Delaware State University
OPTICS Optical Science Center for Applied Research
The Vision
T
he opening in June 2015 of the first of two buildings to house the Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) marks the beginning of an exciting new phase in the Optics Program at Delaware State University.
The new buildings, specially engineered to provide the stability required for optics research, will bring many benefits to those who live in Delaware and beyond. The vision of the scientists, community and University leaders supporting this program is to: •
Develop cutting-edge technologies to monitor and improve our health, welfare and environment
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Foster the development of new high-technology companies
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Allow DSU to recruit and retain highly qualified scientists in the rapidly growing field of optics
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Attract additional federal research dollars
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Increase the size of the undergraduate and graduate programs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)
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Improve STEM education by training teachers and giving opportunities to K-12 students to learn from scientists about their work.
Interaction between astrocyte and neuron “By investing in this project, we are investing in the future of our state. Students are gaining the great potential to learn cutting-edge science and technology for the jobs of tomorrow. Strong universities will give us the educated workforce we need for the future and further strengthen Delaware as an attractive place for innovative businesses.”
Table of Contents 3 2
The Vision
6 The Facility 8 The Science 9 Collaboration with Other Institutions 10 Outreach 11 The People 15
Governor Jack Markell in announcing the State of Delaware’s commitment to funding Phase I of the new optics facility
Supporting Optics at DSU
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The Vision
Building from strength: Growth and accomplishments
The Optics Program at Delaware State University has grown rapidly since it was started in 1995.
Optics graduate student Leon Taleh won first place in the Poster Session of the Division of Nanoscience/Physics at the Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM.
National and Global Recognition
Established programs
As members of the Mars Science Laboratory ChemCam Instrument Development & Science Team, Dr. Noureddine Melikechi and Optics doctoral student Alissa Mezzacappa have received one of NASA’s Highest Honor Awards — the Group Achievement Award.
Master of Science in Applied Optics and PhD in Optics
Today, the program has 14 faculty members and 5 affiliated faculty members engaged in research, teaching and consulting with an impressive history of accomplishment.
A Student Chapter of SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, has been inaugurated.
Significant contributions
Over $40 million in competitive research grants obtained
Mars Curiosity Rover 4
to our understanding of optical techniques for early detection of diseases, pollutants and other threats to our well-being
The Facility
Phase I The first of two state-of-the-art, world-class research facilities was made possible by a $10 million grant from the State of Delaware and is scheduled for completion in June 2015. Designed by the architectural firm Richard and Bauer, which has extensive experience in meeting the exacting specifications and stability required for optics research, the building breaks down traditional research silos to promote interdisciplinary academic research, innovation and collaboration with industry.
Phase I Highlights:
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A prism, used in optical research to diffract light, provides the inspiration for the stunning shape and reflective exterior of this 21,000-square-foot building and calls attention to its purpose as an optics research facility.
laboratories as well as an imaging facility with optical, electron and atomic force microscopes and optical spectroscopic devices.
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The first building dedicated to research, education and incubation of new high technology businesses in Kent County, there is office space for five start-ups and one laboratory dedicated to company research.
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Companies and researchers will have access to shared wet chemistry and nanochemistry
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Three light-filled conference rooms provide opportunity for researchers, industry and others in the community to meet and exchange ideas.
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The building will also feature seven new faculty research laboratories, as well as work areas for students and faculty offices.
Phase II The second building will add 32,000 square feet of space. The total cost will be $31 million.
Phase II Highlights: The new facility will enhance and expand research and development capabilities with the addition of:
Computational analysis laboratories
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A mediated 150-seat auditorium enabling researchers to host or virtually attend lectures, conferences and other events intended for the sharing of ideas and knowledge
Space for rapid prototyping
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Research laboratories
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Incubator laboratories
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A class 100 cleanroom
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The Science The Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) at Delaware State University is at the forefront of the field of photonics, making new discoveries and developing new technologies grounded in Einstein’s seminal discovery that light can be thought of as particles as well as waves.
Collaborations
Common to each of the research programs below is the generation and manipulation of light to see, measure and understand physical and chemical processes at an extremely small scale.
