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Quantum dots brighten the future of lighting
May. 8, 2012—With the age of the incandescent light bulb fading rapidly, the holy grail of the lighting industry is to develop a highly efficient form of solid-state lighting that produces high quality white light. One of the few alternative technologies that produce pure white light is white-light quantum dots. These are ultra-small fluorescent beads of cadmium...
Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff share discoveries at USA Science & Engineering Festival
Apr. 25, 2012—A group of Vanderbilt students, faculty and staff will share their research and passion for science and technology with middle and high school students at the nation’s largest science fair April 27-29 in Washington, D.C. The second annual USA Science & Engineering Festival and Book Fair, held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center, showcases...
Five Minutes with Anthony B. Hmelo
Apr. 9, 2012—Tony Hmelo’s research has taken him from NASA to nanoscience and from New York to Nashville. Hmelo is associate director for operations and outreach for the Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the interdisciplinary group researching new science and technology based on tiny—nanoscale—materials. (Nanotechnology is widely considered the next great scientific frontier.) As research...
Paul Laibinis wins Ellen Gregg Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching
Mar. 29, 2012—Five faculty members were recognized for their achievements in and out of the classroom by Chancellor Nicholas S. Zeppos at the Spring Faculty Assembly. Professors Paul Laibinis, Emily Nacol, Sohee Park, Suzanna Sherry and Janos Sztipanovits were selected for the awards by Zeppos out of a pool of nominees nominated by faculty. “I must admit...
Barrier to faster graphene devices identified and suppressed
Mar. 13, 2012—These days, graphene is the rock star of materials science, but it has an Achilles heel: It is exceptionally sensitive to its electrical environment. This single-atom-thick honeycomb of carbon atoms is lighter than aluminum, stronger than steel and conducts heat and electricity better than copper. As a result, scientists around the world are trying to...
Science comes alive for middle school students during Vanderbilt lab visit
Mar. 13, 2012—During a visit to campus on March 12, members of the Joelton Middle School Art2STEM club – an after-school organization for middle school girls that highlights the importance of creativity in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics – got to see what a real future as a scientist might be like. The students...
Ultrafast sonograms shed new light on rapid phase transitions
Mar. 7, 2012—Vanadium dioxide crystal lattice (A. Julia Stähler / Fritz Haber Institute) An international team of physicists has developed a method for taking ultrafast “sonograms” that can track the structural changes that take place within solid materials in trillionth-of-a-second intervals as they go through an important physical process called a phase transition. Common phase transitions include...
VINSE member wins Sloan research fellowship
Feb. 28, 2012—Physicist Kirill Bolotin has won a two-year, $50,000 research fellowship from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation aimed at encouraging promising young scholars. He is one of 126 researchers from 51 different colleges and universities in the United States selected to receive the Foundation’s research fellowship this year. Bolotin’s research is centered on the recently discovered material called graphene, a single atomic layer...
Pantelides is 2012 Materials Research Society Fellow
Feb. 10, 2012—Vanderbilt professor Sokrates T. Pantelides has been selected as a 2012 Materials Research Society Fellow. The MRS Fellows will be recognized at the MRS spring meeting in San Francisco in April. Pantelides is a University Distinguished Professor of Physics and Engineering, the William A. and Nancy F. McMinn Professor of Physics and a professor of...
Peter Cummings appointed to two NSF advisory boards
Feb. 2, 2012—eter T. Cummings, John R. Hall Professor of Chemical Engineering, and the Principal Scientist of the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, has been appointed to the National Science Foundation’s Advisory Committee for the Engineering Directorate and to the Advisory Committee for Cyberinfrastructure. The appointments are for three years. The Advisory...