‘Justus Ndukaife’
“Engineering Electromagnetic Field Distribution and Resonance Quality Factor Using Slotted Quasi-BIC Metasurfaces” published in Nano Letters, selected as VINSE Spotlight Publication
Mar. 9, 2023—Sen Yang is a fifth-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science under the direction of Dr. Justus Ndukaife. Ndukaife’s group focuses on multidisciplinary research including plasmonic and resonant dielectric nanostructures for efficient nano-optical trapping, manipulation, enhanced spectroscopy, and sensing of nanoscale objects. Sen’s recent publication in Nano Letters demonstrates an approach to...
Dissertation Defense: Chuchuan Hong, Electrical Engineering
Feb. 24, 2023—DISSERTATION DEFENSE Chuchuan Hong, Electrical Engineering *under the direction of Justus Ndukaife “Nanoscale optical trapping and sensing: from plasmons to Mie resonances” 03.08.23 | 10:00am | 349A Featheringill Hall Optical tweezers use tightly focused laser beam to manipulate microscopic objects. However, the conventional optical tweezers are restricted by the diffraction limit of light, and face...
Sen Yang receives IMS Best Publication Award
Aug. 23, 2022—Sen Yang, a 4th years Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Materials Science from Vanderbilt University, was awarded the 2021 Vanderbilt IMS Best Student Paper Award for his work entitled “Nanoparticle Trapping in a Quasi-BIC System”. The award comes with a $500 prize and a corresponding plaque. This work was completed under the guidance of Prof. Justus...
Ndukaife receives NSF Early CAREER Award to investigate cell-to-cell communication
Apr. 27, 2022—Justus C. Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for foundational research in cell-to-cell communication. His CAREER project, “Resonant Dielectric Optical Metasurfaces for Single-Cell Extracellular Vesicles Analysis,” will enable Ndukaife to associate the properties of extracellular vesicles directly to their cell sources—up to the resolution of single cells—a capability that...
Spotlight Publication: “Nanoparticle Trapping in a Quasi-BIC System ” published in ACS Photonics
Jan. 26, 2022—About the author: Sen Yang is currently a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program under the direction of Dr. Justus Ndukaife. Sen studies dielectric nanotweezers for nanoscale particles trapping and dielectric nanoantennas for biomaterial sensing applications. In recently published work, he proposed an all-dielectric nanotweezer based on quasi-bound states in the continuum (BIC) for...
Chuchuan Hong wins VINSE’s 2021 Best Graduate Student Publication Award
Nov. 23, 2021—Congratulations to Chuchuan Hong recipient of the 2021 VINSE Best Graduate Student Publication award. In addition to a cash prize, Chuchuan was selected to give the graduate student presentation at the 21st annual Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Forum. Chuchuan’s recent paper on optical nanotweezers demonstrated a novel approach called opto-thermo- electrohydrodynamic tweezers (OTET) for optical trapping...
Congratulations to Justus Ndukaife & John Wilson who received a Chancellor’s Award for Research at the 2021 Fall Faculty Assembly
Aug. 30, 2021—Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Cybele Raver and Faculty Senate Chair Mark Magnuson, Louise B. McGavock Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, presented awards to 13 faculty members during the Fall Faculty Assembly on Aug. 26. The awards recognize teaching, research, service and commitment to diversity, and recipients are honored...
Engineering professor Ndukaife wins award in Rising Stars of Light global competition
Nov. 30, 2020—Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, spent 20 minutes describing his optical nanotweezers to a panel of five distinguished professors from the United States, Australia, and China during a live online competition—Rising Stars of Light—that has drawn 260,000 viewers worldwide. After two sessions in which 10 finalists presented their research in a global campaign...
Spotlight Podcast Episode 24: Chuchuan Hong – trapping and manipulating nanoscale objects
Oct. 13, 2020—Episode 24 of the VINSE Spotlight Podcast Chuchuan Hong tells Alice Leach about trapping and manipulating nanoscale objects. Chuchuan’s paper “Stand-off trapping and manipulation of sub-10 nm objects and biomolecules using opto-thermo-electrohydrodynamic tweezers” was published in Nature Nanotechnology. Chuchuan is a 3rd student Ph.D. student in Electrical Engineering working under the direction of Justus Ndukaife....
Tiny tweezer developed at Vanderbilt can trap molecules on a nanoscale, creating powerful research capabilities into cancer metastasis, neurodegenerative diseases
Sep. 1, 2020—In 2018, one-half of the Nobel Prize was awarded to Arthur Ashkin, the physicist who developed optical tweezers, the use of a tightly focused laser beam to isolate and move micron-scale objects (the size of red blood cells). Now Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering at Vanderbilt University, has developed the first-ever opto-thermo-electrohydrodynamic tweezers, optical nanotweezers...