National Laboratories
Applied Spectroscopy
Development of Optical Sensors
Researchers at DSU use Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to determine the composition of matter in solid, liquid or gaseous states. Each element has a unique signature. The laser vaporizes a small amount of the material being studied and the elemental composition is determined based on the optical “signatures” captured. The advantage of this method is that it is capable of detecting trace amounts of an element. The power of LIBS and the enormous number of applications make the Optics Program at DSU an important resource for companies seeking novel solutions to analytical problems.
The development of robotic laser-based sensors will lead to improvements in environmental monitoring for greenhouse gas emissions and trace chemical detection for impact on the Earth’s climate, defense and security applications.
Fox Chase Cancer Center Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) National Institutes of Health NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Pacific Northwest National Laboratories
Imaging and Image Processing DSU researchers use the optical signatures of elements to develop improved methods for detecting disease and environmental threats.
Current and future research programs using LIBS will: •
Determine the elemental makeup of the Martian subsurface to see if life once existed on the Red Planet.
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Develop minimally invasive early detection of disease — with a special emphasis at present on detection of ovarian and prostate cancer — through blood analysis.
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Explore the role, pathway and potential weaknesses of tumor-derived microvesicles with a goal to prevent spreading of tumors from the ovaries and fallopian tubes to other parts of the body.
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Detect dangerous levels of chemicals in the air or soil.
Academic Institutions
DSU scientists are developing the next generation of optical imaging tools for research in diverse fields, including:
Nanochemistry and Nanobiology
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Biomedicine: New tools being developed for the study of 4D cellular processes in living cells and biological specimens will help us better understand the cellular processes that lead to cancer, Alzheimer’s, schizophrenia and numerous other diseases.
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Earth Science: Detection of similarities and differences on the Earth’s surface for environmental monitoring and studies of land use and urban planning.
Researchers are exploring the mechanisms that facilitate the insertion of nanoparticles into cell membranes with the ultimate goal of learning how to use nanoparticles to deliver drugs across the cell nuclear membrane in order to cure diseases such as chronic viral infections. Optical techniques are used to track the nanoparticles and to study the interactions between nanoparticles and biomacromolecules.
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Security: Biometrics, human identification and authentication using multiple modalities (fingerprints, face recognition, iris recognition).
Precision Time and Frequency Measurement Atomic clocks that accurately measure time and frequency play an important role in modern communication, GPS space navigation and military applications. The development of better, cheaper, more compact and lower power atomic clocks will allow for more powerful navigational instruments that can locate ground and space-based objects with sub-meter accuracy. Research at DSU in this field seeks to develop:
Image of prostate cells generated by DSU researchers
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A compact high-performance atomic clock to meet the needs of NASA and the Department of Defense.
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Methods for controlling the flow of light for high-speed communications, which will contribute to the development of the much-coveted quantum computer in the future.
To learn more about the work being done at OSCAR, please visit oscar.desu.edu.
Albert Einstein College of Medicine Athens State University California Institute of Technology Princeton University University of Delaware University of Pennsylvania University of Texas at Arlington Vassar College Virginia Commonwealth University Wesley College Western Michigan University
Community Outreach The Optics Program at Delaware State University sponsors events and activities that expose K-12 children and youths to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as well as provide training for teachers in the region. During Optics Discovery Day, Girl Scout troops are invited to spend the day at DSU learning about optics and visiting campus laboratories. In addition, DSU has co-sponsored the Kent County Science Fair for several years, hosting the event on campus. In 2013 and 2014, outreach has also included conducting nano demonstrations at fairs and festivals, judging student science fairs and taking part in the Delaware AeroSpace Education Foundation’s Planet Earth Family Day and Dinosaurs to Space Family Day and the Capital School District’s Super Science Night, among other activities.
