organs such as the heart and limbs.” To 3D print vessels on such a small scale—100 microns, small enough for tiny blood vessels— Chen leveraged his connection to Innolign, a Boston biomedical technology company he helped found. The 3D printing approach allowed researchers at Innolign and Chen’s group to quickly change and test their designs, which helped them discern which patterns worked well. In addition, the 3D printing technology allows for scalability, which will be helpful going forward as they move to test their designs in larger, more complex organisms and tissue environments. “One of the questions we were trying to answer is whether or not architecture of the implant mattered, and this showed us that yes, it does, which is why our unique approach using a 3D printer was important,” said Chen. “The pre-organized architecture of the patch helped to guide the formation of new blood vessels that seemed to deliver sufficient blood to the downstream tissue. While it wasn’t a full recovery, we observed functional recovery of function in the ischemic tissue.” Chen noted that while the results of this project are promising, this approach is still in early stages. Going forward, his team will continue working on the scalability of the patches, while experimenting with different architectures to see if there is a structure that works even better than what they have tried so far. “This project has been long in the making, and our clinical collaborators have been indispensable to the success of the project,” said Chen. “As a bioengineer, we were focused on how to actually build the patch itself, while the clinical perspective was critical to the design process. We look forward to continuing our partnerships as we move forward.”

What Are Quantum Dots? Allison Dennis uses the weirdness of the quantum world to advance our understanding of breast cancer By Barbara Moran, BU Research What do you do with undergraduate degrees in bioengineering and German? Professor Allison Dennis (BME, MSE), won a Fulbright and went to Germany, of course. She had planned to build scaffolds for engineering bone tissue, but her advisor steered her into making gold nanoparticles for drug delivery. “That’s how I got into bionanotechnology,” she says, “and I haven’t looked back since.” Dennis makes and studies tiny, quirky particles called quantum dots—materials that glow different colors under UV light depending on their size. Engineers use quantum dots for many applications, from television screens to chemical sensors. Dennis uses them in biotechnology. In one major project, she is collaborating with Darren Roblyer, an professor of biomedical engineering, and Sam Thiagalingam, an professor of medicine, to track breast cancer tumors and see how well chemotherapy is working, so “we can design treatments that adapt as the tumor evolves,” she says. A big challenge: most quantum dots are made from a rogues’ gallery of toxic metals like cadmium, arsenic, lead, or mercury. Dennis wants to find non-toxic alternatives to use in people. BU Research spoke to Dennis about the past and future of quantum dots and how her work may help revolutionize breast cancer therapy. The conversation has been condensed and edited. 50

Quantum dots glow different colors under UV light depending on their size. Dennis and her colleagues are developing dots that will respond to deep red and near-infrared lightâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;same idea, not as pretty. Photo by Kenny Chou, courtesy of Allison Dennis

Allison Dennis, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and of materials science and engineering. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi BU Research: What are quantum dots? Dennis: If you take any semiconductor metal and reduce it to a nanoparticle size, about 2â&#x20AC;&#x201C;10 nanometers in diameter, it takes on all these really interesting properties. What we are most interested in is the fact that it fluorescesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;if you put these particles under a black light, they light up like a Christmas tree. And the only thing

different among the different colors is the different size of the particle. So, the exact same material, just a different size, gives you different colors. That doesn’t make any sense to normal people. Right, it’s pretty unique and beautiful. Can you give me an example of a material you use? Cadmium selenide—it’s actually in TVs on the market already. Okay, so you take a chunk of it and you make it—how small? A nanometer is one-billionth of a meter. And it turns a color? Yes. There are only 100 to 10,000 atoms in the particle, so it’s very, very small. And if you make it a little bit bigger, it’s red. If you make it a little bit smaller, it’s blue. In the middle, it emits green. And so it’s just literally a rainbow based on the size of the particle. Why does this happen? This is all quantum mechanics. We live in a world with traditional mechanics, where if you throw a ball up, it will come back down. This is quantum mechanics, and so now we’re talking about energy levels, the confinement potential of the excited electron, all these different things. And what I really love about quantum dots is, it’s a way to visualize quantum mechanics in real life; that just by changing the size, we can see different energies in the form of different colors. If the particles are very small, the energy is very high, and that’s why it’s blue. If the particles are a little bit larger, then the energy is a little lower and that color is more red. Energy and color correlate. When did people start playing around with quantum dots? Colloidal quantum dots (quantum dots like I use, where the particles are in solution) were hypothesized and then synthesized in the 1980s and ’90s. They were first used for biomedical applications in the late ’90s, early 2000s. You can put them in cells and label, say, four or five different parts of the cell and excite them all with UV light and look at Dennis’ lab is creating quantum dots with these different colors. We are interested in doing that same kind of multiplexed imaging in tissues, using deep red and near-infrared multiple materials and several layers, wavelengths to get some tissue penetration and see deeper through trying to build non-toxic materials with tissue, so we’re developing some new particles. We make unique optical properties. Photo by heterostructures, which means you have one semiconductor core and a Christopher McIntosh second semiconductor shell. Sometimes we put a second shell on top, so we’re working with multiple materials, combining them in unique ways. And that’s how we get these interesting optical properties that haven’t been made in 20 years of quantum dot chemistry.

How would you use them? One big project idea we have is the molecular phenotyping of breast cancer. Often in breast cancer, you’ll receive chemotherapy, the tumor will regress, and the therapy appears to be working. But then there’s a rebound afterwards. And often, that recurrence is not sensitive to the same chemotherapeutics that were originally given; they’re chemo-resistant. And it turns out that that happens because a tumor is almost always heterogeneous— it’s not all identical cells in that tumor. And so when we treat some of those cells, 95 percent of them may die, but a couple survive, and now they have all the resources because they’re not crowded out by the rest of the tumor, and they rebound and grow back. That’s depressing. Yeah, I agree. But these different cells within the tumor might have different susceptibilities to other chemotherapeutics. We already know a handful of different receptors that are relevant for breast cancer. HER2, for example; folate receptor; CXCR4 is one that can indicate a metastatic breast cancer. And so the goal is to tag these various receptors with different colors of the particles. And if we can track, over time and space, the different cell types and which chemotherapeutics might work in those cells, we can design treatments that adapt as the tumor evolves. What are the biggest challenges ahead in your field? Finding high-quality materials in the near-infrared is an ongoing challenge. High-quality non-toxic materials in the near-infrared is a doubly hard challenge. So that’s certainly a place where I believe our chemistry toolset can really have an impact. This story originally appeared on BU Research.

Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts By Sara Cody WORKING SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER It can be difficult to see trash as anything but one of the most prolific causes of global environmental woes. But Chitanya Gopu (ME’17) and her mentor Professor Jillian Goldfarb (ME, MSE) saw potential to turn trash into sustainable energy and materials that can help the environment in a big way. “My summer research project focused on converting municipal solid waste and into energy and activated carbons, which could be used to treat the leachate, or runoff, from Chitanya Gopu (ME’17) has conducted environmental research in Research Assistant Professor Jillian Goldfarb’s (ME, MSE) laboratory since 2016. Photo by Rachel Gianatasio for Elevin Studios

landfills,” says Gopu. “The idea was to create an integrated system where even the byproducts benefitted the environment in some way.” 53

When Gopu took an environmental-engineering course taught by Goldfarb, Gopu immediately felt a connection with her, especially after learning how her research was closely connected with Gopu’s own career goals to benefit the environment. She reached out to Goldfarb to see if there were any research positions open. Goldfarb worked with her to craft a summer research project, which Gopu was able to complete thanks to the Summer Term Alumni Research Scholars (STARS) program, an alumni-funded College initiative that provides a living stipend to undergraduate students who wish to pursue a full-time research project with a faculty member over the summer. Gopu is in the process of wrapping it up by writing her second academic journal article, for which she will serve as first author. Goldfarb’s philosophy is to work with the students to come up with a project aligned with their studies and goals, and ultimately give them ownership over it. “My students have their own project that they manage, so they’re accountable for it, and if it doesn’t happen, then they don’t have a project. My theory is if you do the heavy lifting, you get the credit,” says Goldfarb. “And in my lab, everyone washes their own beakers, even me.” For Gopu, one of the most eye-opening experiences of conducting research is just how integral failure is to the research process. Organic learning through discovery differs greatly from classroom laboratories, where the steps are predetermined and students have an idea of how to get from A to B. “Everything I need to know I have to figure out myself, and while Professor Goldfarb is a great resource for advice, since these are new questions we are exploring, there isn’t necessarily anyone who has all the answers yet,” says Gopu. “In a real laboratory setting, things never work the way you expect them to the first time, and you gain a lot of experience by learning to work through things.” As Gopu wraps up her summer research and moves on to her newest project — working with ultrapure chemicals to fabricate and test a nanotechnology-based material to treat water samples — Goldfarb has noticed a significant transformation in Gopu’s ability to draw her own conclusions from her data.

Photo by Rachel Gianatasio for Elevin Studios 54

“Since living through the process of ‘try, fail, try again’ in her first project, Chitanya is working through problems confidently and much quicker this time around, and that lowering of the activation energy barrier made me realize how much she has grown,” says Goldfarb. “Learning from prior failures and turning them into successes has allowed her to grow much faster in her current project.” For Gopu, the laboratory has been a positive experience and has solidified her own desire to continue her career path in research. She is currently working on applications to graduate school, with help from Goldfarb. “When creating my material for my first project, I knew the experiment worked properly when I saw it change from solid trash to liquid fuel, and when it did, it was honestly the greatest feeling,” says Gopu. “No matter what you do after college, the things you learn in the classroom won’t always appear exactly as you learn them, but it is so great to piece together knowledge from different areas, and it is so gratifying when your ideas materialize right in front of you.” In addition to gaining valuable real-world experience, another benefit for students working in a lab is getting to see a different side of the professors. Instead of disseminating knowledge from the front of a classroom, students and professors work in tandem, learning together the entire way. “I certainly hope that what my students get out of it is a different perspective on engineering and the things they can accomplish with their degree,” says Goldfarb. “It’s amazing when students get their hands dirty and they figure out they have these skills they never knew they had. It can transform the way they think of themselves in terms of being an engineer.” A FRESH PERSPECTIVE Varnica Bajaj (BME’19) arrived on campus her freshman year on a mission to find hands-on laboratory experience. In high school, she worked on a nanotechnology project exploring drug delivery for curing cancer. The research was primarily theoretical, but she gained a wealth of experience in academic writing. Exploring cures for cancer led to her decision to pursue a pre-medical track at BU with the goal of becoming a surgeon and she realized that biomedical engineering was the right path for her. “My sense is the future of medicine won’t just be about medicine, it will entail this revolution towards technology,” says Bajaj. “I decided to study biomedical engineering to better prepare myself for the future, because I thought I could apply an engineering mindset to the medical field.” Using the BU Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) website as a resource, she identified professors conducting research that interested her and sent out a flurry of emails introducing herself. She heard back from Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), who connected her with her now-mentor, postdoctoral researcher Styliani Alimperti, who set her up to assist with a project focused on angiogenesis, or growing blood vessels, in a dish. Postdoctoral researchers professionally conduct research in a laboratory after they complete their doctorate degree with the goal of furthering their research and teaching experience to prepare for a career in academia.

Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE) says that his undergraduates who work in his laboratory, like Varnica Bajaj (BME’19), play a vital role in the research process. Photo by Rachel Gianatasio for Elevin Studios “Initially, I was unaware that angiogenesis plays such an important role in health and disease, but when you think about it, there is an opportunity to make a tool that has real impact,” says Bajaj. “I would love to combine materials sciences with directed drug delivery and angiogenesis to find treatments for cancer and other autoimmune disorders.” In Chen’s lab, Bajaj’s project focuses on building an in-vitro, cell-culture-based device that can mimic the complex behaviors of kidney filtration function, a model that she worked on during her summer research project. This technology would allow researchers to study a variety of diseases in a more controlled, cost-effective environment without having to use live animals for testing. After using a polymer mixture that includes collagen – a naturally-occurring protein found in connective tissue – to form a scaffold, the cells that form the blood vessel are adhered to the structure. Bajaj injects two main types of cells that make up blood vessels: endothelial cells, which line the inside of blood vessels; and pericytes, which wrap around endothelial cells to keep them healthy. Historically, researchers have examined the effects of endothelial cells on angiogenesis, but this work looks at how both types of cells work together in this context. By inducing angiogenesis, Bajaj can examine the migration of cells around the body, as well as how new vessels are formed. “It’s a project that involves trial-and-error, where many different experiments have to be tried before a solution is found. That’s why it is really important to find students who are committed and are able to make time between their classes and activities to get to the lab,” says Chen. “Varnica puts a lot of time into the work and it’s a project that we are very excited about.” Since Chen holds a dual appointment at Harvard’s Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering, Bajaj also has access to equipment and resources there, allowing more exposure to how research is conducted at another institution. While the work and its potential impact is a motivating factor, Bajaj counts her close working relationship with her mentor Alimperti, as particularly inspiring. Bajaj immediately felt a bond based on their shared experience as international students experiencing a new culture—Alimperti is from Greece, while Bajaj hails from Abu Dhabi. 56

“Research is interesting because you have your end goal, but you have no idea how you will get there. The uncertainty of the journey is constantly interesting and the faith in the final goal is what keeps me going,” says Bajaj. “But I love working with the people in my lab the most. It’s hard to not be inspired by these people who are doing fascinating work that can have such a widespread impact, especially my mentor. She provides guidance not only for the project and my academics but my future plans, too.” According to Chen, the undergraduate students are not the only people in the laboratory environment who benefit from these experiences. The goals of academic research laboratories are two-fold: to advance our knowledge; and to train the next generation of researchers, which includes preparing graduate students and postdocs who wish to continue in academia with mentoring experience. Additionally, new students’ unfamiliarity with the world of research can sometimes be a virtue, because oftentimes they provide a fresh perspective that can revitalize the work at hand. “Oftentimes, you have these highly specialized senior researchers who have been staring at the same problem for years,” says Chen. “Engaging with undergraduates provides an opportunity to reexamine the work from its basic principles, which can renew your own understanding of what is going on. That process of diving into the minutiae and pulling back out to a wider audience is a very important part of what we do as scientists, and undergraduates play a key role in that.”

Neurophotonics Center Aims to Advance Understanding of the Brain By Michael Seele Efforts to understand the workings of the human brain have taken quantum leaps forward in recent years as researchers have developed non-invasive, light-based methods to observe its functioning in real time. Now, the College of Engineering is capitalizing on Boston University’s interdisciplinary expertise in neuroscience and photonics to create the Neurophotonics Center, led by one of the nation’s preeminent researchers in the field. Professor David Boas (BME) is joining the faculty from Massachusetts General Hospital, where he has pioneered new technologies to see deep into the brain in order to improve our understanding of the organ’s healthy functioning, and offer new pathways to understand how strokes, migraines, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurologic maladies affect it. Boas, the center’s founding director, is recruiting faculty from throughout the College of Engineering and across Boston University to pool expertise and further accelerate neurophotonics technologies. “There are tremendous advantages to biomedical and photonics engineers working with neuroscientists,” Boas said. “Neuroscientists have questions and problems that engineers want to solve. Those solutions advance the field and lead to new questions and new solutions. Boston University has a wealth of expertise in photonics, biomedical engineering and neuroscience that is excellent fuel for this virtuous cycle.” Many of the center’s efforts will utilize multiphoton microscopy, a method which even 25 years after its advent is still accelerating in terms of its technological advances and its impact in the neurosciences. In addition, the

Brain activity in a zebra finch.

center will be developing and applying novel approaches to measuring human brain function with light. Human functional brain imaging has been done for several years using fMRI scans, which produce sharp images of brain blood oxygenation and flow, key to seeing which areas of the organ are being stimulated at a given time. But fMRI scans require the subject to lay perfectly still in a confining machine for an extended period, not a natural state and a difficult procedure to use with infants, small children and others. They are also expensive. Instead, Boas uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy, which penetrates through the scalp and skull as much as a centimeter into the brain where it detects blood oxygenation, ultimately enabling the imaging of brain function. The images arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t as crisp as fMRI scans, but the wearable device allows the subject to move around naturally, engage socially and perform any number of activities while blood flow and oxygenation changes in the brain are observed in real time at a far lower cost. Furthering this research is expected to be one of the Neurophotonics Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s initial projects. The Neurophotonics Center is expected to draw on the efforts of doctoral students through the new $2.9 million National Science Foundation Research Traineeship grant for neurophotonics, which will award its first fellowships this summer. An array of faculty from the College of Arts & Sciences, Sargent College and the School of Medicine will join College of Engineering faculty in the center. In addition to Boas, founding ENG faculty include: Photonics Center Director Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE), BME Chair Professor John White, Professor Jerome Mertz (BME, ECE), Professor Barbara Shinn-Cunningham (BME), Professor Howard Eichenbaum (Neuroscience, BME), Professor Siddharth Ramachandran (ECE, MSE), Professor Ji-Xin Cheng (ECE, BME), Professor Irving Bigio (BME, ECE), Associate Professor Kamal Sen (BME), Assistant Professor Jerry Chen (Biology, BME), Assistant Professor Timothy Gardner (BME), Assistant Professor Xue Han (BME), Assistant Professor Lei Tian (ECE), Assistant Professor Darren Roblyer (BME), Professor Michelle Sander (ECE, MSE), Professor Allison Dennis (BME, MSE) and Research Assistant Professor Helen Fawcett (ME). Other BU faculty joining the center from outside the College of Engineering include Professor Chantal Stern (Psychology & Brain Sciences), Professor Helen Tager-Flusberg (Psychology & Brain Sciences), Professor Swathi Kiran (SAR), Assistant Professor Ji Yi (MED), Assistant Professor Alberto Cruz-Martin (Biology) and Assistant Professor Sam Ling (Psychology & Brain Sciences).

