‘VINSE Faculty News’
New faculty: Rizia Bardhan finds solutions at the nanoscale
Dec. 11, 2012—Rizia Bardhan has a large picture of Mahatma Gandhi in her office. “Gandhi has always been very special to me,” she said. “We share the same birthday. He exemplifies the power of perseverance.” Perseverance has carried the new assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering to Nashville from Kolkatta, India, where she was born. Early in...
Grant will help professor develop battery to aid home energy use
Oct. 11, 2012—Peter Pintauro, H. Eugene McBrayer Professor of Chemical Engineering and chair of the chemical and biomolecular engineering department, has partnered with researchers from the University of Kansas and TVN Systems, Inc. on a three-year, $1.72 million grant from the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) of the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a durable, low-cost...
VINSE Welcomes Cary Pint
Sep. 9, 2012—Cary M. Pint, assistant professor of mechanical engineering B.S., University of Northern Iowa, 2005 M.S., Rice University, 2009 Ph.D., Rice University, 2010 Pint’s research interests focus on nanomate rials development for efficient and integrated energy storage and conversion devices. This effort builds upon cutting-edge materials design employing atomic layer deposition and nanocarbon and non-carbon nanostructure fabrication techniques. Of...
VINSE Welcomes Philippe Fauchet
Sep. 9, 2012—Philippe M. Fauchet, dean of the School of Engineering; professor of electrical engineering B.S., Faculte Polytechnique de Mons, 1978 M.S., Brown University, 1980 Ph.D., Stanford University, 1984 Fauchet comes to Vanderbilt from the University of Rochester, where he served as Distinguished Professor and Chair of Electrical and Computer Engineering and director of the Energy Research...
VINSE Welcomes Rizia Bardhan
Sep. 9, 2012—Rizia Bardhan, assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering B.A., Westminster College, 2005 M.A., Rice University, 2007 Ph.D., Rice University, 2010 Bardhan’s research focuses on interdisciplinary nanoscience, with the convergence of multiple disciplines: engineering, material science, chemistry, physics and biomedicine. Her primary research interests are plasmonics and nanophotonics materials for biomedical and energy conversion applications.
Spinach power gets a major boost
Sep. 4, 2012—Spinach power has just gotten a big boost. An interdisciplinary team of researchers at Vanderbilt University have developed a way to combine the photosynthetic protein that converts light into electrochemical energy in spinach with silicon, the material used in solar cells, in a fashion that produces substantially more electrical current than has been reported by...
Richard Haglund named Stevenson Chair of Physics
Aug. 30, 2012—Twelve Vanderbilt University faculty members were honored for extraordinary contributions to their respective fields during an Aug. 28 celebration of endowed chair holders at the Student Life Center. Jeff Balser, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, noted during his opening remarks the incredible range of expertise represented by the...
New research at Vanderbilt could help make quantum dots the future of superefficient lighting
Aug. 16, 2012—Unless you’re in the .05 percent of the population who enjoyed physics in high school, the term “quantum” probably calls to mind James Bond or Scott Bakula. But researchers at Vanderbilt University are working on a project that could bring the word into the everyday vernacular, and perhaps even have a hand in saving the...
Radiation damage bigger problem in microelectronics than previously thought
Jul. 19, 2012—The amount of damage that radiation causes in electronic materials may be at least 10 times greater than previously thought. That is the surprising result of a new characterization method that uses a combination of lasers and acoustic waves to provide scientists with a capability tantamount to X-ray vision: It allows them to peer through...
Probing the roots of depression by tracking serotonin regulation at a new level
Jun. 27, 2012—In a process akin to belling an infinitesimal cat, scientists have managed to tag a protein that regulates the neurotransmitter serotonin with tiny fluorescent beads, allowing them to track the movements of single molecules for the first time. The capability, which took nearly a decade to achieve, makes it possible to study the dynamics of...