The People Noureddine Melikechi, DPhil
Wafa Amir, PhD
Director, Optical Science Center for Applied Research (OSCAR) Vice President for Research, Innovation and Economic Development Dean of the College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Professor, Physics & Engineering | Visiting Professor at Vassar College
Director of Imaging, Department of Physics & Engineering
Dr. Melikechi is the founder of the Optics Research Program at Delaware State University. His research focuses on developing sensitive optical techniques for the early detection of cancers, including prostate cancer and epithelial ovarian cancer. As a member of the Chemistry Camera (ChemCam) team of the Mars Science Laboratory, he works on the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) instrument on board the 1-ton Curiosity Rover, NASA’s largest Mars exploration effort to date. He will also be involved in the Mars 2020 mission to look for signs of life below the Martian surface. Dr. Melikechi has been awarded multimillion-dollar grants from the State of Delaware, the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is a member of the Steering Committee of the Delaware Idea Networks for Biomedical Research Excellence (INBRE) program, the International Science Committee on Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS), the North American LIBS Steering Committee, the Delaware Authority on Radiation Protection (chair from 2008-2011), the Delaware Governor’s Science, Engineering, Technology and Mathematics (STEM) Council and the board of the National Alliance of NASA’s University Research Centers. He is the recipient of numerous awards including, most recently, the Arfken Award from Miami University of Ohio.
ABOVE: Caesar Rodney School District teachers work with science kit demonstrations explaining optical communication and nanotechnology during an in-service Physics Day.
Dr. Melikechi received his Doctorate of Philosophy (DPhil) in Physics at the University of Sussex in England.
Dr. Amir’s research focuses on developing novel optical imaging tools for biomedical applications. Dr. Amir joined Delaware State University from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, where she worked closely with neuroscientists to develop novel optical techniques to visualize in real time the neuronal activity in the brain of live model organisms. She obtained her PhD in Physics at the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France. During postdoctoral work in Colorado, she developed various techniques and tools permitting the simultaneous imaging of several depths in a biological sample.
Hacene Boukari, PhD Associate Professor, Physics & Engineering Graduate Director, Physics & Engineering Dr. Boukari is developing and applying novel optical and imaging techniques combined with physics-based modeling to investigate the dynamics and assembly of various biologicallyrelevant proteins such as tubulin and hemoglobin as well as nanotransport phenomena in biogels and cells. Dr. Boukari’s research paves the way for designing diagnostic biomarkers, understanding assembly processes in biological systems and understanding pathways for drug delivery. Before joining Delaware State University, Dr. Boukari was director of imaging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Previously, he served as a senior scientist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and senior researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He obtained his PhD degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.
RIGHT: Doctoral student Yury Markushin takes teachers on one of the laboratory tours OSCAR provides as a service to Delaware science teachers.
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The People Gary Holness, PhD
Jinjie Liu, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Computer & Information Sciences
Associate Professor, Mathematical Sciences Director of Math Graduate Studies
Dr. Holness’ Laboratory for Intelligent Perceptual Systems works on pattern discovery in temporal data, environmental monitoring and applications of machine learning to medicine. He earned his PhD in Computer Science at the University of Massachusetts.
Dr. Liu’s research interests focus on computational electromagnetics, computational fluid dynamics, nonlinear optics and metamaterials. Major applications of his research include invisibility cloak, spacetime cloaking and nonlinear optics for metamaterials. Dr. Liu received his PhD in Computational Applied Mathematics from Stony Brook University.
Mohammad A. Khan, PhD Assistant Professor, Physics and Engineering
Qi Lu, PhD Assistant Professor, Physics & Engineering
Dr. Khan’s work involves the design and development of novel laser-based photonic sensor systems–sensor networks to measure greenhouse gases for environmental sensing, global climate change and industrial applications. Prior to joining Delaware State University, Dr. Khan worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Center of Mid-Infrared Technologies for Health and the Environment and Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Princeton University. He received his PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Old Dominion University.
Cheng-Yu Lai, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Chemistry Dr. Lai’s research interests are in nanomaterials that he is synthesizing and testing for use as therapeutic delivery devices and/or sensing probes. After earning his PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Iowa State University, Dr. Lai completed a postdoctoral fellowship at The Scripps Research Institute and then worked as a senior research scientist at DuPont Central Research and Development.