It Takes Teamwork New Interdisciplinary Research Center Will Focus on Making Diagnostics Smart and Portable By Sara Cody

The NIH Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care (CFTCC), which Klapperich also directs at BU, will now fall under the umbrella of the new Precision Diagnostics Center 58

The road to commercializing medical technology is usually long, requiring the work of basic scientists, clinical researchers, engineers and eventually industry partners, with one group passing along knowledge to the next until a marketable version of the technology is finally realized. But what if the work of these groups could be combined, with each working toward a common goal simultaneously? Team science has the potential to make the process more efficient and bring medical innovations to the patient faster.

Professor Catherine Klapperich (BME, ME, MSE) hopes that the new Precision Diagnostics Center (PDC) she directs will do just that. She saw the potential that BU’s diverse research portfolio offers and established the new interdisciplinary initiative that will capitalize on the synergy among faculty researchers to invent new medical diagnostic tools.

The PDC builds on the success, momentum and infrastructure of the NIH Center for Future Technologies in Cancer Care (CFTCC), which Klapperich also directs at BU and will now fall under the umbrella of the new center. The PDC’s mission will expand to include cancer, and innovations that leverage point-of-care technologies to enable precision medicine across a wider swath of diseases. Researchers from the College of Engineering in collaboration with the BU schools of Medicine, Dental Medicine and Public Health will collaborate in the new center. “This center comprises faculty across many departments of the University, who are working on new ways to collect, measure, and use patient data. We want to take the power of that data and put it into applications that can be patient facing either during an office visit or at home,” said Klapperich. “After working on building the CFTCC for five years, a common refrain was ‘Can we do this for other health care areas?’ We see the PDC as being one way to bring the engineering innovations we have developed in point-of-care diagnostics to the clinic earlier in the design process. Patient and provider input and acceptance is essential to the success of these technologies.” Point of care diagnostics allow clinicians, pharmacists and even patients themselves to conduct sophisticated molecular tests — like rapid strep throat tests, home pregnancy tests, or blood-glucose monitoring in diabetes patients — in clinics and at home. The PCD aims to apply these innovations across a variety of areas using a three-prong approach: developing new reagents and tests to make advanced patient monitoring possible; designing and creating the algorithms and devices that would house these technologies; and partnering with industry and government to translate innovations into the marketplace. According the Klapperich, while there are other organizations and institutions that explore point-of-care diagnostics, this center is unlike any other effort in this space due to its unique research approaches. In addition to leveraging expertise from the medical campus, the PDC will also tap into the Photonics Center to explore using light-based technologies for non-invasive diagnostics and monitoring. “The Center will play to BU’s unique strengths as a research university, including capabilities in infectious disease, expertise addressing healthcare disparities in underserved communities, and our Photonics Center. We’re excited to access those resources and expertise to make a global impact where it is most needed,” she said. Next steps for the PCD include hosting networking and professional development opportunities for faculty, students, postdocs and residents — such as workshops, seminars and symposia — to attract new members and continue building community. The other founding core faculty members of the PDC include: , Professor Edward Damiano (BME), Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE), Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE), Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED), Professor Thomas Little (ECE, SE), Professor Ioannis Paschalidis (ECE, BME, SE), Associate Professor James Galagan (BME, Microbiology), Professor Allison Dennis (BME, MSE) and Professor Avrum Spira (MED, SE).

The Light Stuff Alumna’s Startup Aims to Improve Health Through Lighting By Sara Cody The invention of the light bulb paved the way for humans to conquer the darkness; effectively severing the dependence on the sun to provide productive working hours for humans. Recent advances in materials research are now providing new ways to render light that are healthier, more satisfying, and more energy efficient. Jessica Morrison (PhD’16) aims to change how people use light with her new startup company, Helux Lighting, by using these materials advances to tailor light color, intensity, and direction to meet personal needs. “Light is something we take for granted and generally ignore because it seems like a fixed resource instead of something we can shape our lives around,” said Morrison. “What I want to do with the company is move forward with state-of-the-art light technology that will allow for more personalized environments by directing it where it is needed.” Adding directional controls to a light source would provide the users with the option to redesign their workspace to align with their personal preferences, inherently improving productivity and reducing energy consumption with targeted task lighting. Morrison first learned about microelectromechanical system (MEMS) working as a PhD student under Professor David Bishop (ECE, MSE). As a postdoctoral researcher in Professor Thomas Little’s (ECE, SE) laboratory, and as part of the NSF ERC for Lighting Enabled Systems and Applications (LESA), she integrated MEMS with advanced light sources. Her spinoff company, Helux Lighting, has created an innovative system using next generation light sources, including LEDs and laser diodes, and a deformable mirror, a device that uses microscopic actuators to change the mirror’s shape. Morrison applied this technology to lighting by creating a device that electronically adjusts light position, brightness and illumination with the goal of creating healthy, energy-efficient environments. “Dr. Morrison has been at the center of efforts to enable the directional control of lighting using MEMS within LESA and is the lead inventor of this enabling technology,” said Little. “Her technology involves a variable focus, lotus-shaped mirror that can tilt, tip, focus, and ‘piston.’ These degrees of freedom can be computer controlled and thus allow integration into low-cost steerable lighting devices.” Today’s typical office building is filled with rows of cubicles illuminated by fluorescent light, computer screens glaring. With Morrison’s technology, she envisions a work environment that incorporates task lights that disperse light where it’s needed automatically. This could decrease the cost for consumers, save energy, increase consumer wellbeing and productivity and alleviate light pollution that is harmful to plants and animals in the environment. “Currently people are willing to put on a coat when they are cold, but wouldn’t necessarily be willing to shell out extra money for a special light, even though it could improve their health or their environment because they aren’t aware of the significant role that it plays,” said Morrison. “Ultimately, we want to shift the conversation to get people thinking about the overall impact of light and provide options to improve their consumption of it.” It wasn’t until she attended the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy Innovation Student Summit, a career opportunities and professional development summit, that Morrison realized commercialization would be the best path to get her technology out into society, and there were resources that would help her do that. “After completing my PhD, I was looking for alternatives to a career in academia, and after talking to a few people at this event, it was suggested to me that I keep going because I had something that could really help people’s lives,” said Morrison. “I was hesitant at first because I never imagined myself starting a company, but once that seed of an idea was planted, it grew and now I can’t wait to dive in.” 60

In April, Morrison is heading to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory to join Cyclotron Road, a highly-selective incubator program focused on hard science innovation. The two-year fellowship, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, provides financial and logistical resources–like laboratory and office space, staff scientists, and program mentors– for new technology companies, as well as opportunities to attend industry conferences and other networking events. “The Cyclotron Road program is such an incredible program that is such a perfect resource for me, at first I wondered if it was too good to be true,” said Morrison. “But their goal is to invest in technologies that are in the gap between blue-sky research and the ones that are ‘shovel-ready.’ Helux is based on research foundations that will need effort and expertise to shape into products; this expertise will be available through specialized resources offered at Cyclotron Road. I am very excited to get started.” Helux Lighting is still in the research application phase, which means Morrison will continue to refine the technology in the Cyclotron Road program to make it more efficient as she learns the business-side of running a company. Initially, Morrison plans on focusing on the architectural and artistic lighting industry to gather information about market needs, which will shape her approach in terms of research and development.

BU Joins Federal Effort to Engineer Human Tissue: New national institute will develop innovative, life-saving industry By Rich Barlow

Imagine this: a new factory opens in the United States after years of dwindling manufacturing jobs. Unlike the great factories of the 20th century, this one manufactures skin tissue for soldiers grievously scarred by war and for civilians, and develops organ-preserving technologies that eliminate waiting lists for eligible transplant recipients. Now imagine an industry with many such factories devoted to tissue fabrication, and the jobs it would spawn. Human-made tissue for healing wounds and preserving organs for transplantation won’t be science fiction if a new consortium, including BU, can develop the technology. Photo by BeholdingEye/iStock

The US Defense Department has funded a nationwide consortium to create the Advanced Tissue Biofabrication Manufacturing USA Institute (ATB). The 87 government, industry, and academic partners, among them BU, collectively known as the Advanced Regenerative Manufacturing Institute (ARMI), were awarded the ATB to further new ways of using living cells to construct tissues and organs. The ATB, to be housed in Manchester, N.H., is part of an initiative to bolster the nation’s manufacturing sector and is backed by $80 million in federal funding and $214 million from its member partners. “This is in the sweet spot of Boston University,” says Kenneth Lutchen, dean of the College of Engineering. “It leverages the University’s strengths in engineering, particularly photonics and optics, nanomanufacturing and tissue regeneration, and biological design. These areas engage faculty from the physical and life sciences in the College of Arts & Sciences, from throughout the College of Engineering, and from the School of Medicine.” The ARMI’s goal, he says, is “to accelerate the innovation ecosystem in each area and drive the creation of new products, new companies, new jobs…that otherwise may not have occurred.”

“The promise…is mind-boggling,” says Professor David Bishop (ECE, Physics, MSE), who will coordinate BU’s involvement. When it opens later this spring, ARMI will solicit research proposals from its members and fund those it deems promising. BU has not yet proposed or won funding for specific projects. But as part of its bid to join the partnership, BU showed the government several examples of its relevant research, including work by Professor Thomas Bifano (ECE, MSE), Director of BU’s Photonics Center. He uses high-resolution imaging, which would allow a look deep inside tissue, Bishop says. Other relevant researchers include Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), and a world-renowned expert in regenerative medicine, and Xue Han, an ENG assistant professor of biomedical engineering, whose expertise is optogenics, the use of light to reengineer nerve cells. Bishop says ARMI hopes to develop many technologies and find new ways to train STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) students, who would be the workers needed in any tissue fabrication industry. “It’s about diverse workforce development and education,” he says. “It’s not just to write papers or develop products.” But “trying to create manufacturing technology for the 21st century,” as he puts it, presents big hurdles. “Unlike any other product you can conceive of, this one’s alive,” Lutchen says. “You can’t just ship it and have it on the shelf at Wal-Mart.…You have to have a system in place, which is just-in-time delivery.” If ARMI succeeds, Bishop says, it could usher in a new era in manufacturing for the country: “Rather than browbeat someone to keep a factory that builds automobile springs here, how about we own tissue engineering,” he says. “We’re part of a group of the best institutions in the world to try to get together and say, can we do it? If so, how can we do it?”

Emphysema: A New Way to Predict Treatment Outcomes? Computer model may lead to more personalized, optimized treatment By Barbara Moran, BU Research Emphysema is a long-term and devastating lung disease. As it progresses, the body’s own inflammatory enzymes slowly digest and destroy alveoli, the delicate sacs where oxygen from air is transferred to the bloodstream. The damaged alveoli form large holes in lung tissue that impair gas exchange in the rest of the organ, leading to shortness of breath, wheezing, chronic cough, and, eventually, death. According to the American Lung Association, 4.7 million Americans were diagnosed with the disease in 2011, the most recent year for which statistics are available In new research, two Boston University researchers have gained insight into the progression of the disease by looking at it with engineers’ eyes. Their work, published in the February 9, 2017, issue of PLOS Computational Biology and funded by the National Institutes of Health, suggests how mechanical forces operating on a microscopic scale could help to predict patient survival and quality of life following treatment. “In the future, you should be able to optimize treatment for a specific patient,” says Professor Bela Suki (BME, MSE), corresponding author on the study. “Very few computational studies have been able to address quality of life.” Emphysema has no cure, and for many years the last-ditch treatment for the disease was an invasive surgery called lung volume reduction, in which a surgeon opens a patient’s chest and removes the diseased, inflamed 62

portions of the lung. The surgery gives the remaining healthy lung tissue room to expand and allows the patient to breathe. But the procedure only works in some people, and the effects vary widely among patients. In recent years, a less-invasive treatment called bronchoscopic lung volume reduction (bLVR) has emerged. In this outpatient procedure, a surgeon inserts a bronchoscope into a patient’s diseased lung and releases a sealant, or, alternately, a coiled spring, which collapses the diseased tissue, closing gaps and giving the remaining healthy lung tissue room to expand. Interest in these treatments has heightened recently, as the results of clinical trials like REVOLENS, published in JAMA in 2016, showed significant improvement for some patients six months after surgery. But no research has explained why the procedures work better in some patients than others. “There’s been a lot of research, clinical trials. But not much investigation of what’s happening at the microscopic scale,” says Jarred Mondoñedo (ENG’11,’13,’21, MED’21), a BU School of Medicine (MED) MD candidate, an ENG PhD candidate, and lead author on the PLOS Computational Biology study. “That’s where the direction of this research came from. We said, ‘Let’s really find out what’s going on.’” Mondoñedo and Suki built on previously published results from Suki, who had studied the elastic properties of healthy and diseased lung tissue by actually stretching samples in the lab. One of Suki’s students found, accidentally, that emphysematous tissue broke under surprisingly low strain. This led Suki to further investigate the mechanical forces at work as emphysema progresses. “Even if you quit smoking, emphysema keeps progressing, though at a lower rate,” says Suki. “The reason is that when something ruptures in the lung, the tension that element carried is going to be distributed around. The other elements will start to carry a little bit higher force, so they are at a higher risk of failure. And that makes a progressive feedback.” To better understand this process, Mondoñedo and Suki built a simple computer program, called an elastic spring network model, to mimic lungs with emphysema. “It’s not a super complicated model,” says Mondoñedo, who says it represents the connections and tensions between sections of lung tissue as hexagons of interconnected springs. “We can go through and ‘break’ the springs, and we get a new configuration that represents the progression of emphysema,” he says.

An artistic interpretation of the lung network model. A healthy lung is shown on the right, while the enlarged regions on the left depict lung tissue destruction characteristic of emphysema. Illustration courtesy of Jarred Mondoñedo

Mondoñedo and Suki ran the computer model in different ways, allowing the emphysema to progress, then “intervening” with various treatment—such as surgery—at different times, then allowing the model to progress further and quantifying the results.

“In the computer, you can play God,” says Suki. “We just do the surgery in the computer, and then we let it evolve, and now it’s easy for us to compare the rate at which things happen.” They measured a factor called “compliance,” which quantifies the stretchiness of lung tissue. “And we could say that, well, if the compliance reaches such-and-such a value, basically the lung is so much destroyed that the person dies. And then we can predict how long it would take, with or without intervention, and also what your lung function is, how easy it is to breathe.” Their computer model suggests that bLVR performs as well as, or better than, traditional lung volume reduction surgery, and also suggests a mechanism—force distribution and its relation to lung structure—that explains, for

the first time, why this is the case. It also confirms previous findings that the procedures work best for patients who are affected only in specific parts of their lungs, rather than evenly throughout the lung tissue. Both scientists express hope that their model may someday help physicians and patients decide which procedure will work best for each individual. “If you could take a CT scan of a patient and then somehow fit that data into our network model, you could develop a strategy based on that particular patient, rather than one-size-fits-all,” says Mondoñedo. “In that way, I think it could translate into clinics and enhance care.” This story originally appeared on BU Research.

