‘Meet Our Graduates’
Meet Our Graduates: Anna Douglas
Jun. 22, 2023—While at Vanderbilt, Anna began her studies developing nanostructured materials that can improve the performance of energy storage devices including lithium and sodium ion batteries. During her graduate studies, Anna co-invented a novel electrochemical synthesis method to produce high quality carbon nanotubes from carbon dioxide, and subsequently spun out a startup company called SkyNano in...
Meet Our Graduates: Jun Li
Sep. 2, 2022—Jun Li earned his Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science at Vanderbilt University in 2016 under the supervision of Professor Charles Manning. His Ph.D. research focused on the development of new molecular imaging probes to facilitate rapid tracer discovery and as precision imaging diagnostics of cancer. His Ph.D. work has resulted in 7 peer-reviewed articles, 1 book chapter, and...
Meet Our Graduates: Dhiraj Prasai
Aug. 16, 2022—Dhiraj Prasai earned his PhD from Vanderbilt University in 2016 under the guidance of Dr. Kirill Bolotin. During his PhD Dhiraj studied transport measurements of 2-D materials by making field effect transistor out of monolayer Graphene and MOS2. He worked closely with VINSE facilities to fabricate and characterize his novel opto-electronic devices and published several...
Meet Our Graduates: Judson Ryckman
Jul. 6, 2022—Judson Ryckman earned his PhD in Vanderbilt University Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University in 2013 under Prof. Sharon Weiss. Judson’s first exposure to academic research was through participation in a summer research experience for undergraduates which included regular use of VINSE laboratories at their earlier location in Stevenson Center. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Judson joined Intel Corporation in Santa Clara, CA as a...
Meet Our Graduates: Jason Bonacum
May. 19, 2022—Jason Bonacum earned his Ph. D. in Physics from Vanderbilt University in 2020 under the supervision of Professor Richard Haglund. His Ph. D. research focused on characterizing complex atomic structures in intercalated few-layer graphene using atomic-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy, which was performed in collaboration with the Advanced Microscopy Lab at Oak Ridge National Laboratory....
Meet Our Graduates: Gabriel LeBlanc
May. 6, 2022—Gabriel LeBlanc earned his PhD. from Vanderbilt University in 2010 under the direction of Dr. David Cliffel, studying how the biological nanomaterial Photosystem I in plants could be incorporated into solar cells. While at Vanderbilt, Gabriel took advantage of the analytical tools and collaborative environment enabled by Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) to publish over 10 peer-reviewed articles...
Meet Our Graduates: Kate (Moyer) Vanderburgh
Apr. 17, 2022—Kate (Moyer) Vanderburgh graduated from the Vanderbilt University Interdisciplinary Materials Science Ph.D. program in December of 2019. Under the direction of Dr. Cary Pint, Kate worked on sustainably engineering electrode materials and additives for energy storage systems. She was an NSF GRFP recipient and summer 2018 intern at NASA Kennedy Space Center to investigate structural...
Meet Our Graduates: Manoj Sridhar
Apr. 6, 2022—Manoj earned his PhD in Physics in 2008 under the supervision of Profs Anthony Hmelo and Leonard Feldman. Manoj’s Ph.D. research studied fluid flow through nanoscale channels both experimentally and through molecular dynamics simulations. Through his work, Manoj gained technical expertise in a wide range of VINSE nanofabrication tools including electron beam lithography, scanning electron...
Meet Our Graduates: Sara Winn
Mar. 25, 2022—Sara Winn, Ph.D. (Melow) received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University in June of 2021 under the supervision of Dr. David Cliffel. While at Vanderbilt, she received the T32 training grant in Environmental Toxicology. Her research focused on electrochemical biosensors for use in combination with organs-on-chips, collaborating internally and externally to apply these sensors. In addition to her...
Meet Our Graduates: Patrick Wellborn
Feb. 3, 2022—Patrick Wellborn received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University in January of 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Robert Webster III. In the summer of 2014, VINSE served as Patrick’s first introduction to both Vanderbilt and research in general. Through the VINSE REU, he spent the summer researching biohybrid solar cells with Dr....