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Dr. Lu’s research interests include studying the interactions between biomolecules and nanoparticles and the impact of nanoparticles on model membranes, gene delivery by carbon nanotubes, photonic transmission, electro- and magnetotransport in nanomaterials and optical tomography. Dr. Lu joined Delaware State University from the Physics Department of St. John’s University in Queens, NY. She received her PhD in Biophysics on interactions between carbon nanotubes and biomolecules from Clemson University.
2006-2010, and a distinguished achievement award for his work at the National Institute on Aging/ National Institutes of Health (NIA/NIH). He comes to Delaware State University from the University of Pennsylvania, where he received postdoctoral training in medical image analysis. He received a PhD in the area of image analysis from University of Patras, Greece.
Yuri Markushin, PhD Assistant Research Professor, Physics & Engineering Dr. Markushin has more than 20 years of experience in the fields of invitro diagnostics, laser spectroscopy, biophysics and biotechnology, as well as developing clinically useful biomarker technologies for cancer risk assessment, immunoassays, biosensors, micro-affinity columns, and medical and biomedical instrumentation. He has also interests and extensive experience in the fields of nanostructured soft matter, micro encapsulation, 3D modification and stability of polymertemplated nanostructures, self-assembly and supra-molecular assembly of biopolymer and biomimetic structures, and ultra-thin membranes with self-assembled 2D- and 3D- structures. He is the recipient of the U.S. Department of Energy Ames Laboratory Inventors Incentive 2007 Award and was the co-author of the Delaware State University intellectual property transfer on multielement encoded assay for cancer diagnostics in 2012.
Gour S. Pati, PhD Associate Professor, Physics & Engineering
Sokratis Makrogiannis, PhD Assistant Professor, Mathematical Sciences Dr. Makrogiannis’ scientific interests are in the areas of medical image computing and machine learning. He previously was a research fellow for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and a research scientist in GE Global Research and GlaxoSmithKline R&D. Dr. Makrogiannis is the recipient of the “Most Cited Article” award of the Pattern Recognition journal for articles published during
Dr. Pati’s research interests include studies of atomic coherence in new materials and techniques for resonant nonlinear optics, spectroscopy for biophotonic applications, and time-domain optical processing in nanostructured materials and devices for switching and modulation. Prior to joining Delaware State University, he conducted research at MIT and the University of Colorado, Boulder, in the areas of nanophotonics, nonlinear optics and microwave photonics.
Thomas A. Planchon, PhD Associate Professor, Physics & Engineering Dr. Planchon’s research interests involve the development of new optical microscopy techniques with improved resolution in space and time, along with the development of adaptive optics methods and algorithms for the precise shaping of light. These tools open new ways of studying living biological systems over longer periods of time and with better spatio-temporal resolution. Dr. Planchon came to Delaware State University from the laboratory of Eric Betzig, the 2014 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, where he worked to develop the first isotropic resolution light-sheet microscope. He received his PhD in Physics from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, France.
David D. Pokrajac Professor, Computer & Information Sciences Associate Dean for Research and Analytics, College of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Technology Dr. Pokrajac’s research involves computer simulation of breast anatomy for improved cancer detection, automatic classification of spectroscopy data for detection of trace amounts of proteins and video analytics aimed at detection of unusual behavior in surveillance videos. In addition to his full-time position at Delaware State University, Dr. Pokrajac is an affiliate graduate faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University and visiting scholar at University of Pennsylvania. He earned his PhD from Temple University in Computer Science and has an MBA from DSU and a master’s degree in telecommunications from University of Nis, Serbia.
He received his MS and PhD degrees in Applied Optics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
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Mukti Rana, PhD
Renu Tripathi, PhD
Associate Professor, Physics & Engineering Director of Outreach, OSCAR
Co-Director, Center for Applied Optics for Space Sciences (CAOSS) Associate Professor, Physics & Engineering
Dr. Rana’s research interests include microsensors, uncooled infrared detectors, applications of electrical technologies for biogas production and environmental monitoring, and microelectromechanical devices (MEMS).
Dr. Tripathi works on building coherent and incoherent optical imaging systems including 3-D imaging polarimetric scanning LADAR, optical coherence tomography, and information processing using correlators, holographic imaging systems, and EIT and slow light.