Metamaterials: Tuning into Long-Wavelength Light

MSE/ME Professor Xin Zhang’s Lab Research Published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering-Nature: Researchers in the United States have created an artificial material with optical properties that can be changed using an electrical voltage. Metamaterials consist of repeating arrays of subwavelength elements that are designed to interact with light in ways that go beyond the abilities of naturally occurring materials. Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) and Richard Averitt at Boston University and UC San Diego and their colleagues have fabricated such a structure that can manipulate longwavelength light called terahertz radiation. The metamaterial comprises two arrays of incomplete rings — one on a silicon nitride thin film and the other on a movable frame. The team could shift the frame using a microelectromechanical system that was integrated into the substrate. This relative motion changed the intensity and phase of the terahertz radiation being transmitted through the metamaterial. Read the published paper: Voltage-tunable dual-layer terahertz metamaterials

Professor Xin Zhang’s Lab Research Published in Microsystems & Nanoengineering Congratulations to Professor Xin Zhang (MSE, ME) and her research group on the recent publication of their article entitled “Towards uniformly oriented diatom frustule monolayers: Experimental and theoretical analyses” (Authors: Aobo Li, Wenqiang Zhang, Reza Ghaffarivardavagh, Xiaoning Wang, Stephan W. Anderson & Xin Zhang) in Microsystems & Nanoengineering. Microstructures: Scalable production of uniform diatom monolayers A simple technique for harnessing the remarkable properties of algal exoskeletons could lead to advances in nanotechnologies. Frustules, the silica cell walls of diatomic algae, are intricate and multilayered porous structures with extraordinary strength, large surface areas and unique optical characteristics. Controlling the alignment and orientation of the frustules is key to exploiting their attributes but has so far proved challenging, limiting their potential applications. Now, Professor Xin Zhang (ME, MSE) and her colleagues have developed an efficient method for generating uniformly oriented frustules. The team pumped nitrogen bubbles under water, on which the dish-shaped frustules floated, forming clusters of closely packed, similarly oriented frustule monolayers on the surface. Their findings demonstrate a scalable process for producing large areas of aligned frustules that could facilitate micro/nanomanufacturing of biotemplated structures for a host of practical technological applications. Originally posted on Microsystems and Nanoengineering. Abstract Diatoms are unicellular, photosynthetic algae that are ubiquitous in aquatic environments. Their unique, threedimensional (3D) structured silica exoskeletons, also known as frustules, have drawn attention from a variety of research fields due to their extraordinary mechanical properties, enormous surface area, and unique optical properties. Despite their promising use in a range of applications, without methods to uniformly control the frustules’ alignment/orientation, their full potential in technology development cannot be realized. In this paper, we realized and subsequently modeled a simple bubbling method for achieving large-area, uniformly oriented Coscinodiscus species diatom frustules. With the aid of bubble-induced agitations, close-packed frustule monolayers were achieved on the water–air interface with up to nearly 90% of frustules achieving uniform orientation. The interactions between bubble-induced agitations were modeled and analyzed, demonstrating frustule submersion and an adjustment of the orientation during the subsequent rise towards the water’s surface to be fundamental to the experimentally observed uniformity. The method described in this study holds great potential for frustules’ engineering applications in a variety of technologies, from sensors to energy-harvesting devices.

A Better Way to Treat Burns from BU’s Grinstaff Lab Less painful for patients, eliminates need for anesthetizing children

By Allison Manning, BU TODAY

For patients with second-degree burns, it’s not always the initial injury that hurts most. The daily, sometimes hourslong bandage changes can be the most excruciating ordeal. Now, a new development from BU’s Grinstaff Group could soon make those painful bandage changes obsolete. Enter the hydrogel burn dressing, a gel-like solution that acts as a barrier to infection for burns, keeps the wound moist, and—most important—can be washed off painlessly with a separate solution. Mark Grinstaff (Chemistry, BME, MSE) and members of his lab, among them Marlena Konieczynska, have developed a new hydrogen gel that could eliminate the need to anesthetize children for burn dressing changes. Photo The burn dressing is the latest project to emerge from the multidisciplinary lab by Jackie Ricciardi run by Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, Chemistry, MSE, MED), a College of Engineering Distinguished Professor of Translational Research, who says his lab members are challenged to solve problems that have the greatest needs and where current technology doesn’t perform well. The new dressing doesn’t just spare burn victims pain—it saves medical staff hours of time spent rebandaging, and since many children cannot sit still during the painful dressing change, it can eliminate the need to anesthetize young patients during rebandaging. For second-degree burn patients, the removal of dressings is extremely painful, because nerves are still exposed. With more severe third-degree burns, the nerves are burned away. “Even if you could save half the trips to the OR to change dressings, it would be a significant improvement,” says Edward K. Rodriguez, chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Trauma at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who worked on the project. “Imagine if you could just cover the wound directly with an aerosol-applied gel with antiseptic and pain control medication on it, and remove it at the bedside without having to take the patient to the OR.” The Grinstaff Group includes PhD students and postdoctoral researchers studying chemistry, pharmacology, and biomedical and mechanical engineering, all tasked with coming up with solutions to real-world problems. Grinstaff, also an ENG materials science and engineering professor, a College of Arts & Sciences chemistry professor, and a School of Medicine professor of medicine, is the director of the BU Nanotechnology Innovation Center as well. The Grinstaff Group members count on one another’s specialties to pose the best questions and challenge solutions. “In medicine, a lot of questions remain unanswered,” says Marlena Konieczynska (GRS’16), National Institutes of Health Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow and a Grinstaff Group member since 2013. “It’s a brainstorming activity.” 66

The burn dressing problem came to the fore when researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center lab of Ara Nazarian, a Harvard Medical School assistant professor in orthopedic surgery, failed to get funding for a different project—a gel to stop bleeding on the battlefield. The researchers looked around for another problem that might be tackled with the same concepts. The partnership is typical of the way the Grinstaff lab members and the medical doctors interact. Sometimes, group members approach medical professionals with an interesting material and ask how it might be used in the clinical setting. Other times, the medical doctors approach the Grinstaff Group with a problem they need help solving. “It’s a two-way street,” says Nazarian, who is also a Worcester Polytechnic Institute visiting assistant professor of electrical engineering. For the new burn dressing, Rodriguez says, the Grinstaff Group brought expertise in chemistry, and the Nazarian Lab offered its small animal lab for physiological testing. “We’re fortunate to live in a city where there is so much creative and intellectual talent,” he says. “Many times, the most creative advances happen when people with completely different backgrounds come together.” For researchers like Konieczynska, who defended her PhD thesis last spring, working with biologists, medical doctors, and other specialists is a major advantage. “From a student perspective, it’s extremely educational,” she says. “It helps you understand your project from many different perspectives. I think our lab is quite special.” Now that the researchers understand the material and have proven it works on small animals, Grinstaff says, the next step is a large animal model, where they compare the technology to current products. If that larger animal study works as well as the small animal one, next is getting it into a clinical setting and figuring out how to manufacture it. Within two years, patients could feel a spray, instead of a painful cut, when it comes time to change their bandages.

Building a Wireless Micromachine Tiny device may have applications in neuroscience and beyond By Barbara Moran All around us, hiding just outside our range of vision, are miniscule machines. Tiny accelerometers in our cars sense a collision and tell the airbags to inflate. A Nintendo Wii controller’s tiny gyroscopes translate your tennis swing into movement on the screen. An iPhone’s accelerometer, gyroscope, and proximity sensor sense its location in space. All these little machines, known collectively as microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS, have something in common: they are attached to, or very close to, a power source. For broader applications, like wireless brain implants, scientists and engineers need power from a distance. But while it’s easy to send information through the air—think radio waves—sending power, especially to a miniscule machine, can be a bit trickier. But now a team of researchers, led by Boston University College of Engineering (ENG) PhD candidate Farrukh Mateen (ENG’18) and Professor Raj Mohanty (Physics, MSE), are closing in on a solution. They have built a tiny micromechanical device and turned it on and off with one nanowatt of power—that’s a billionth of a watt—from three feet away. The device, described in the August 15, 2016, issue of Nature: Microsystems and Nanoengineering, is a miniature sandwich of gold and aluminum nitride that vibrates, or resonates, at microwave frequencies. The tiny resonator is only 100 micrometers across—a little wider than the width of a human hair.

PhD candidate Farrukh Mateen (ENG’18) built a tiny resonator and turned it on and off with one nanowatt of power from three feet away—the length of a lab bench. The research was published in Nature: Microsystems & Nanoengineering. Photo by Jackie Ricciardi “Wireless power is not new,” says Mateen, lead author on the paper. “Nikola Tesla demonstrated it at the 1893 World’s Fair; but we believe this is the first time it’s been used with a micromechanical resonator.” In a second round of experiments, the device achieved an impressive 15 percent efficiency using a higher radio frequency. Those results were published online in the August 16, 2016, issue of Applied Physics Letters. The most promising application for this type of device lies in the emerging field of optogenetics: shining light on genetically modified brain cells to make them behave in a certain way. The field offers great potential for neuroscience research, as well as possible treatments for neurological disorders like Parkinson’s disease. But to plant a device in the body, especially the brain, is challenging. It needs to be tiny and efficient, low-power and lowradiation. Power must travel to the device quickly, through bone and brain tissue. “You don’t want to have to change batteries every day,” says Mohanty, corresponding author on both papers, “and you don’t want to fry your brain.” A wireless micromachine. The miniature sandwich of gold and aluminum nitride is 100 micrometers across—a little wider than the width of a human hair.

There are two ways to send power without wires. The first, magnetic fields, has a short range unless large coils of wire are used, limiting their usefulness for tiny devices. The second, electric fields, has a longer range but bounces off pretty much everything. “But there are ways to work around this,” says Mateen, lead author on both papers. “We thought that optimizing the receiver may be the answer.” The team started thinking about resonators—materials that naturally vibrate at certain frequencies—like a diving board that whaps the air a certain way, or a wine glass that shimmies in response to a certain sound frequency. 68

“Resonators are the building blocks of all micromachines,” says Mohanty. “If we could make that work, we could build anything on top of it.” This particular resonator consists of a layer of aluminum nitride on a silicon base. Aluminum nitride is a “piezoelectric” material—when it senses an electric field, it flexes or resonates. The problem was building a tiny antenna so that the material could sense the electricity in the air. “We had to change our thinking,” says Mohanty. “We said, why not use the resonator itself as an antenna? That’s where the breakthrough came.” The team turned the resonator into what’s called a “patch antenna” by adding thin layers of gold to the top and bottom. The simple solution did the trick. “I was really surprised when it worked,” says Mateen, who remembers calling to his colleague, co-author Carsten Mädler (GRS’16), when he first detected a signal. “I said, ‘Dude! You need to see this! I think we can wirelessly actuate this thing!’” Though the technology is in its infancy, Mateen sees many potential applications, from remote sensors to improve cell phone chargers to brain implants. “The idea of a biomedical application is just awesome,” he says. “It would be great if it ended up in some kind of product that helped humanity in some way. This is one tiny step towards that.”

Oil and Water ENG Study Examines Fluid Dynamics of Capillary Action By Sara Cody

Whether it’s a raindrop beading up on a jacket, morning dew clinging to a leaf, or a sip of wine leaving a trail along the inside of the glass, surface tension is a ubiquitous force that people encounter every day. Though it is a fundamental problem in physics, a BU study by Professor James Bird (ME, MSE), recently featured on the cover of Langmuir, revisits the relationship between gravity and surface tension and explores its underlying effects on capillary displacement of viscous liquids. “When you place a piece of paper towel over water and the paper towel absorbs it, you are seeing capillary displacement because water is displacing the air in the paper towel and it gets wet,” says Peter Walls, a graduate student in Bird’s laboratory who was the lead author on the paper. “When you use a liquid more viscous than water, other factors like gravity and the viscosity of the other fluid come into play when it comes to measuring the rate that the liquid is absorbed. Those other factors are what we are looking at in this study.” Graduate student Peter Walls and Assistant Professor James Bird (ME)

Walls and Bird got the idea to explore the effects of viscosity on capillary action when they were working on a different, more complex experiment. Using small test tubes filled with oil and glass beads to create an obstacle for the liquid, Walls dipped them into a tub of water with oil layered on top, in order to mimic the trapping found in oil reservoirs. When the liquid was removed from the tubes, drops of oil clung to the glass beads at the point where the curve of the spheres formed and wondered if they could predict the behavior. When Walls looked to the literature for answers, he came up surprisingly empty. This gap in existing knowledge prompted him to take a step back, and simplify his experimental setup to get a better idea of what was happening in its simplest form. They removed the glass beads and elected to work solely with the empty glass tubes themselves, dipping them into baths of liquid varying between low, medium and high levels of viscosity. The study, featured on the cover of Langmuir, revisits the relationship between gravity and surface tension. To analyze their data, the research team modified the equation of motion to account for the effects of the displaced fluid. Previous works have suggested that gravity is negligible until the late stages of rise. Here, through asymptotic analysis, they showed analytically how gravity indirectly reshapes the rise dynamics in their experiments. This new insight allowed Walls to plot out what was happening in the tubes graphically, and what he found confirmed his suspicions: that gravity appears to have a role even in the early stages of capillary rise, depending on the viscosity of liquid. “Capillary rise in a tube is a canonical fluid mechanics problem that has been examined for centuries,” says Bird. “A remarkable aspect of our work is that it untangles previous conflicting results and shows how they materialize from different limits of the same underlying model.” To continue this research, Walls and Bird will resume working on the experiment that initially set them down this path, looking at the same phenomenon with viscous liquids and how an obstacle (the glass beads) affects the outcome. “Ultimately, the goal of our lab is to study aspects of fluid mechanics that are driven by surface tension, so these results will be important to account for going forward,” says Walls. “By developing a deeper understanding of this simple case, we can use this knowledge and apply it to more complex cases, which can teach us a lot about when it happens in the real-world, from oil recovery in contaminated groundwater to paint coatings and many other industrial settings.”

Off the Beaten Path

Zaman Develops Map to Explore Pathways to Cancer By Sara Cody Tumors sometimes feel different from regular cells, which is why doctors suggest performing self-exams to detect the presence of a lump in a breast or prostate. After noticing a gap in the knowledge exploring the unique mechanical properties of tumors such as hardness, one BU research team developed a computational model as a roadmap to help predict the effects of tumor mechanics on cells in a new study featured on the cover of Biophysical Journal. “When we think of how cancer cells behave in various environments, it’s often associated with mechanical properties of the tumor, because tumors respond and behave differently compared to normal cells,” says Professor Muhammad Zaman (BME, MSE). “With better tools, we are starting to investigate what exactly is 70

going on and what exactly is it about these different mechanical properties that causes tumors to be aggressive and invasive and how we can handle that in terms of treatment.” Cells use complex signaling pathways to send and receive messages from other cells. Signaling pathways utilize protein molecules, which have matching receptors on their intended recipient and allow the cells to make sense of their environment and activate the performance of certain functions by turning genes on and off. YAP/TAZ is a set of protein molecules that bind to cell receptors that activate cell growth, proliferation and programmed death. Since studying the effects of YAP/TAZ in cancer is relatively uncharted territory, Zaman’s team sought to provide a fundamental guide to bridge the knowledge gap that exists and facilitate future exploration into YAP/TAZ. “In this study, we are examining two aspects: the first is changing the outside properties of the cell and the second is seeing what happens on the inside of the cell when the outside changes” says Zaman. “We tried to correlate the two to see how they work together in terms of what turns on and off in the cell when its environment changes and connecting that with specific outcomes.” Zaman’s study combines both experimentation and simulation, the former to establish benchmarks that can be used in a computer algorithm to create a simulation and the latter to make informed predictions for a variety of outcomes. In the laboratory, Zaman’s team identified signaling molecules to monitor the response of cells as their environment changed, essentially converting mechanical senses to biochemical signals within the cell. The cells were embedded in an extracellular matrix that was induced to stiffen, and Zaman’s team observed the changes that occurred with YAP/TAZ activity inside the cell. They found that stiffening the matrix directly affects the YAP/TAZ activity, which in turn promotes cancer progression. Using this information, Zaman and his team developed an algorithm that allowed them to plug in this baseline data to make predictions on YAP/TAZ activity in response to the changing environment. They were able to verify the accuracy of their computational model by making predictions and performing the experiment in tandem to corroborate their calculations in a system of checks and balances. Using this model going forward, researchers can predict what lies ahead with the effect of YAP/TAZ on cancerous growth and metastasis, particularly in changing physical environments and in response to drug treatment. This map will allow researchers to branch off to explore new areas and develop a deeper understanding of how aggressive cancer works at a systems level, which has the potential to enable the development of more targeted approaches to treatment. “I think that this is just the beginning,” says Zaman. “In this study, we tried to focus on the first of many questions that will hopefully open up the path toward fully understanding what is going on with this complicated, important set of pathways that are connecting extracellular properties with particularly adverse reactions from cancer cells.”

