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Lauren Buchanan wins NSF CAREER Award

Mar. 22, 2024—Lauren Buchanan, assistant professor of chemistry, has received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award. Her CAREER project, “Understanding Nanoparticle-induced Changes to Protein Structure,” will address a critical gap in our understanding of protein-nanoparticle interactions: the detailed surface-induced changes to protein structure and dynamics that that potentially impact protein function. The five-year, $675,000 grant will support the...

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Episode 10 | Meet Our Faculty | Xiaoguang Dong

Mar. 18, 2024—Learn more about Dr. Xiaoguang Dong and his group. The Dong group develops novel stimuli-responsive mechanisms, microdevices, and microrobots for minimally invasive medical operations. Watch on YouTube | Hear more from Xiaoguang Dong Dong Lab

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Congratulations to Chris Whittington and Courtney Ragle for Completing 5 incentives for NanoGuides

Mar. 15, 2024—VINSE NanoGuides program is a new initiative launched in Fall 2023. This program formalizes the group of student volunteers who lead many of VINSE’s STEM outreach activities and now receive formal recognition for their passion for science outreach. Congratulations to Chris Whittington and Courtney Ragle for earning their VINSE backpack as a part of the...

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VINSE Colloquium: Student Selected Speaker Dr. Arjun Yodh 04/04/2025

Mar. 14, 2024—11th Annual VINSE Student Selected Seminar Arjun Yodh James M. Skinner Professor of Science and Department Chair University of Pennsylvania  Imaging and Spectroscopy of (mostly) Brain Using Diffusing Light 04.04.25  |  noon Diffusing light can be used to probe physiology in tissues located far below the body surface. The emerging light fields contain a wealth...

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VINSE Best Collaborative Paper Awardees Attend A Celebratory Dinner

Mar. 14, 2024—Recently, Andrey Shults, Guanyu Lu, Josh Caldwell and Janet Macdonald celebrated their winning 2023 VINSE Best Collaborative Paper award. The paper has contributions from two VINSE groups from different departments – the Macdonald group in Chemistry and the Caldwell group in Mechanical Engineering. The authors report on colloidal chemistry synthesis and characterization that provides key...

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92 High School Students Join Blackberry Solar Cell Lab During Spring Break

Mar. 11, 2024—While the Vanderbilt campus is ramping down during spring break, VINSE outreach program is buzzing with energy! On March 11, VINSE welcomed 20 students from Harpeth High School to our Blackberry Solar Cell Lab. They made solar cells out of blackberry juice and measured the electrical power they produced. The students also examined the material...

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Field Trip of Mansfield Frontier STEM Academy from Texas

Mar. 6, 2024—On Friday, March 1 VINSE hosted students from Mansfield Frontier STEM Academy from Mansfield Texas to learn about nanoscience and nanotechnology during a day visit. Outreach experiences are tailored to fit into a variety of science courses. For the graphene work and the gowning session, student made their own 2D material, graphene – carbon that...

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Summer 2024 Short Courses

Feb. 28, 2024—VINSE offers a variety of short courses each year to provide attendees opportunities to advance their skills and knowledge about topics relevant to a technical community. Attendance is open to all interested parties and is not limited to Vanderbilt personnel or VINSE users. Atomic Force Microscopy AFM is an advanced multi-parametric imaging technique. It delivers very...

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“Spin Coating Photoactive Photosystem I−PEDOT:PSS Composite Films” published in ACS Applied Polymer Materials, selected as VINSE Spotlight Publication

Feb. 21, 2024—About the author: Marc Nabhan, a 2023 PhD graduate from the Department of Chemical Engineering, successfully defended his dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Kane Jennings. Currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of Optomar Technologies, Marc leads the development of a metabolic rate sensor designed for precise calorie counting in medical ICUs. During his...

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Dissertation Defense: Jeremy Espano, Interdisciplinary Materials Science

Feb. 20, 2024—DISSERTATION DEFENSE Jeremy Espano, Interdisciplinary Materials Science *under the direction of Janet Macdonald “Understanding the Crystalline Landscape of Metal Chalcogenide Materials” 03.01.24  |  2:30PM CST  |  214 Light Hall | The identity and arrangement of atoms determine the properties of all crystalline solids, and when the identity of the atoms is the same, multiple arrangements and different crystalline...

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