As a postdoctoral research associate under Professor Zeynep Celik-Butler, he worked on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Administration by using tactile sensors based on poly-silicon thin films. Dr. Rana received his PhD from The University of Texas at Arlington in Electrical Engineering.
Jun Ren, PhD
Assistant Professor, Physics & Engineering Dr. Ren works on the Mars Rover ChemCam project using LaserInduced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) to analyze the elemental makeup of Martian rock and on ultra-high intensity laser amplification through stimulated Raman backscattering (SRBS) in plasma as well as novel schemes to produce high intensity, ultrashort duration laser pulses in a plasma channel. After receiving her PhD in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University and her MS in Optics from the University of Rochester Institute of Optics, Dr. Ren worked as an associate research scholar in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Princeton University and as a postdoctoral research associate with Los Alamos National Laboratory.
Tomasz Smolinski, PhD
Associate Professor, Computer & Information Sciences Dr. Smolinski’s Computational Intelligence and Bio(logical) informatics Lab, or CIBiL, uses various Computational Intelligence methods (e.g., evolutionary algorithms, rough sets, fuzzy logic, artificial neural networks, etc.) to provide insights into how biology responds to changing environments and perturbations, such as diseases, as well as into the molecular mechanisms underlying those diseases. He earned his PhD in Computer Science from the University of Louisville.
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She is a senior member of both The Optical Society (OSA) and SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics. After completing her doctorate in Optics at the Indian Institute of Technology in New Delhi, Dr. Tripathi was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California (Irvine), MIT and Northwestern University, where she currently holds the position of visiting scientist in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the McCormick School of Engineering & Applied Science. Prior to joining Delaware State University’s Optics Program, she was a staff scientist at Caltech in the Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy.
Cherese Winstead, PhD
Assistant Professor and Chair, Department of Chemistry Dr. Winstead’s research interests lie in the area of nanotechnology and its application to the field of biomedicine. In particular, her research group investigates the utilization of nanoscale systems such as nanodiamonds and nanofibers for time-released delivery of therapeutic agents. Applications for this research involve gene correction nanotechnology in the treatment of sickle cell disease, nanotechnology-based chemotherapeutics for targeted delivery to cancerous cells, and surface modification of nanostructures to act as imaging agents for enhanced specificity.
How You Can Support Optics at DSU With your contribution, you can help to further the goals of the Optics Program at Delaware State University and the accomplishments of the scientists of today and tomorrow.
Visual representation of a multi-shell atom Inner Shell Second Shell Third Shell Fourth Shell
Please consider a gift at one of the giving levels below: Inner Shell Second Shell Third Shell Fourth Shell
$100,000 $75,000 $50,000 $25,000
Fifth Shell $10,000 Sixth Shell $5,000 Seventh Shell $2,500 Friends of Optics $100
The names of all donors of $2,500 or more will be engraved on a beautiful sculpture that will be hung in the lobby of the OSCAR Building.
Fifth Shell Sixth Shell Seventh Shell
Several rooms in the new optics facility are also available for naming:
Prior to joining Delaware State University, Dr. Winstead was a supervisor for global research efforts at Whitford Worldwide. She received her PhD in Analytical Chemistry at The Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University.
Nanochemistry laboratory Wet laboratory for sample preparation Imaging facility 7 faculty research laboratories 20 faculty/administration offices
3 conference/seminar rooms Lobby 2 reception areas Graduate student work area Lounge
Support for the Optics Program is part of the Greater Than One: Campaign for Students, a multi-year campaign that connects you to DSU’s proud and historic legacy of transforming the lives and futures of our students.
To make a gift, please visit desu.edu/SupportOptics. You may also make a gift or discuss naming a room by contacting the Office of Development at 302.857.6055 or dsufoundation@desu.edu.
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Optical Science Center for Applied Research Delaware State University 1200 N. DuPont Highway Dover, DE 19901
302.857.6702 | oscar.desu.edu
Contributing to Optics at DSU desu.edu/SupportOptics | 302.857.6055 | dsufoundation@desu.edu
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