Easing the Pain Grinstaff Develops Breakthrough Hydrogel Burn Dressing By Sara Cody

The novel hydrogel can conform to the burn wound, accommodate movement and be dissolved on demand with an aqueous solution. Image provided by Grinstaff Lab The searing pain associated with burn injuries is due to the multitude of pain receptors and nerves that traverse the skin layers. Treatment of burn wounds often requires mechanical and surgical intervention that causes further pain and suffering to the patient. A collaborative team of chemists and biomedical engineers from the Grinstaff lab at BU and doctors from the Nazarian lab at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center-Harvard Medical School have developed a novel hydrogel burn dressing that may ease burn patients’ pain. “It is of significant importance to introduce an alternative to currently available dressings that possesses the capability to be dissolved on-demand, allowing for a more facile and less traumatic treatment process, especially for pediatric patients,” says Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE, Chemistry, Medicine). “Changing the dressing requires cutting away soiled dressing and mechanical debridement to keep the wound area clean, which further aggravates the sensitive wound area.” The hydrogel dressing is composed of two polymer components: a dendron and a crosslinker, polymers that bind together, when mixed, to form the hydrogel. The composition of the hydrogel allows it to conform to irregular shapes of a wound and its mechanical characteristics accommodates movement, all the while protecting against bacterial infection. It also absorbs wound fluid and maintains a high level of humidity at the wound site to encourage wound healing. Importantly, the dendritic hydrogel burn dressing can be dissolved on demand with an aqueous solution. Each year more than 300,000 people die from fire-related burn injuries and millions suffer from burn-related disabilities. The treatment of burn wounds is an extensive and painful process that typically involves numerous dressing changes, often on a daily basis. For example, burn specialists estimate that it takes three people 138 minutes to dress a burn that covers 10-30 percent of the body, 105 minutes to dress a facial burn and 66 minutes to change a hand dressing. None of the currently used dressings can be removed painlessly or on-demand.

“Our goal is to have this medical device in the clinic in two years, where we will focus on tailoring the on-demand dissolution of the hydrogel that would allow for potentially painless burn dressing change, which would be a breakthrough in second-degree burn wound care,” says Grinstaff. “The next steps in the translation of this technology to the patient involve establishing good manufacturing practices of the medical device and pursuing safety studies.” The research, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the Coulter Foundation at BU, is described in Angewandte Chemie International Edition and labeled as a “Hot Paper” by the journal (DOI: 10.1002/anie.201308007).

Tech Survivors How Innovators Make It Through Tech’s Valley of Death By Sara Cody Professor Catherine Klapperich’s (BME, ME, MSE) first job out of graduate school was at a startup company during the biotechnology boom in Silicon Valley in 2000. She became familiar with the process of turning a promising innovation into a marketable product, but didn’t think that was the path for her and soon changed careers. Years later, when her lab at BU came up with an innovation that could advance health care for women she knew how she could leverage it to make an impact where it is needed most.

“When I made the switch back into academia, it was always in the back of my mind that it’s really hard and complicated to start a company and I never saw myself doing it,” says Klapperich. “Yet, here I am today, starting my own company. My students were the ones who initially recognized the potential value it had and after considering all our options, we decided this route would be the best way to get traction, so I jumped in.” Klapperich’s company, Jane Diagnostics (JaneDx), was incorporated in July 2016 and she has a long road ahead to make her vision a reality. Like many faculty who develop an innovative technology in their research and want to make it available to people via commercialization, Klapperich is keeping one foot in academia while stepping into the world of business and entrepreneurship. Whether researchers have past exposure to the business world or not, uncharted territory lies ahead. But, BU faculty do not have to brave the wilds of the unknown alone. There are resources that can provide support and fill in the knowledge gaps for those who want to make the journey. “The path to commercialization is different for everyone, and it’s not always linear. The last step for one person may be the first step for someone else,” says Mike Pratt, interim director of the Office of Technology Development, one of the many resources available to guide BU faculty through the commercialization process. “Your path will reflect what your vision is, what your passion is and where you are starting from. It’s a dynamic environment because you are aiming at a moving target, and you have to strategize and reassess and strategize again. That’s where we can help.” But this path leads through what is known in business as the Valley of Death, fraught with legal, bureaucratic and logistical twists and turns that threaten to snuff out an emerging company. Many ideas for companies enter and do not come out alive. In order to cross the Valley of Death, an entrepreneur needs more than just an idea to light the way. Any gaps in knowledge or business acumen turn into chasms that swallow ideas, even good ones, whole. For Klapperich, her journey is just beginning, but many ENG faculty members have set out to make their way through the Valley of Death themselves, using University resources to guide their way.

STRIKING A BALANCING ACT Starlight travels through millions of years in the void of space in a straight line, but once it hits the Earth’s atmosphere in the last few milliseconds of its journey, the change in temperature causes the light to bend. It’s why stars twinkle, but also explains why images viewed through Earth-based telescopes tend to be blurry. In the health care field, fluids – such as that which fills the eyeball – present a similar issue for imaging devices. Professor Thomas Bifano (ME, MSE) made it through the Valley of Death with the successful commercial venture he started in 2000, Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC), which aims to provide a clear solution through a system of deformable mirrors that effectively act as eyeglasses to correct the visual distortion fluids cause. “The idea is we produce deformable mirrors to use in microscopes, telescopes, and retinal imaging systems,” says Bifano. “Before reaching a focusing lens, light from a distant source forms a planar wave front unless it gets distorted, for Professor Thomas Bifano (Photo by Kelly Davidson) example by passing through the turbulent atmosphere above the telescope or by passing through a misshapen cornea before reaching the eye’s lens. The deformable mirror can be used to compensate those distortions in an optical system. After compensating with the deformable mirror all the rays line up again, giving you a nice, sharp, focused image.” Bifano and his colleagues thought they could apply microelectromechanical systems technology to manufacture smaller, more reliable and more effective deformable mirrors. BMC’s deformable mirrors use microscopic actuators that can change the mirror’s shape. The system is packaged as a compact attachment, no bigger than a small dinner plate, for use in high-powered imaging devices. The Gemini Planet Imager in Chile, which helped the Gemini South telescope capture the best images to date of exoplanets–planets that orbit stars in far-reaching solar systems–used a BMC deformable mirror made up of 4,000 actuators. BMC has also integrated its deformable mirror into an adaptive optics ophthalmoscope that is now at the Joslin Diabetes Center, where doctors use the technology to develop a deeper understanding of diabetic retinopathy. In the future, Bifano hopes to expand BMC’s adaptive optic technology to identify and address imaging issues with microscopes. Bifano is chief technology officer at BMC, which allows him to pursue the interesting academic challenges the technology poses while maintaining involvement at the corporate level. For Bifano, and any faculty member who wishes to commercialize research, the OTD is an indispensable resource that helps figure out a balance between academic, research and corporate goals. The OTD offers support for the technology transfer process, providing guidance to the inventor on developing and implementing a tailor-made commercialization strategy. Whether it’s helping to file patents, performing market analysis, or connecting inventors to venture capitalists, the OTD will guide faculty through the complex process of commercializing an idea, no matter where they are in the process.

“As an entrepreneurial academic engineer, you live at the intersection of invention and innovation,” says Bifano. “For example, if you are conducting research and something interesting and unexpected happens, the academic in you will want to follow that discovery down the rabbit hole to see where it takes you, whereas the entrepreneur will want to continue to forge a path toward translating that discovery into something of use to society. It can be challenging to strike a balance.” In addition to contending with opposing instincts, avoiding conflict of interests can also present unique Bifano’s idea for a deformable mirror translated into a product used in a challenges. BMC was at the point in its number of different optical devices today. (Photo by Michael D. Spencer) development where the next step was to move into a physical space. Because Bifano was transitioning into administrative roles as a department chair and director of the Photonics Center, he decided to move BMC off campus to allow clearer management of his conflicts of interest. Even though BMC is no longer located on the BU campus, he still works closely with Pratt and the OTD to license technology from BU faculty, and former graduate students hold many of the leadership positions in the company. While Bifano maintains that commercialization should not be the ultimate goal of a research institutions, he stresses the importance of providing guidance to navigate the treacherous Valley of Death for those who do wish to make that journey. “Engineering is aimed directly at solving problems, rather than simply understanding them, and this tends to translate well to commercialization,” says Bifano. “For those who do see the value of translating their innovation to a company, I think it is wonderful that the university provides resources to make the complex and nuanced process easier.” INNOVATING GLOBAL HEALTH For those like Klapperich, who is just starting the journey through the Valley of Death, the risks and the unknown can be daunting. But for her, the social and global health implications the technology offers are too important to leave unexplored. JaneDx is centered on a portable, disposable device her lab developed to diagnose sexually transmitted diseases. Currently, patients must go to a doctor, get diagnosed and receive a course of antibiotic treatment for common STIs like gonorrhea and chlamydia. The diagnostic tool that Klapperich developed could streamline this process, lessen financial burden and even remove the need to visit the doctor’s office altogether. The test could be especially important for women who face financial and child-care challenges.

“This sort of paradigm shift has been done before,” says Klapperich. “You used to have to seek treatment for yeast infections under the care of a doctor, but they developed an over-the-counter way of treating it as long as you matched with symptoms on a checklist. And pharmacists in many countries have the ability to prescribe antibiotics, but they need an appropriate diagnosis first to be able to do that.”

Professor Catherine Klapperich (Photo by Kelly Davidson)

Using microfluidic and paperfluidic technology, Klapperich has spent 13 years developing a prototype device that works in a similar fashion as a home pregnancy test to diagnose STIs. The device is a strip of plastic that safeguards a paper substrate. The patient follows instructions to prepare a sample of body fluid, and like a home pregnancy test, the diagnosis is indicated by the appearance of one or two lines. The test detects DNA, so it can let a provider know if antibiotic resistance is a problem.

“Our initial goal is to make the device simple enough so that a minimally trained healthcare worker can use it with the goal of eventually streamlining the process enough so that a patient could buy a test and use it at home,” says Klapperich. The next step to commercialize JaneDx is to conduct a preclinical trial in India as a pilot, where healthcare workers at a clinic will collect a sample, using half with Klapperich’s device and the other half with the current method of testing as a control. Klapperich will use this data to build the next prototype and raise funds to conduct a formal clinical study. As the College’s Associate Dean for Research and Technology Development, Klapperich is a liaison between faculty and the OTD and helps guide colleagues through the process of technology transfer. Embarking upon her own commercialization journey has provided an entirely new perspective on the process that will allow her to better advocate for other faculty members who wish to commercialize their work. “Technology transfer is a nuanced and complex process and when we made the decision to move forward, we had to change day-to-day operations in my own laboratory,” says Klapperich. “We had to make sure that we provided the proper disclosures around the science and intellectual property and take care to avoid conflicts of interest. It can be tricky to navigate.” Even with the Valley of Death and all of its regulatory twists and turns looming ominously, the reason to commercialize the technology relatively simple for Klapperich: if we don’t do it, no one else will. “Even if we fail, we get our ideas out into the world and into people’s imaginations, which makes them think about problems differently,” says Klapperich. “I feel like if we at least go out there and try, we can affect some change.” This story originally appeared in the Fall 2016 issue of ENGineer magazine. 76

The Physics of Food Professor Bansil teaches how to make tastier ice cream and perfect steak

Ice doesn’t belong in ice cream. If you want to make an extra lickable treat, you need to minimize the ice part. “The first thing in making ice cream is that you have to cool down the milk and the cream so they freeze,” says Professor Rama Bansil (Physics, MSE) “You don’t want it to form ice, but you want it to become very, very cold and thick.” This, the College of Arts & Sciences professor of physics and College of Engineering professor of materials science & engineering teaches in her Physics of Food/Cooking class, is not just about being an artful chef—it’s about understanding the science of phase transitions: how one thing (say, water) transforms into something else (ice). The course covers the physics of soft Rama Bansil, a College of Arts & Sciences professor of physics (left), materials, but Bansil has given it a more palatable spin to attract nonscience majors. and Shivangi Surana (SHA’16) try their hand at liquid nitrogen They learn the basic principles of “cooking.” thermodynamics, molecular physics, and a dash of molecular biology. The class might not produce physicists or chefs, Bansil says, but it will give students “a better appreciation of what’s happening when they’re cooking.” And whether the ice cream they’re scooping is good enough to justify the calories it’ll cost. Before the existence of modern ice cream machines, glaciers (the French word for such professionals) would churn the liquid ingredients in a bucket lined with salt and ice. Salt brings down water’s freezing point, ensuring that the bucket is especially cold and that the ice cream hardens as quickly as possible, which reduces the opportunity for large ice crystals to form. Modern physics, however, can do one better than a bucket. “The best way to make ice cream is, hands down, with liquid nitrogen,” says Bansil, who has students in her class experiment with different production methods, from shaking ingredients in a bag to pouring liquid nitrogen on them. They also have to quantitatively measure the results. Liquid nitrogen is so cold that it boils at minus 320 degrees Fahrenheit, says Bansil, meaning “everything that comes into contact with it freezes more or less instantaneously—the water molecules don’t have time to really form ice, they just solidify wherever they are.” Pour it into a bowl of blended cream, milk, and sugar and it freezes in seconds, producing ice cream with microscopic ice crystals, a smoother texture, and no wait. For those who don’t have a liquid nitrogen canister tucked behind their saucepans, Bansil says, it’s important to keep stirring the mixture—it’ll help beat back those ice crystals—and to stick to cream (gelatin and condensed milk won’t cut it).

“Ice cream is both a foam and an emulsion,” she says, so the secret to good homemade ice cream is “to keep the size of the ice crystals to a very small, microscopic size, get the emulsion of fat droplets to the right consistency by using cream, and get the right amount of air in the foam.” Other topics in her class range from the baking of cupcakes (heat diffusion) to making cheese (changing molecular and physical structures). After guest chefs, such as Nicki Hobson of Boston’s Island Creek Oyster Bar, make an appearance, students peer through microscopes to examine the star cooks’ concoctions. Hobson’s hollandaise was scrutinized to “calculate the pressure or the size of the bubbles inside the sauce and how that changed as you applied pressure or changed the concentration of the mixture,” Bansil says. When it comes to steak, physics tells us to use the sous vide method: cooking the meat in a bag immersed in water held at a constant temperature. “Meat, like other foods, has lots of different proteins and each one of these proteins changes its shape at some specific temperature; that’s called denaturing,” she says. “You want to denature only one particular protein and not all.” It’s the same process that sees an egg turn from runny goo to hard-boiled if a cook doesn’t keep a close eye on temperatures and timings. Sous vide steak takes hours, she says, but “it’s perfect because the temperature is The construction of a coconut shell dessert demonstrates three physics principles: heat exchange, centrifugation, and gelation.

uniform” throughout the meat.

Most of us will continue to throw a steak in the pan. For that, you need to think about bounce—how the meat springs back after being poked (to measure it, Bansil recommends looking online at the “meat finger test”). “Texture happens to be related to the elastic properties of the food,” she says. “You want it to bounce just the right amount. Just right is, of course, up to the palate, but it ultimately relates to the molecular properties of the meat molecules, the proteins in the meat.” Students are enthusiastic. Avery Singh (CAS’18) especially enjoyed the lab that involved making ice cream. “It illuminated the science behind how ice cream is made,” Singh says. “Cooking is a personal interest of mine. I definitely think about the concepts as I’m cooking.” Classmate and self-described foodie Nina Kim (SAR’16) is taking the class to fulfill a lab requirement. “I think it’s cool to use food to lure people into science,” she says. This story originally appeared in the fall 2015 issue of arts & sciences.

