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Congrats Dr. Zhang!

May. 27, 2026—Yanrong Zhang successfully defends her Ph.D. dissertation. Congrats Dr. Zhang! “Multidimensional Control of Light in Subwavelength Photonic Crystal Structures”  

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Congrats Anurag, Chris and Ke-Sean! Vanderbilt Graduate School awarded Lacy-Fischer Interdisciplinary Grant

May. 25, 2026—Anurag, Chris and Ke-Sean were awarded Vanderbilt Graduate School Lacy-Fischer Interdisciplinary Grant for research proposal on “Radiation Effects on Room-Temperature Single-Photon Emitters in Hexagonal Boron Nitride for on-chip Quantum Photonics” Quantum technologies are rapidly transitioning from theoretical constructs to real-world systems, with quantum communication, cryptography, sensing and computing each seeing significant experimental progress over the...

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Congrats Soren! Best Talk of the Day at Porus Semiconductor – Science and Technology Conference

May. 4, 2026—Biofunctionalized Zwitterionic Polymers for High Specificity Porous Silicon Biosensing Porous silicon (PSi)-based optical biosensors are a promising platform for rapid, quantitative diagnostics, offering label-free molecular detection with high intrinsic sensitivity and compatibility with paper-based lateral flow assays and smartphone readout. However, their operation in complex biological media remains limited due to biofouling and hydrolytic instability....

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Congrats Ginny! Parkhutik Prize, Most Outstanding Poster at Porus Semiconductor – Science and Technology (PSST) conference

May. 4, 2026—Control of Fluid Flow in Paper-based Porous Silicon Biosensor for Enhanced Sensor Performance   Porous silicon (PSi)-on-paper sensors are a promising platform for sensitive and quantitative rapid diagnostic tests. Here, we report a combined vertical and lateral flow geometry in which lateral-flow microchannels control the incubation time of target molecules in the PSi membrane active...

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Congrats Chris! Best Poster Presentation Award in the SPIE Active Photonic Platforms conference at SPIE Optics and Photonics

Aug. 22, 2025—Heterogenous integration of VO₂ nanopatches on subwavelength-engineered antislot photonic crystal for optical switching We report the heterogeneous integration of the optical phase change material, vanadium dioxide (VO₂), on a subwavelength-engineered silicon antislot photonic crystal cavity as the foundation for a high extinction ratio, ultrafast optical switch. Two 50 × 250 nm patches of VO₂ are...

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Congrats Sebastian! Best layout Award for his poster at VINSE 14th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium

Aug. 1, 2025—Paper Based Microfluidic Channels for Porous Silicon Biosensors Developing low cost, highly sensitive, and accessible biosensing platforms is critical for widespread diagnostic applications. Porous silicon (PSi) is a promising material for these platforms due to its high surface area for detecting molecules, chemical and biological compatibility, and ease of fabrication. Integrating PSi membranes with paper...

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Congrats Dr. Arnold!

May. 20, 2025—Kellen. P. Arnold successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Arnold! “Integrated Photonics for Intense Light-matter Interaction and Applications in Aerospace” Over the last several decades, the technological revolution into a digital age has opened doors to endless possibilities that seemed previously unimaginable. Today, artificial intelligence, deep learning, and the internet of things have impacted...

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