New 3D Metals Printer Keeps EPIC on Cutting Edge of Product Design & Manufacture GE donation gives students, researchers an edge By Michael Seele More and more products – from custom-made orthodontic braces to hearing aids – are commonly made using 3D printing and nearly every engineering school has 3D printers for students to work on. But virtually all of them 78

print some form of plastic. With the addition of a metal-printing machine donated recently by GE, the College of Engineering and the Engineering and Product Innovation Center (EPIC) will remain on the cutting edge of education and research in this rapidly evolving field. GE considered applications from 250 colleges and universities around the world before selecting just eight to receive a metals 3D printer. Boston University is the only engineering school in the Boston area to receive one. As the range of materials used in 3D printing – or additive manufacturing as it’s known in industry – expands from plastics to metals, the commercial possibilities are expanding as well, said EPIC Director and Professor Gerald Fine (ME, MSE). Students, as well as materials researchers and employers like GE, are eager to master the associated design and manufacturing challenges. Fine says the new Product Design & Manufacture master’s degree program will particularly benefit from the addition of a metals printer, one of only about two dozen or so to be housed in engineering schools nationally. “This will ensure that our new degree program is working with state-of-the-art tools in a rapidly evolving field,” said Fine, adding that the machine will be integrated into the College’s first graduate course in additive manufacturing. “Adding metals to 3D printing changes the whole paradigm in design and manufacturing,” Fine said. “The design rules are different. You are designing products differently.” He noted that GE has begun 3D printing jet engine fuel nozzles. The nozzles used to be manufactured by assembling approximately 40 individual parts, but 3D printing reduces the part count to one. The addition of metals to additive manufacturing also poses challenges for materials researchers, he said, noting that Professor Soumendra Basu (ME, MSE) and Professor Uday Pal (ME, MSE) were involved in the effort to acquire the new machine. “In additive manufacturing, the properties of metals can be different from what materials scientists are accustomed to,” Fine said. “Also, the range of metals than can be 3D printed now is small, so there is interest in developing new materials.” The donation marks a further deepening of the relationship between the College, EPIC and GE. The company has been on EPIC’s Industrial Advisory Board since EPIC’s inception. “They understand what we are trying to do and they’ve given us an understanding of their needs, which includes hiring more students who understand additive manufacturing and digital design. It’s a win-win,” Fine said.

BUnano Inaugural Symposium: Nanotechnology for Imaging BUnano Center Director Professor Mark Grinstaff (BME, MSE) welcomed the audience in the packed Metcalf Trustee Ballroom. and presented BUnano’s mission to promote a vibrant and dynamic community for nanorelated disciplines at BU. What distinguishes BUnano from other nano centers in the Boston area is its connection to the Boston Medical Center and the BUSM. BUnano offers pilot grants to foster and support collaborative research of BU faculty across campuses in their pursuit of finding nano solutions to real life problems in technology and medicine. The morning session featured a lineup of talks by BUnano faculty. Professor Luca Dal Negro (ECE, Physics, MSE) opened the scientific portion of the symposium with his talk on “Materials and Fields @ the Nanoscale: Optical Engineering of Resonant Nanostructures,” followed by Professor Allison Dennis’s (BME, MSE) talk “Cadmiumfree Quantum Dots for Imaging in the Visible and Near Infrared” and the joint presentation by Professor Joyce Wong (BME, MSE) and Dr. Victoria Herrera entitled “Janus Nanoparticles for Cancer Theranostics.” Professor

Luca Dal Negro introduced his group’s research related to the development of novel plasmonic materials and nanostructures for spectroscopy. Professor Allison Dennis discussed how her group uses cadmium-free Quantum Dot chemistries for applications in fluorescent biosensing and improved biomedical imaging. Professor Joyce Wong and Professor of Medicine Dr. Victoria Herrera discussed their interdisciplinary collaboration on developing theranostic Janus USPION for enhanced MRI imaging and targeted nucleic acid therapy to treat nondruggable cases, especially in pancreatic cancer. After lunch break, Professor Selim Unlu (ECE, BME, Physics, MSE), a BUnano affiliated faculty, introduced the keynote speaker of the symposium, Prof. Stefan Hell. He is the current Director at the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry in Germany. In 2014 Prof Hell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his pioneering work in the field of ultra-high resolution fluorescence microscopy. Stefan Hell succeeded in radically overcoming the resolution limit of conventional optical microscopes – a breakthrough that has enabled new ground-breaking discoveries in biological and medical research. Prof. Hell’s exciting talk on flurorescence nanoscopy featured his recent research on how to neutralize diffraction in order to achieve imaging of cells and tissues at the nanoscale. For close to an hour, Prof Hell held the audience’s attention captive, transforming them to the realm of STED microscopy infecting them with the possibility of capturing images of the nanoworld. Twenty students and postdoctoral fellows were selected to present their posters at the symposium. Ms Qianyun Zhang, a student in Professor Bjoern Rheinhard’s (Chemistry, MSE) Lab, received $500 for her poster “Illuminating EGFR clustering and its Effects on Signal.” The symposium concluded with BUnano’s version of the popular show Shark Tank, “Terrier Tank.” The competition was moderated by Dr. Ahmad Khalil, Biomedical Engineering Assistant Professor at BU. Five finalists presented their innovative translational research idea to a panel of judges. The panel included BUnano Entrepreneur-in-Residence Dr. Jill Becker (CEO and Founder of 02139 Inc), Dr. David Coleman, Chair of the Department of Medicine at BUSM, Peter Marton of BU’s Questrom School of Business and Buzz Lab, Jess McLear of Launchpad Venture Group, and Dr. Terry Russell, Managing Director of Interface Ventures. It was truly exciting to see undergraduate students, graduate students and postdoctoral associates striving to take a nascent idea and translate into a marketable product which would provide tangible benefit to our society. After careful consideration, the judges awarded the $10,000 prize to CatchAu – an environmentally conscious wastewater treatment idea by a team of graduate students, Mingfu Chen, Uros Kuzmanovic, and Nicolas Shu.

Pardee Center Hosts BU Conference on Sustainability Research The Frederick S. Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future co-sponsored the BU Conference on Sustainability Research on Monday, May 9. Approximately 100 people attended the one-day conference that featured presentations by Boston University faculty with a diverse range of expertise on their research related to sustainability issues (a full list of presenters can be viewed below). Each of the four sessions — which focused on measuring sustainability, modeling sustainability, human dimensions of sustainability, and future sustainability — took an interdisciplinary approach, and the discussion throughout the day explored sustainability challenges and solutions through ecological, economic, societal, and technological lenses, among others.

From left: Lucy Hutyra, Nathan Phillips, Pam Templer, Michael Gevelber, and Thomas Little

Following opening remarks by Pardee Center Director Anthony Janetos and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Ann Cudd, Prof. Lucy Hutyra (Earth and Environment) moderated the first session on measuring sustainability. Panelists included Prof. Nathan Phillips (Earth and Environment, Systems Engineering), Prof. Pam Templer (Biology), Professor Michael Gevelber (ME, MSE, SE), and Prof. Thomas Little (Electrical and Computer Engineering, Systems Engineering). Topics included measuring local and regional energy use, carbon storage, commercial buildings energy use, and smart lighting technology.

The second session, moderated by BU Sustainability Director Dennis Carlberg, focused on modeling sustainability. Prof. Peter Fox-Penner (Questrom) gave an overview of his newly created Institute for Sustainable Energy and Prof. Kevin Gallagher (Global Development Policy) spoke about his research on climate change, trade, and finance conducted at the Global Economic Governance Initiative (GEGI), of which he is the CoDirector. Conor Gately (Earth and Environment) and Prof. Jonathan Levy (Environmental Health) discussed methods to improve greenhouse gas emissions inventories and the public health benefits of clean energy. The third session on the human dimensions of sustainability was moderated by Initiative on Cities Executive Director Katharine Lusk and featured Prof. Cutler Cleveland (Earth and Environment), Prof. Henrik Selin (International Relations) and Prof. Anne Short (Earth and Environment). Topics included energy end use and energy transitions, efforts to reduce hazardous substances, and social and ecological aspects of sustainable development. The final session of the conference focused on the future of sustainability. Pardee Center Director Anthony Janetos set the stage by explaining the importance of prediction, adaptation, and risk management and tolerance. Prof. Les Kaufman (Biology), Prof. James McCann (History), and Prof. Madhu Dutta-Koehler (City Planning and Urban Affairs) followed with a wide-ranging discussion that explored the future of sustainability for marine ecosystems, urban areas, and the interface between human and natural systems. The BU Conference on Sustainability Research was co-sponsored by the Pardee Center, the College of Arts and Sciences, the Department of Earth and Environment, the Pardee School of Global Studies, and the Institute for Sustainable Energy. An edited version of the full conference video will be available soon in the Pardee Centerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Multimedia Library.

Symposium Celebrates Grand Opening of Biological Design Center Kickoff Event Highlights Multidisciplinary Work in Biological Design By Sara Cody More than 200 researchers from industry, academia and healthcare gathered on campus June 1 to celebrate the formal launch of the Biological Design Center and its new home, the just-completed, nine-story Center for Integrated Life Sciences and Engineering (CILSE). According to Professor Christopher Chen (BME, MSE), founding director of the BDC, bringing together the community to explore synthetic biology — the engineering of living systems to understand, control, and reengineer how biological components work — is a key component of the mission. “The purpose of the center is to build a new community not just of faculty working on individual projects, but all of us working together,” said Chen. “While not every BDC faculty member will be located in CILSE, having a central location acts as a catalyst for everybody to interact with each other and establish new collaborations.”

CILSE is the new home of the Biological Design Center. Photo by Sara Cody The kickoff symposium, titled “Engineering the Future,” featured an array of speakers from academia and industry who gave presentations on biological science and technology, as well as their work with diverse aspects of biological design ranging from molecular-scale investigations to tissue-level engineering and multicellular communities and communication. The community gathered in the Hariri Auditorium in the Questrom School of Business to listen to the speakers before heading over to two poster sessions in the CILSE lobby, one at lunch and one in the evening, showcasing some of the research projects that BDC members have been developing. “Our vision is to use the center to branch out and make strong connections across the community, both in academia and in industry,” said Chen in his opening remarks. “Connectivity across engineering, biology, physics, chemistry, medicine will be needed to make the vision a meaningful reality.” Deboki Chakravarti, a PhD student in Assistant Professor Wilson Wong (BME)’s laboratory, was among the lineup of presenters during the morning session. She spoke to the audience about her research project that focuses on engineering T cells—an important component in the body’s immune response — to provide the ability to tune the cells’ behavior in the body. This would enable doctors to enlist the patient’s own cells to fight against diseases like cancer. “I’ve been in graduate school for a few years and the kickoff event was an exciting opportunity for me to have my first experience presenting my work in a formal setting,” said Chakravarti. “It was great to interact with people outside of academia and in other industries, which I think is a key component of the mission of the BDC.” Professor Bonnie Bassler, chair of the Microbiology Department at Princeton University, presented the Charles Cantor Lecture, named in honor of Professor Emeritus Charles Cantor (BME), who pioneered a method for separating large DNA molecules, an important tool for biological research. Bassler’s presentation focused on bacterial quorum sensing, or the “languages” that bacteria use to communicate with each other to perform group tasks, and how to synthetically manipulate those systems to combat disease and improve human health.

“Charles’ contributions to science are significant and his early support of synthetic biology helped to cultivate an environment of creativity, tinkering, unconventional thinking that we still maintain today and really helped put BU on the map,” said Assistant Professor Ahmad “Mo” Khalil (BME), associate director of the BDC. “Bonnie’s research spans everything from everything from the science of a complex biological system to inspiring new tools that synthetic biologists use that she elucidated and all the way to human health implications. Her work speaks to the importance of team-based efforts and that synergizes well with the BDC.” Other presenters at the symposium included BDC faculty Associate Professor Douglas Densmore (ECE), Assistant Professor Allyson Sgro (BME), Associate Professor Pankaj Mehta (CAS) and Assistant Professor Mary Dunlop (BME) and BDC laboratory team members, as well as distinguished speakers from academia and industry. CILSE, which recently completed construction, boasts 170,000 square feet of space that brings together investigators in life science, engineering and medicine from both Charles River and Medical campuses. The BDC headquarters is located on the fourth and fifth floors of CILSE, which hosts six laboratories and the administrative offices, as well as collaborative space available to all BDC investigators.

MATERIALS SCIENCE & ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM SERIES

Date

Speaker

Faculty Host

Student Host

28-Oct Antoine Allanore MIT Worcester Polytechnic 4-Nov Diran Apelian Institute University of 18-Nov Marc Garbey Houston Dartmouth 9-Dec Jane Lipson University University of 10-Feb Nick Vamivakas Rochester

Uday Pal

Thomas Villalon

16-Mar Anand Khanna

IIT Bombay Temple 24-Mar Mike Zdilla University Case Western 31-Mar Genevieve Sauve Reserve University of 7-Apr Mansoor Barati Toronto Naval Research 21-Apr Jas Sanghera Labs

Soumendra Basu

Uday Pal Siddharth Ramachandran

Thomas Villalon

28-Apr Jarrod Milshtein

Uday Pal

Ruofan Wang

Linda Doerrer

Ariel Hyre and Sydney Lagueux

Yogesh 5-May Surendranath

Affiliation

MIT

Soumendra Basu Paul Gasper Katherine Zhang Xunjie Yu Ophelia Tsui

Xuanji Yu

Anna Swan

Linda Doerrer Malika JeffriesEl

Emma Anquillare Evan Muller

Mustafa Ordu

MSE SHARED CORE RESEARCH FACILITY The Materials Science and Engineering Core Facility was officially commissioned in June 2012. Since that time, it has grown to house multiple core pieces of equipment for the Materials Science Engineering and Photonics Center Community. The materials processing area is comprised of two Salare hoods that are dedicated to acid and base processing. Table space is provided within this room to allow for sample preparation and oven use if applicable. Two Bruker X-Ray systems have been acquired by an NSF MRI award led by Prof. Ludwig, and are available for faculty usage. Dr. Jeffrey Bacon oversees training and maintenance on these two systems. The N8 Horizon and the D8 Discover systems are complementary, and allow for smalland wide-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS and WAXS). The N8 Horizon, introduced by Bruker in 2012, is one of the first such systems installed in the US. The instrument is designed for compact spaces and has transmission and grazing incidence SAXS capabilities. The D8 Discover is a very versatile WAXS system with general x-ray diffraction (XRD), high-resolution XRD, reciprocal space mapping, grazing incidence diffraction, x-ray reflectivity, polefigure analysis, and sample heating (1000Â°C) capabilities.

A Zeiss Xradia 410 Versa system was acquired and set up through a separate NSF MRI award, led by Professor Morgan. This tool bridges the gap between high-performing X-ray microscopy (XRM) and less powerful computed tomography (CT) systems. This system provides quantitative 3D characterization of materials microstructure at multiple length scales down to the sub-micron, including porosity, density, surface area, and topological measures such as 3-D connectivity.

The AFM-FM Microscope that was housed in the core facility is currently undergoing major improvements via a third NSF MRI award led by Professor Goldberg. In conjunction with Asylum, the system is being retrofitted with Raman Spectroscopy for enhanced tip capability. Next to the AFM is a new Renishaw Raman Microscope system that includes a heating/cooling stage and multiple wavelengths for Raman observation. This tool was purchased via the Photonics Center Capital Equipment Committee and is open to all Photonics and Materials Science Engineering faculty.

In the basement of the Photonics Center, the Focused Ion Beam/Transmission Electron Microscope Facility is comprised of two laboratories consisting of 600 square feet, and is overseen by Dr. Alexey Nikiforov. This laboratory houses a recently purchased FEI Quanta 3D FEG FIB (Field Emission Gun Focused Ion Beam) system and a FEI Tecnai Osiris 200kV S/TEM (Scanning/Transmission Electron Microscope).

The FEI Quanta 3D FEG FIB is a powerful tool for SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) imaging to aid removal and deposition of materials at a micro/nano scale with a resolution of 1.2 nm in the HiVac mode, 2.9 nm in LoVac mode, and 7 nm with the FIB column. The system includes gas injector modules (GIS) and an Omniprobe micromanipulator can be used for TEM sample preparation and lift-out. A Peltier/Heating Stage Control Kit allows for the study of in situ dynamic behavior of materials at different humidity (up to 100% RH) and temperatures (-10°C to 1000°C).

The FEI Tecnai Osiris S/TEM is a versatile scanning transmission electron microscope that allows for bright-field/dark-field imaging, selected area and convergent beam diffraction, and high-resolution imaging with a point-to-point resolution of 0.25nm, and line resolution of 0.102 nm, extended to 0.16 nm with TrueImage™ software, and a STEM resolution of 0.18 nm. The system can seamlessly switch between TEM and STEM modes. The system also includes energy dispersive x-ray (Super-X EDX) capabilities for composition analysis and mapping, and energy filtered TEM with electron energy loss spectroscopy (Gatan EELS) for light element quantification and mapping. A new sample preparation room to prepare electron transparent samples for use in the TEM is currently operational and open to all Photonics and Materials Science Engineering Faculty. Through equipment purchases at the Photonics Center, a grinder, cut-off saw, disc cutter, automated polishing and lapping equipment, dimpler, and ion mill are all installed.

RESEARCH LABORATORIES http://www.bu.edu/eng/departments/mse/research/mse-research-laboratories/

ADVANCED MATERIALS PROCESS CONTROL LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MICHAEL GEVELBER 15 St. Mary’s St., Brookline, MA 02446 617-353-9572 Research in this laboratory focuses on improving materials processing capabilities by applying a controls-based approach. Our controls-based approach integrates process modeling, sensor development, both system and control design, and experimentation to achieve greater control of material microstructure as well as improving yield and maximizing production rate. Research projects, typically conducted with industry partners, span a range of application areas including opto-electronic applications, advanced engines, power systems, and biomedical applications. Ongoing research projects include real-time control for plasma spray for thermal barrier coatings and fuel cells, e-beam deposition for precision optical coatings, electrospinning of nanofibers, chemical vapor deposition, and Czochralski crystal growth. Research is also being conducted on developing intelligent control and sensing approaches for optimizing building HVAC systems, using university buildings to test out new ideas.

APPLIED ELECTROMAGNETICS PROFESSOR MARK HORENSTEIN AND RESEARCH PROFESSOR MALAY MAZUMDER 8 St. Mary’s Street, Room 417, Boston MA 02215 617-353-1909 This laboratory is devoted to problems in experimental electromagnetics with a primary focus on medical and industrial electrostatics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), and sensors. Current projects include transdermal injection of medicinal nanoparticles via pulsed electric fields, development of a passive laser communication node using a MEMS retro-reflective mirror, the design of a “smartjoint” variable-stiffness endoscope, the use of an electrodynamic screen to remove dust particles from solar collectors, and the development of a new type of electrostatic-based, dry powder inhaler. The research work also involves experimental studies on particle electrodynamic motion, optical characterization reflectivity and transmission properties of solar collectors, and development of pulsed three-phase HV power supplies for activating electrodynamic screens.

ATOMIC MEMBRANE LAB ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SCOTT BUNCH 8 St. Mary’s St, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-1570 Our lab focuses on the nanomechanical properties of a new class of 2D atomically thin materials such as graphene – single atomic layers of graphite. We are most interested in their remarkable mechanical properties such as high strength, extreme flexibility, and unprecedented barrier properties. We fabricate and characterize nanomechanical devices such as suspended “atomic drumskins” which vibrate at MHz frequencies and stretch with applied pressure differences. This unique geometry has allowed us to experimentally measure a number of physical properties of 2D materials such as their elastic constants,

molecular transport and barrier properties, and adhesive interactions. These atomically thin membranes act as barriers for gases and liquids and represent the thinnest membrane possible (one layer of atoms) with the smallest potential pore sizes attainable (single atomic vacancies), and unprecedented mechanical stability. The applications that we are primarily interested in are semipermeable membranes for gas or liquid separations and nanoelectromechanical sensors.

CARADONNA GROUP ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOHN CARADONNA 590 Commonwealth Ave, Boston MA 02215 617 353-1692

CAMPBELL GROUP PROFESSOR DAVID CAMPBELL 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston MA 02215 617 353-1948 The Campbell Group is part of the Condensed Matter Theory section at the Physics Department of Boston University. We currently conduct research in three areas: ultracold atomic gases, graphene devices and the functional renormalization group. Our broader interests include chaos, nonlinear phenomena, exotic ground states, strongly correlated electronic systems, and low-dimensional materials.

CELL AND TISSUE MECHANICS LABORATORY PROFESSOR DIMITRJIE STAMENOVIC 44 Cummington Mall, Boston MA 02215 617 353-5902 Fundamental and applied research of cell mechanics and cell and soft tissue rheology • • •

Modeling mechanical and rheological properties of the cytoskeleton of living cells at the whole cell and subcellular lengthscales Modeling cell-substrate and cell-cell interactions and their effects on cell shape, orientation and homeostasis Modeling of pneumatic osteoarthritis knee brace.

COKER GROUP PROFESSOR DAVID COKER 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 530, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-2490 David Coker’s research group in Theoretical and Computational Chemistry studies excited state dynamics in condensed phase complex systems. Using simulation and electronic structure methods they are developing accurate models, the quantum dynamics of which, can be treated reliably with their partial linearized density matrix propagation approach. The group’s research activities include: 1) exploring how exciton transport in biological and synthetic light harvesting systems is influenced by local variation of chromophore environment and chromophore density, 2) studying the dynamics of multi domain complexes in which exciton transport is followed by competing charge separation and

recombination processes, 3) incorporating new semiclassical mapping Hamiltonian methods for treating dynamics of many electron systems into their partial linearized propagation approach to treat dense systems of strongly interacting chromophores, and 4) developing a new approach to sample the initial Wigner distribution characterizing multistate thermal equilibrium that is required for the general implementation of their quantum dynamics methods. This research has the potential for broad impact in several areas of scientific and societal importance including solar energy technology, first principles design of new materials, and quantum information science.

COMPUTATIONAL ELECTRONICS LABORATORY PROFESSOR ENRICO BELLOTTI 8 St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St., Boston MA 02215 617-358-1576 The Computational Electronics Laboratory (CEL) is equipped with state-of-the-art computing resources. The lab operates a hybrid shared/distributed memory cluster, employing over 2TB RAM and 392 processors spread over twenty networked nodes running BULinux. The Computational Electronics Group develops numerical techniques and software to study semiconductor materials and to perform electronic and opto-electronic device simulation. Commercial software packages, such as Synopsysis TCAD, complement independently developed tools. Specific applications include calculation of the electronic band structure calculations for material defects, semi-empirical evaluation of material properties, and electrical/electromagnetic characterization of infrared detectors and power electronics.

COMPUTATIONAL ENERGY LABORATORY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR EMILY RYAN 110 Cummington Mall, Room 416, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-7767 The Computational Energy Laboratory (CEL) uses multi-physics computational methods to investigate alternative and advanced energy technologies. Our research focuses on developing computational models of the reactive transport, fluid mechanics, heat transfer and electrochemistry to investigate the design and operation of energy related systems, such as high temperature fuel cells, advanced battery technologies, subsurface transport and post combustion carbon capture. Central to the research in CEL is reactive transport in porous media, which is critical to many energy-related technologies and their operation and degradation.

DANIEL SEGRE LAB ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DANIEL SEGRĂ&#x2C6; 24 Cummington Mall, Room 909, Boston MA 02215 617-358-2301 Through a combination of mathematical modeling and experimental methods, we study the dynamics and evolution of metabolism in individual microbial species and in microbial ecosystems. We are interested both in the fundamental principles of biological organization, as well as in applications, especially in the areas of human disease, metabolic engineering, and environmental sustainability.

DENNIS LAB ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ALLISON DENNIS 8 St. Mary’s St., Room 601, Boston, MA 02215 The Dennis Lab is focused on advanced semiconductor quantum dot synthesis for biomedical imaging and biosensing applications. Our unique core/shell colloidal nanocrystals fluoresce brightly under ultraviolet illumination, emitting colors from blue into the near infrared. We are particularly interested in near infrared emitters for tissue-depth imaging and visible emitters for biosensing using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET).

DOERRER GROUP ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LINDA DOERRER 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 365, Boston, MA 02215-2521 617-358-4646 The Doerrer research group specializes in synthetic inorganic chemistry and is an equal-opportunity element utilizer. Currently there are four main avenues of research in the group: The first two areas involve the use of highly fluorinated aryloxide and alkoxide ligands for the (perhaps transient) stabilization of high oxidation states in first-row transition metals. These complexes are being investigated for C-H oxidation and functionalization with Cu(I)/O2 or Cu(II) as well as for O-H activation in water oxidation with other late first-row transition metals. The third area of research involves metal-metal bonds and metal-metal interactions. We are interested in using the phenomenon 10 of metallophilicity, which is the attraction of electron rich (pseudo) closed-shell metal centers e.g. d 8 Au(I), d Pt(II), for each other. We have used these relatively weaker attractive forces in combination with electrostatics to form one-dimensional chains of metal atoms for investigation as low-dimensional semi-conductors. More recently heterobimetallic lantern complexes containing unpaired electrons have also been assembled with metallophilic interactions. The fourth area of research is our most recent work. We have begun investigating Fe3O4 nanoparticles and variations on that theme as contrast agents.

ENGINEERING MATERIALS FOR ENERGY & THE ENVIRONMENT LABORATORY RESEARCH ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JILLIAN GOLDFARB 8 St Mary’s Street, PHO 627, Boston MA 02215 2

The EME Lab tackles issues surrounding the past, present and future generation of energy, and its impact on the environment. These include: (1) mitigating the environmental impacts of energy-derived pollutants via improved understanding of contaminant behavior, (2) developing new materials to reduce waste and remediate or retard the spread of contaminants, and (3) investigating economically viable and industrially scalable alternative energy sources through byproduct and waste conversion pathways.

FEMTOSPEC LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RICHARD AVERITT, PROFESSOR LARRY ZEIGLER, PROFESSOR SHYAM ERRAMILLI, PROFESSOR KENNETH ROTHSCHILD 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston MA 02215 617-353- 1271, 617-353-9918

Ultrafast laser spectroscopy is increasingly becoming an indispensable tool for studying the properties of materials. This laboratory aims to develop an advanced femtosecond laser spectroscopy system that will be applicable to a broad range of multidisciplinary problems in the fields of condensed matter physics, chemistry, and biology. Examples of topics to be focused on include quasiparticle dynamics in multifunctional materials, band gaps in carbon nanotubes, molecular events in biological energy conversion and photosensing, ultrafast response to light of heme proteins and the structure of biological polymers such as mucin using high sensitivity 2D-IR. Many studies will be facilitated by the ability of the new instrument to probe the same sample over a broad range of wavelengths from the far-IR to UV and detect small changes in absorbance. This capability should open a new window on ultrafast processes that up to now have been difficult to investigate.

FRAUNHOFER CENTER FOR MANUFACTURING INNOVATION (CMI) PROFESSOR ANDRE SHARON, DIRECTOR 15 St. Mary’s Street, Boston MA 02215 The Fraunhofer Center for Manufacturing Innovation (CMI), a collaboration between FraunhoferGesellschaft, Europe’s largest R&D organization and Boston University, conducts research and complements the R&D needs of a broad range of industries, including biotechnology, photonics, manufacturing, and renewable energy. Engineers, scientists, faculty, and students at the Center transform emerging research into viable technology solutions that meet the needs of both domestic and global companies. Our research areas include high precision automation systems, laboratory assays, instruments, and devices.

GREEN MANUFACTURING LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR SRIKANTH GOPALAN 730 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 617-358-2297 Research in this laboratory focuses on environmentally benign power generation technologies such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). We explore the materials science and electrochemistry of SOFCs using impedance spectroscopy, galvanostats and potentiostats. Studies in this lab include measurement of the rates of charge transfer reactions that occur at the interfaces of solid state electrochemical devices, exploration of new processes, and modeling of the transport phenomena that occur in such devices. In this lab, we also conduct research on ceramic gas separation membranes for the separation of industrially important gases such as oxygen and hydrogen. Ongoing projects conducted in close collaboration with industrial partners include the development of electrode and electrolyte materials for lower operating temperature SOFCs and the development of mixed ionic and electronic conducting materials for separation of hydrogen. The laboratory is equipped with a Perkin Elmer 263 A Potentiostat / Galvanostat used for characterization of electrochemical systems such as fuel cells, ceramic gas separation membranes, batteries and sensors, a Horiba 910 particle size analyzer capable of obtaining particle size distributions of powders in the range of 0.01 microns to 1 mm using light scattering technique, a Solartron 1255 Frequency Response Analyzer (FRA) used for AC impedance spectroscopy, a high temperature furnace that can operate up to 1700°C, and a Spex 8000 mill capable of producing sub-micron particles for use in solid state electrodes by high energy ball milling in a very short period of time.

GRINSTAFF LAB PROFESSOR MARK GRINSTAFF 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 617-358-3429 The Grinstaff Group pursues highly interdisciplinary research in the areas of biomedical engineering and macromolecular chemistry. The major goal in these research projects is to elucidate the underlying fundamental chemistry and engineering principles and to use that insight to direct our creative and scientific efforts.

HIGH TEMPERATURE OXIDATION LABORATORY PROFESSOR SOUMENDRA N. BASU 750 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 617-353-3746 The research thrust of this laboratory is to investigate the high temperature oxidation behavior of materials by exposing metal and ceramic samples to corrosive atmospheres containing oxygen and sulfur at elevated temperatures up to 1,400°C. The laboratory is equipped with a CAHN thermogravimetric balance and a Mettler microbalance for weight gain measurements, as well as an apparatus for oxidation in O-18 atmospheres, in order to determine oxidation mechanisms.

INTEGRATED PHOTONICS LABORATORY (IPL) ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JONATHAN KLAMKIN 8 Saint Mary’s Street, PHO 737, Boston, MA 02215 The Integrated Photonics Laboratory (IPL) conducts pioneering research in integrated photonics technologies for optical communications, microwave photonics, and sensing applications. The Laboratory is equipped with a number of simulation and design tools for realizing photonic integrated circuits (PICs) both at Boston University and through external foundries. The Laboratory also houses equipment for device and subsystem characterization. Novel devices can be fabricated using equipment in the IPL as well as in the shared facilities of the Photonics Center and Division of Materials Science Engineering. Specific research areas include lasers for silicon photonics, graphene optoelectronics for ultrafast modulation and photodetection, polymers and plasmonics for switching, photonics for microwave signal processing, and transceivers for optical interconnects.

INTERFACIAL FLUID DYNAMICS LABORATORY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR JAMES BIRD 730 Commonwealth Avenue, EMA 224, Boston MA 02215 617-358-6929 Bird’s research group, located in the Interfacial Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, investigates a variety of phenomena that are dominated by interfacial forces, such as surface tension. These projects range from measuring the drainage and rupture of bubbles to modeling how oil flows through porous rock. Because these phenomena are often counter-intuitive, the group’s approach is to combine carefully controlled bench-top experiments with theoretical modeling. Experimental techniques include interferometry, microfluidics, and high-speed photography. The new physical insights gained from these projects can be applied to problems in manufacturing (e.g. controlling the degassing of bubbles in molten glass), energy

(e.g. determining how best to extract oil from porous reservoirs), and the environment (e.g. reducing uncertainty in climate models by better characterizing marine aerosol production).

LAB FOR ENGINEERING EDUCATION & DEVELOPMENT (LEED) PROFESSOR MUHAMMAD H. ZAMAN 36 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215 A key component of our research activity is focused on developing smart, simple and cost-effective devices for invasive and non-invasive diagnostics. Our strategy is problem-focused rather than platform-focused as we try to optimize our platforms for specific needs in the field. With the help of our partner companies and institutions, versions of the prototype are tested in the field for feasibility before development of a full-scale solution.

LABORATORY FOR DIAGNOSTICS AND GLOBAL HEALTHCARE TECHNOLOGIES PROFESSOR CATHERINE KLAPPERICH 44 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-0253 The Klapperich Laboratory for Diagnostics and Global Healthcare Technologies is focused on the design and engineering of manufacturable, disposable systems for low-cost point-of-care molecular diagnostics. We have invented technologies to perform microfluidic sample preparation for bacterial and viral targets from several human body fluids including, urine, blood, stool and nasowash. These technologies include nucleic acid extraction, protein extraction, microorganism enrichment and/or concentration and small-scale dialysis. We are currently working on devices for the detection and quantification of HIV, hemorrhagic fevers, infectious diarrheas, influenza, MRSA, and cancer biomarkers. Projects include detection by PCR, isothermal amplification, and novel optical techniques. Our main application area is global health. We consider assay development, device design, sample flow, storage and transport all opportunities to drive down the cost and increase the accessibility of molecular tests in the developing world.

LABORATORY FOR MICROSYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY PROFESSOR XIN ZHANG 8 St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St, Room 903, Boston MA 02215 The Laboratory for Microsystems Technology (LMST), directed by Professor Xin Zhang, was founded in 2002 as a college-wide, student-centered, interdisciplinary research and education program in the broad area of micro- and nanoelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS or micro/nanosystems). Our research includes fundamental and applied aspects of MEMS and nanotechnology. Specifically, we seek to understand and exploit interesting characteristics of micro/nanomaterials, micro/nanomechanics, and micro/nanomanufacturing technologies with forward-looking engineering efforts and practical applications ranging from energy to health care to homeland security.

LABORATORY FOR ORGANIC MATERIALS AND ELECTRONIC DEVICES PROFESSOR MALIKA JEFFRIES-EL 24 Cummington Mall, Boston MA 02215 617 358-5089

The Laboratory for Organic Materials and Electronic Devices is dedicated to the development of organic semiconductorsâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;materials that combine the processing properties of polymers with the electronic properties of semiconductors.

LING LAB ASSISTANT PROFESSOR XI LING 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston MA 02215 617 353-8584 The Ling Group focuses their research interests on the fundamental science and applications of nanomaterials and their hybrid structures. They specialized in the synthesis of two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals materials, their characterization through spectroscopy, and their implementation to develop novel nanodevices. They aim to use their interdisciplinary knowledge to (1) explore an effective method to synthesize functional hybrid nanostructures directly in a controlled manner, (2) reveal the physical nature of such nanomaterials and the interface phenomenon of their hybrid structures using advanced spectroscopy techniques, and (3) develop high performance, multifunctional flexible and transparent devices for energy conversion and chemical sensing. The group shares their core values of learning, innovation, integrity, collaboration and service.

MATERIALS LAB FOR ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY PROFESSOR UDAY PAL 750 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 617-353-0375 The laboratory conducts research on (1) SOM (Solid-Oxide Oxygen-Ion-Conducting Membrane) Process for Electrolysis of Metals and Alloys from their Oxides; (2) Solid Oxide Electrolyte Electrolyzer for the production of pure hydrogen and syn-gas from a source of waste and steam; (3) Novel Continuous Co-firing Process for Fabrication of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells ; (4) Large Scale Rapid Response Energy Storage and Electrical Energy Generation System; and (5) Fundamental Studies on Cathode Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells.

MATERIALS X-RAY DIFFRACTION LABORATORY PROFESSOR KARL LUDWIG 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA 02215 617-353-7291 Our research investigates how materials evolve on atomic and nano-length scales as they change from one form to another. In particular, we use real-time x-ray techniques to examine structural evolution during phase transitions, thin film growth and surface processing. Many of the experiments use the high

brightness of synchrotron x-ray sources â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) at Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island and the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory outside of Chicago. Where possible, we make contact with fundamental theory and simulation. In the last few years, our detailed interest has been in three directions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; understanding surface and thin film processes, investigating nanoscale dynamics in metallic alloys using coherent x-ray scattering and studying the relationship between atomic structure and function in solid oxide fuel cell cathodes. Many of our in-situ studies utilize a unique ultra-high vacuum growth and surface modification facility, that we have helped develop, on the insertion-device beamline X21 at the NSLS. We have been using it to examine surface morphology evolution during ion bombardment (which can cause the spontaneous growth of surface nanostructures) and issues related to the growth of widebandgap group III-V semiconductor films using plasma-assisted molecular beam epitaxy (in collaboration with Professor Moustakas in Electrical Engineering). Coherent x-ray scattering provides the ability to probe nanoscale dynamics in metallic alloys and other materials systems. Partially coherent x-ray beams are created using small (10 micron) slits in conjunction with a high-brilliance 3rd generation synchrotron source, such as the APS. The disorder in the alloys produces speckle patterns in the scattered x-ray intensity. The evolution of the speckle pattern can then be related to the underlying dynamics of structural changes (e.g. ordering, phase separation or stacking fault rearrangement) in the alloy. Solid oxide fuel cells offer the potential for highly efficient energy conversion, but improvements in cathode function are needed before their potential can be fully realized. In collaboration with Professors Pal, Basu and Gopalan in Engineering and Professor Smith in Physics, we are examining in-situ the nearsurface atomic structure of cathode materials in order to better understand the relationship between function and structure.

MATRIX MECHANOTRANSDUCTION LAB ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MICHAEL SMITH 44 Cummington Mall, Room 515, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-5489 The form and function of cells and tissues is regulated by various properties of their local microenvironment such as rigidity and cell shape. In vivo, these properties are defined by the extracellular matrix (ECM) and adjacent cells. During dynamic processes such as development, these properties regulate ECM turnover and remodeling in addition to cell movement, proliferation, and contractility. This newly remodeled matrix and altered tissue shape then redefines the local microenvironment, thus further enjoining the cell response in an iterative, closed loop which leads to the coordinated self assembly of higher order structures. The ECM is more than a passive mechanical element in this process since it presents an array of binding sites for cells and cell signaling molecules. Furthermore, cell contractile forces stretch some components of the ECM, for example fibrillar structures composed of the protein fibronectin (Fn), into non-equilibrium conformations that have altered signaling properties. This can occur through protein unfolding, thus exposing amino acids with cell signaling functions that are normally buried in the equilibrium fold of the protein. Understanding how these microenvironmental properties regulate cell fate should increase the clinical efficacy of tissue engineering scaffolds that depend upon both biochemical and physical cues. Alternatively, engineered cell culture platforms might permit long-term maintenance of cell phenotype in vitro, thus permitting diagnostic research on the laboratory bench that might otherwise require animal experimentation. However, much remains to be learned about how these properties converge to direct cell fate in vivo. Predictions derived from reductionist systems often break down in more complicated environments. Broadly speaking, my lab focuses on quantifying the relationship between environmental cues and ECM production, elucidating the mechanisms by which Fn tension and unfolding alters its cell signaling capacity, and finally engineering culture environments to control the form and function of the ECM. These goals are accomplished using an interdisciplinary toolbox including a spectroscopic approach for quantifying strain within Fn matrix fibrils and microfabricated cell culture environments.

MECHANICS OF SLENDER STRUCTURES ASSISTANT PROFESSOR DOUGLAS HOLMES 730 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-1294 We are interested in understanding and controlling the mechanics, physics, and geometry of thin structures, and our lab aims to harness material and structural instability for advanced functionality. Our research has utilized elastic instabilities to pattern surfaces with deformable shells, described the mechanics of wrinkling and folding thin films, and quantified the dynamics shape change of snapping beams and shells. We have utilized the swelling of elastomers as a means for controlling beam bending, and electrically active polymers for the controlled deformation and buckling of thin structures to control microfluidic fluid flow.

THE MESOSCALE SOFT MATTER LAB ASSISTANT PROFESSOR KEITH BROWN 8 Saint Mary’s Street, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-5082 The Brown group is an interdisciplinary research program at the intersection of nanotechnology and soft materials with three goals: (1) Learn how to make novel materials by merging the strengths of top-down patterning and bottom-up assembly. (2) Investigate how mesoscopic order affects the behavior of soft materials such as polymers and proteins. (3) Apply these lessons to make new materials and devices that leverage hierarchical structure.

MICROSCOPY LABORATORY PROFESSOR SOUMENDRA N. BASU 15 St. Mary’s Street, Brookline, MA 02446 This laboratory is dedicated to the preparation of electron transparent specimens for observation in the Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). Specimens have to be reduced to thickness in the order of 100Å in order to study atomic arrangements by high resolution TEM. Equipment available for this purpose includes a GATAN dimpler and ion-mill, as well as precision grinding and polishing apparatus.

MULTIFUNCTIONAL MATERIALS SPECTROSCOPY LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RICHARD AVERITT 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-2619 In this lab we use time-resolved optical spectroscopy spanning from the far infrared through the visible to characterize the fundamental and technologically relevant properties of a host of interesting materials. In some cases we design, fabricate, and characterize our own artificial materials, but we also collaborate with colleagues from all over the world to characterize interesting artificial and quantumbased materials that they create. The beauty of optical spectroscopy, whether it is time-resolved or time-integrated, is its breadth of applicability to meaningfully study virtually any material you can imagine. With a very collaborative and multidisciplinary mindset, that is exactly what we do.

MULTISCALE LASER LITHOGRAPHY LABORATORY (ML-CUBED) PROFESSOR ALICE WHITE 8 St. Mary’s Street, Room 628, Boston, MA 02215 With the installation of a Nanoscribe Photonics Professional GT Direct Laser Writing (DLW) tool, Professir Alice White’s Multiscale Laser Lithography Laboratory now has the capability to rapidly prototype 3D polymer structures with nanoscale resolution over tens of microns to millimeters. In addition to a yellow-light room where the DLW is done, the lab has a processing bench with a spinner where we mix a wide range of photosensitive materials, as well as microscopes for characterization and a UV lamp and oxide plasma for surface preparation. We also have a work station to support CAD design. Current research projects include designing and fabricating mechanical metamaterials, scaffolds for cell studies, antennas for Terahertz radiation, and fixtures to enable neurological studies of birds.

MULTISCALE TISSUE BIOMECHANICS LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR KATHERINE YANGHANG ZHANG 110 Cummington Mall, Room 230, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-4406 In the Multiscale Tissue Biomechanics Lab, K. Zhang’s research group integrates knowledge of biology, nonlinear solid mechanics, and finite element modeling, especially of complex materials and constitutive behavior. Through the research, the lab provides insights in understanding the relationship between microscopic biological processes and changes in macroscopic tissue mechanics due to diseases, and helps the development of diagnostic, therapeutic, and pharmaceutical techniques. The Multiscale Tissue Biomechanics Laboratory was established in 2006 and includes a fully equipped wet lab and computational facilities for characterization and modeling of the mechanical behavior of soft biological tissues and composites at multi-scale. Current research thrusts in the Multiscale Tissue Biomechanics Lab include the development of structural constitutive models that directly integrate information on tissue composition and microstructure for simulation of cardiovascular diseases and methods of prevention, the structural and functional changes of elastin due to elastin – lipid interactions and glycation, and the cellular level mechanical properties and forces within the extracelullar matrix.

NANO HEAT TRANSFER LABORATORY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR AARON J. SCHMIDT 8 Saint Mary’s Street. Room 503D, Boston MA 02215 Research in the Nano Heat Transfer Laboratory is focused on understanding and controlling thermal energy in nanoscale systems such as nanoparticles, thin films, membranes, and multilayers. We specialize in ultrafast optical measurements of transport and laser—material interaction. Applications include development of new materials, solid-state energy conversion, thermal management, thermal wave imaging, and fundamental transport physics. The laboratory is equipped with two custom-built photothermal microscopes for thermal property imaging and transport measurements.

NANOMEDICINE AND MEDICAL ACOUSTICS LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR TYRONE PORTER 110 Cummington Mall, Room 319, Boston MA 02215 617-353-7366 The Nanomedicine and Medical Acoustics Laboratory is focused on the development of stimuliresponsive colloidal systems for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. For example, we design and manufacture targeted lipid-coated microbubbles for ultrasound-based molecular imaging of inflammation associated with cancer or coronary artery disease. These targeted microbubbles can also be loaded with drugs for image-guided and highly localized drug delivery. On the nanoscale, we design and produce perfluorocarbon nanoemulsions that can be phase-converted into microbubbles, which are then used to assist in drug transport across cell membranes (i.e. localized drug delivery) or enhance ultrasound-mediated ablation of solid tumors. Lastly, we design and produce drug-loaded lipid- and polymer-based nanoparticles that are sensitive to biological cues, such as changes in pH levels or enzymatic activity. When subjected to a specific cue, these nanoparticles can be designed to release their payload rapidly or gradually, thus delivering an effective dose to diseased cells and tissue specifically and enhancing the therapeutic efficacy of the drug.

NANOSCALE ENERGY-FLUIDS TRANSPORT LABORATORY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR CHUANHUA DUAN 730 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-3270 The Nanoscale Energy-Fluids Transport (NEFT) laboratory experimentally studies energy and fluids transport at the nanoscale. We are part of the Mechanical Engineering Department of Boston University. Professor Chuanhua Duan is the Principal Investigator of the NEFT lab. Our current investigations include: * Exploring anomalous transport phenomenon in 1-D or 2-D confined nanochannels; * Enhancing ion/molecule transport in batteries and fuel cells using nanostructured materials; * Improving phase-change heat transfer based on patterned micro/nanostructures; * Developing new nanofluidic devices for biomolecule sensing and separation.

NANOMETER SCALE ENGINEERING LABORATORY PROFESSOR KAMIL EKINCI 110 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-0253 The research in Nanoscale Mechanical Engineering Laboratory focuses on physical phenomena at the nanoscale as well as nanoscale devices and ultrasensitive measurement techniques for a variety of applications. The physical phenomena of interest ranges from fluctuations to fluid dynamics to photonics. The applications pursued so far involve bio-molecule sensing using nano-electromechanical systems (NEMS), designing motion transducers for nanoscale applications and ultrafast scanning probe microscopy.

NANOSTRUCTURED FIBERS AND NONLINEAR OPTICS LABORATORY PROFESSOR SIDDHARTH RAMACHANDRAN 8 St. Mary’s St., Boston MA 02215 617-353-9881 Light beams in free space travel at the “speed of light,” and tend to diverge (diffract). Complex, nanostructured photonic devices can be used to slow light (confine photons in time) and counteract diffraction (by confining photons in space). Some confinement geometries lead to spatially complex beams that possess intriguing properties such as the ability of optical vortices to carry orbital angular momentum or the ability of Bessel beams to self-heal. Our group studies the myriad phenomena encountered by the manipulation of such fundamental effects of light, with the aim of developing next generation photonic devices.

NOVEL MATERIALS LABORATORY PROFESSOR KEVIN SMITH 590 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215. 617-353-5980 Research in the Novel Materials Laboratory is focused on understanding the fundamental electronic properties of complex materials, in crystalline, thin film, and nano-scaled form. This is intrinsically a diverse and interdisciplinary endeavor, involving aspects of physics, chemistry and materials science. We study a wide variety of different materials, most of which are technologically relevant with an emphasis on materials for energy generation and storage. The tools we use in our research are highresolution electron and photon spectroscopies, and we both synthesize our own samples and study materials made by numerous collaborators. All of our research is been undertaken at synchrotron radiation facilities, specifically the National Synchrotron Light Source (Brookhaven National Laboratory, NY), the Advanced Light Source (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, CA), and MAXLab (Lund, Sweden). The scope of our research activities is quite broad, and stretches from the fundamental quantum mechanics of low dimensional correlated solids, through the electronic structure of nanoscaled thin film organic semiconductors for use in photovoltaics, to the interface properties of multielement metal oxides with potential use in solid oxide fuel cells. We have also studied wide band gap nitride semiconductors, organic superconductors, transparent conducting oxides, and rare earth nitrides.

OPTICAL CHARACTERIZATION & NANOPHOTONICS LABORATORY (OCN) PROFESSOR BENNETT GOLDBERG, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR ANNA SWAN, AND PROFESSOR SELIM ÜNLÜ 8 St. Mary’s St., Boston MA 02215 617-358-4808, 617-353-1275, 617-353-5067 Nanophotonics addresses a broad spectrum of optics on the nanometer scale covering technology development and basic science discovery. Compared to the behavior of isolated molecules or bulk materials, the behavior of nanostructures exhibit important physical properties not necessarily predictable from observations of either individual constituents or large ensembles. We develop and apply advanced optical characterization techniques to the study of solid-state and biological phenomena at the nanoscale. Current projects include development of high resolution subsurface imaging techniques based on numerical aperture increasing lens (NAIL) for the study of semiconductor devices and circuits and spectroscopy of quantum dots, micro resonant Raman and emission spectroscopy of individual carbon nanotubes, biosensors based on microring resonators, and development of new

nanoscale microscopy techniques utilizing interference of excitation as well as emission from fluorescent molecules. We use high-resolution Raman spectroscopy to explore single atomic layers of Graphene as well as atomic layers of chalcogenides. In addition to microscopy, optical resonance is nearly ubiquitous in our research projects including development of resonant cavity-enhanced photodetectors and imaging biosensors for DNA, single virus sensing, and protein arrays.

ORTHOPAEDIC & DEVELOPMENTAL BIOMECHANICS LABORATORY PROFESSOR ELISE MORGAN 110 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-2791 This laboratory uses experimental and computational methods to explore the relationships between structure and mechanical function of biological tissues at multiple length scales. Current research projects include biomechanics of spine fractures, the effects of mechanical stimulation on bone healing, biomechanics of fracture healing, and microscale mechanical characterization of bone tissue. The laboratory houses a biaxial (axialtorsional) servohydraulic materials testing system with a variety of extensometers and load cells, a miniature torsional testing system, two micro-computed tomography systems, a multichannel signal conditional and amplification system, an X-ray cabinet, and various cutting tools including a sledge microtome and low-speed wafering saw. Additional space is dedicated to cell and tissue culture. Computational facilities include PC workstations equipped with software for image processing, finite element analysis, and general computing.

POWDER METALLURGY & X-RAY LABORATORY PROFESSOR VINOD K. SARIN 730 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, MA 02215 617-353-6451 The powder-processing laboratory is equipped to batch, process, and densify a wide variety of materials. Particle size reduction and uniform mixing are essential in any powder preparation. In addition to a 500cc capacity attritor mill for processing small powder batches, an extensive selection of ball mill sizes and a variety of milling media, including silicon nitride and titanium carbide, are available. Consolidation and sintering capabilities include vacuum, over pressure, and hot pressing up to 25,000 KgF and temperatures in excess of 2400°C. These capabilities make the powder-processing laboratory uniquely equipped for developing high temperature monolithic and composite materials. The laboratory is also equipped with a Bruker D8 Focus diffractometer with independent theta and two-theta axis with copper radiation. This unit extends the laboratory’s capability to perform single crystal back reflection Laue studies for crystal orientation. The standard detector is the scintillation counter, with high dynamic range and low internal background. In addition, several Debye Scherrer powder cameras are also available. This unit is equipped with all necessary components for qualitative or quantitative phase analysis, crystallite size determination, and structure determination and refinement.

PRECISION ENGINEERING RESEARCH (PERL) LABORATORY PROFESSOR THOMAS BIFANO 8 St. Mary’s St., Boston MA 02215 617-353-5619 Research in the Precision Engineering Research (PERL) Laboratory is directed toward design, modeling, fabrication, and testing of advanced microsystems. A core research area involves development of largescale arrays of coordinated microactuators for use in photonic or optical systems. Recent projects have

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included: development of deformable micromirror arrays for adaptive optics; modeling of microfluidic transport systems; development of microvalve arrays for control of fluid flow rate and pressure; design and fabrication of advanced optoacoustic MEMS sensors; and micro-scale contouring using ion beam systems. The laboratory houses state-of-the-art systems for design, fabrication, and testing of MEMS devices, including interferometric contouring microscopes, a high speed vibrometer, and adaptive optics and microfluidic test beds.

RESTORATIVE SCIENCES AND BIOMATERIALS LABORATORY PROFESSOR AND CHAIR DAN NATHANSON, PROFESSOR RUSSELL GIORDANO, AND RESEARCH ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR RICHARD POBER Housman Medical Research Center (R Building) 72 E. Concord Street, Room 520, Boston, MA 02118 617-638-4756 Research in this laboratory focuses on ceramics and ceramic matrix composites. Projects include the testing of current ceramic restorative systems as well as the development of ceramic matrix composites with improved resistance to fracture and higher toughness. Evaluation of new dental materials systems is also an ongoing part of his research activity. Evaluation of the effects of surface finish on strength of ceramics has involved the application of novel machining systems such as the CEREC CAD-CAM system and the Celay copy milling system as well as the effects of polishing, fine grinding, glazing and etching.

SEMICONDUCTOR PHOTONICS RESEARCH LABORATORY PROFESSOR ROBERTO PAIELLA 8 St. Maryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s St., Boston MA 02215 617-358-3385 Research in this lab is aimed at the development of novel optoelectronic devices based on artificially structured materials systems, whose properties can be tailored by design to meet specific applications in a way that is not afforded by simply using bulk materials. One important example is that of semiconductor quantum structures, in which nanoscale layers (or wires or dots) of different semiconductor materials are assembled to create an energy landscape in which electrons behave in a markedly quantum-mechanical fashion. By controlling the dimensions and geometry of these structures, one can tune their most basic electronic and optical properties to enable entirely new device concepts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; an approach that has become known as bandgap engineering. Artificial structures involving materials with different optical properties (e.g., metals and dielectrics) can also be designed in a similar manner, and used to control the flow of light and its interaction with the underlying matter in novel and often useful ways. Ongoing research is focused on THz optoelectronic devices, silicon-compatible light sources, and plasmon-enhanced visible LEDs. Our work in these areas involves both theoretical and experimental activities, including design and simulations, device fabrication, and electrical and optical characterization.

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THE SHARIFZADEH GROUP ASSISTANT PROFESSOR SAHAR SHARIFZADEH 8 St. Mary’s St., Room 535, Boston MA 02215 617-358-4769 The Sharifzadeh research group focuses on understanding and predicting functional material properties using first-principles electronic structure methods. We develop and apply these methods, which can predict, with quantitative accuracy, the electronic, magnetic, and structural properties of materials from the basic laws of quantum mechanics. The goals of this research are to extract physical intuition about, and ultimately to design, new outstanding materials.

SOLID STATE RESEARCH LABORATORY PROFESSOR DAVID BISHOP 8 St. Mary’s St, Room 607, Boston MA 02215 In this laboratory we are developing the techniques and MEMS devices to do “atomic calligraphy” where we can direct write structures and devices with small numbers of atoms. By moving silicon plates as we evaporate a wide variety of materials we can do 3D printing on an atomic scale.

SURFACE MODIFICATION LABORATORY PROFESSOR VINOD K. SARIN 15 St. Mary’s St., Brookline, MA 02446 This unique state-of-the-art university research laboratory has the capability of R&D activities in the field of surface engineering involving both Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD) and Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) techniques. It contains two experimental CVD units capable of producing a wide range of tough, adherent and protective coatings for various applications. Two multiple-target DC and RF sputtering units that produce monolithic, multi-layered, and composite coatings are available for coating development by PVD. Research and development of diamond coatings is focused on the combustion flame process. Several combustion flame setups have been developed and fabricated to produce diamond coatings of various morphologies on a wide range of materials. Unique equipment and techniques have been developed to evaluate the mechanical, chemical, and structural properties of coatings, such as a micro-scratch tester to evaluate adherence. A hot wall CVD reactor is used for the deposition of functionally graded mullite coatings. Mullite (3Al2O3•2SiO2) has received considerable attention as a potential coating material for silicon-based ceramics due to its excellent corrosion resistance, creep resistance, high temperature strength, and most critically, excellent Coefficient of Thermal Expansion match, especially with Silicon Carbide. Dense, uniform, crystalline mullite environmental barrier coatings have been deposited by CVD on SiC substrates and these coatings have exhibited excellent high temperature oxidation and hot corrosion resistance. The coating process has subsequently been patented at Boston University. Transparent Radioluminescent Coatings of Lutetium Oxide doped with Europium Oxide are being developed using both PVD and CVD. It is believed that

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these atomistic deposition techniques will offer extensive promise as an alternative production method for tailoring microstructure and optimizing scintillation characteristics of these ceramics.

THE STRAUB GROUP PROFESSOR JOHN E. STRAUB 590 Commonwealth Ave, Room 503, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-6816 The Straub Group investigates fundamental aspects of protein dynamics and thermodynamics underlying the formation of protein structure, through folding and aggregation, and enabling protein function, through pathways of energy flow and signaling. Student and postdoctoral research scientists in the Straub Group work to develop and employ state-of-the-art computational methods while working in collaboration with leading experimental research groups.

THE TIEN GROUP ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR JOE TIEN 44 Cummington Mall, Room 715, Boston, MA 02215 617-358-2831 Research applying techniques adopted from microlithography, self-assembly, microfluidics, and developmental biology to develop methods of assembling cells into ordered three-dimensional aggregates and use these aggregates as artificial tissue and as in vitro models of disease. Current work focuses on the fabrication of branched networks such as vasculature and pulmonary trees, and spatially complex organoids such as liver acini. The Tien Group is developing new techniques to vascularize biomaterials. Current areas of interest are: the synthesis of microfluidic biomaterials (materials that contain open channels for perfusion), the quantitative physiology of engineered microvessels, and the computational design of vascular systems.

TSUI LABORATORY PROFESSOR OPHELIA K.C. TSUI 590 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston MA 02215 617-358-4669 Our current research primarily concerns the effects of surfaces, interfaces, confinement and frustration on the dynamics and equilibrium of soft condensed matters, illustrated in polymer ultrathin films and liquid crystal systems. These queries have led us to investigate a wide spectrum of contemporary soft condensed matter physics problems including wetting and dewetting phenomena, adhesion, interfacial viscosity, dynamics of confined systems, surface dynamics, surface or frustration induced orientational ordering. Through collaborations with colleagues around the world, we have also worked on related problems of atomic force microscopic (AFM) mechanics, AFM nanotribology, AFM nanolithography, order-disorder phase transition of evaporating solution cast block copolymer films, formation and structure of protein films, liquid crystal display, and electronic and magnetic properties of magnetic granular nano-composites. The major experimental techniques used in our research include AFM, x-ray reflectivity and scattering, contact angle measurement, ellipsometry as well as optical microscopy. Most of the sample preparation involves cleanroom and microfabrication technologies.

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ULTRAFAST NANOSTRUCTURE OPTICS (UNO) LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR LUCA DAL NEGRO 8 St. Mary’s St., Boston MA 02215 617-358-5103 The research is mainly focused on: a) nano-optics and plasmonics; b) optics of complex structures; c) ultra-fast emission spectroscopy and optical gain phenomena; d) nonlinear optics of semiconductor and metal nanostructures. Implemented optical techniques include: picosecond fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy, femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy, dark-field scattering spectroscopy, timeresolved variable stripe length gain techniques, emission quantum efficiency, photoconductivity measurements, Z-scan and SHG nonlinear characterization.

ULTRAFAST OPTICS LABORATORY ASSISTANT PROFESSOR MICHELLE SANDER 8 St. Mary’s St., Boston, MA 02215 617-358-5153 Our group focuses on exploring optical material interactions to develop novel laser sources in the infrared and mid-infrared wavelength regime. We explore femtosecond pulse generation techniques (1 femtosecond = 10-15 seconds) to advance photonic technologies that manipulate and transmit light efficiently. Compact fiber lasers and integrated microphotonic systems are pursued for applications in communications, biomedical diagnostics and treatment, frequency metrology, environmental sensing and spectroscopy.

VIBRATIONS LABORATORY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR J. GREGORY MCDANIEL 15 St. Mary’s Street, Room 139, Brookline, MA 02446 617-353-4847 The Vibrations Laboratory offers a full suite of sensors, instrumentation, and software necessary to research the vibrations of complex structures and technologies that reduce vibration and noise. One area of current interest is the spatial mapping of energy removal by damping treatments in order to better design damping treatments for complex structures. Another area is the mitigation of automotive brake squeal.

THE WONG LAB PROFESSOR JOYCE WONG 44 Cummington Mall, Boston, MA 02215 617-353-2374 The Biomimetic Materials Engineering Laboratory is focused on the development of biomaterials to probe how structure, material properties and composition of the cell-biomaterial interface affect fundamental cellular processes. Specifically, we are interested in developing substrata with features that mimic physiological and pathophysiological environments to study fundamental cellular processes at the biointerface. Current research projects include pediatric vascular tissue engineering of vascular patches; development of targeted nano- and microparticle contrast agents for theranostic applications in cardiovascular disease and cancer; and engineering biomimetic systems to study restenosis and cancer metastasis. 104

VISITING COMMITTEE MEMBERS DR. H. LEE BUCHANAN is currently Venture Partner, Paladin Capital Group in Washington, DC. He is also a Director of Tektronix, Lucent-Alcatel Government Solutions, TestMart, Corp., Advantage Federal, Corp, and the Robotics Technology Consortium. Prior to Paladin Dr. Buchanan was Vice President, Advanced Concepts, EDO Corporation, a $1B producer of Intelligence, Electronic Warfare, sonar, and weapons systems for the U.S. military; Executive Vice President of Perceptis, a holding company for producers of wireless data collection and intelligence systems; and President and CEO of QualStream. DR. C. BARRY CARTER is Department Head and Professor in the Chemical, Materials & Biomolecular Engineering Department at the University of Connecticut. Professor Carter is the author of the popular textbook, “Ceramic Materials: Science and Engineering”, published by Springer. Professor Carter’s research interests are in characterization of interfaces and defects in ceramics and semiconductors. DR. GEORGE CRAFORD is currently the Solid-State Lighting Fellow at Philips Lumileds Lighting Company. Prior to joining Philips, he was the Technical Director of the Electronics Division at HewlettPackard Company. At Hewlett-Packard, Craford’s group pioneered the development of various types of LEDs and products. Dr. Craford is a fellow of the IEEE and a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He has received numerous professional awards including the 2002 National Medal of Technology from the President of the United States in recognition for his contributions to the LED technology. DR. ARTHUR GOSSARD is Professor of Materials and Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Before going to Santa Barbara in 1987, he was a Distinguished Member of Technical Staff at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. He is a fellow of the American Physical Society, the IEEE and the AAAS, a Humboldt Society Senior Award recipient, a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Sciences, a recipient of the 1983 American Physical Society Oliver Buckley Condensed Matter Physics prize, the 2001 American Physical Society James McGroddy New Materials Prize, the 2009 Al Cho International MBE Award and the 2005 John Bardeen Award of the TMS. His research involves the growth of artificially structured materials by molecular beam epitaxy. DR. JAMES G. HANNOOSH is currently Vice President of Development for Astra Tech, Inc., and former CEO and Senior Vice President of Atlantis Components, Inc. Both companies produce dental implants and medical devices employing advanced materials. DR. MAX G. LAGALLY is Erwin W. Mueller Professor and Bascom Professor of Surface Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Lagally is the recipient of numerous honors and awards, including his election into the German National Academy of Science, the American Association for the advancement of Science, and the National Academy of Engineering. DR. RON LATANISION is currently Corporate Vice President & Practice Director at Exponent Engineering and Scientific Consulting, and Professor Emeritus in Materials Science and Engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of ASM International, NACE International, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Latanison’s expertise and interests are in the areas of electrochemical science and processing technologies.

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DR. PAUL MANKIEWICH serves as Chief Architect, Mobility Solutions at Juniper Networks. Dr. Mankiewich serves as Chief Technology Officer of the Wireless Networks Product Group. He served as Chief Technology Officer of Alcatel-Lucent for the Americas. Previously, he was Chief Technology Officer and Chief Architect for Lucent Technologies. He was responsible for the technology direction of all Lucent products and solutions including mobile, optical, switching and data networking solutions, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) and end-user applications. He was the Chief Technical Officer, Mobility Solutions, and also served as Senior Vice President of Networking Research, Bell Laboratories. DR. KWADWO OSSEO-ASARE is Distinguished Professor of Metallurgy and Energy and GeoEnvironmental Engineering in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and the Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering at Pennsylvania State University. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. Professor Osseo-Assare’s research interests are in the areas of materials processing in the aqueous media. DR. SUBHASH C. SINGHAL is Battelle Fellow and Director, Fuel Cells, in the Energy and Environment Directorate at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Utah. He is a member of the National Academy of Engineering and the Washington State Academy of Sciences. He served on the Electrochemical Society’s Board of Directors, was President of the International Society for Solid State Ionics. Dr. Singhal’s expertise and interests are in the areas of high temperature materials and solid oxide fuel cells. DR. HARRY L. TULLER is Professor of Ceramics and Electronic Materials in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and Head of the Crystal Physics and Electroceramics Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Electroceramics, Fellow of the American Ceramic Society, and elected to World Academy of Ceramics. Professor Tuller’s research interests are in the areas of electroceramics and solid-state materials. HANS-PETER WEBER, DMD, is the Raymond J. and Elva Pomfret Nagle Professor of Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences, and serves as Chair of the Department of Restorative Dentistry and Biomaterials Sciences at the Harvard School of Dental Medicine. His expertise is in the area of dental implants and reconstruction.

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Boston University Division of Materials Science and Engineering Annual Report 2016-2017 ÂŠ 2017 Boston University Photography: Boston University Photo Services except where otherwise noted. Content: Cheryl Stewart, Elizabeth Flagg, Ruth Mason, MSE staff, and MSE faculty

This report provides a description of the instructional and research activities of the Division of Materials Science and Engineering at Boston University during the 2016-2017academic year. Instructional activities are reported from the Fall 2016 through Summer 2017 semesters while scholarly activities and budget information are reported from July 1, 2016 to June 30, 2017. Boston Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s policies provide for equal opportunity and affirmative action in employment and admission to all programs of the University. For more information, please visit our website at www.bu.edu/mse.

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