![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my\/my-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2865\/2025\/08\/Chris-SPIE-poster-award.jpg\")
Congrats Chris! Best Poster Presentation Award in the SPIE Active Photonic Platforms conference at SPIE Optics and Photonics<\/h3>\nAug 2025: Chris won the Best Poster Presentation Award <\/span>for his poster “Heterogenous integration of VO\u2082 nanopatches on subwavelength-engineered antislot photonic crystal for optical switching” in the SPIE Active Photonic Platforms conference at SPIE Optics and Photonics.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n July 31, 2025: Summer NSF REU student, Sebastian Martinez, won the Best Layout Award for his poster, \u201cPaper Based Microfluidic Channels for Porous Silicon Biosensors\u201d at the 2025 VINSE Undergraduate Research Symposium.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n May 20, 2025: KP successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Arnold!<\/p>\n April 2025: Maggie Marte, our former VINSE REU student, was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and has accepted an offer to join the EECS PhD program at MIT to pursue research in superconducting qubits.<\/p>\n April 2025: Zack received the Outstanding TA Award at ECE Day 2025.<\/p>\n August 2024: Chris is awarded “Best Student Poster” at the 2024 Center for Nanophase Materials Science (CNMS) User Meeting for his poster “Antislot Photonic Crystals for Sensing, Communication, and Quantum Platforms”. (August 12 – 15, 2024)<\/i><\/p>\n August 2024:\u00a0Summer NSF REU student, Maggie Marte, won “Fan Favorite” for her poster “Improving Fiber-to-Chip Edge Coupling Efficiency using Inverse Taper Waveguides” at the 2024 VINSE Undergraduate Research Symposium. Congrats Maggie! (August 1, 2024)<\/p>\n April 2024:\u00a0Simon won the Vanderbilt Graduate Student Council Leadership Anchor Award for Mentorship Excellence.\u00a0Congrats<\/span>, Simon!<\/p>\n April 2024: Soren Smail and Alex Oh received the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship and incoming ECE graduate student, Zack Martin was awarded an honorable mention.<\/p>\n April 2024: Alex Oh accepted the admission offer to join the ECE PhD program at Columbia University.<\/p>\n February 2024:<\/em> Simon successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats, Dr. Ward!<\/p>\n October 2023:<\/em> Summer REU student Andres Cotto won an Outstanding Presentation Award in Applied Physics at the Gulf Coast Undergraduate Research Symposium<\/p>\n August 2023<\/em>:<\/em>\u00a0<\/span>Kellen Arnold was awarded a NASA Space Technology Graduate Research Fellowship.<\/p>\n August 2023:<\/em> Simon presents his work at SPIE Optics + Photonics, \u201cReduction in sensor response time using long short-term memory network forecasting\u201d<\/p>\n May 2023:<\/em> Landen won the C. F. Chen Best Paper Award in Electrical and Computer Engineering.<\/p>\n May 2023:<\/em> KP presents his work at CLEO, \u201cDeep subwavelength slotted photonic crystals fabricated in a monolithic silicon photonics technology\u201d<\/p>\n May\u00a02, 2023<\/i>:<\/em>\u00a0Rabeb successfully defends her PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Layouni!<\/p>\n January 2023:<\/em> Rabeb presents her work at SPIE Photonics West, \u201cPaper-based diagnostics incorporating porous silicon\u201d<\/p>\n January 2023:<\/em> Yanrong presents her work at SPIE Photonics West, \u201cImproved molecular detection sensitivity through photonic crystal unit cell design\u201d<\/p>\n July 8, 2022:<\/em> KP is awarded honorable mention in the Division of Laser Sciences (DLS) student poster contest at the 2022\u00a0Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) for his poster presentation “Photonic Crystals with Split Ring Unit Cells for Subwavelength Light Confinement”.\u00a0\u00a0Congratulations KP!<\/p>\n June 17, 2022:<\/em>\u00a0Simon is awarded the Russell G. Hamilton Graduate Leadership Institute Dissertation Enhancement Grant.<\/p>\n June 10, 2022:<\/em>\u00a0Simon is awarded a 2022 Optics and Photonics Education Scholarship by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, for his potential contributions to the field of optics, photonics or related field.\u00a0 Congratulations Simon!<\/p>\n May 11, 2022:<\/em>\u00a0Simon won the\u00a0C.F. Chen Graduate Student Paper Award\u00a0for \u201cBest Paper in Electrical Engineering\u201d.<\/p>\n April\u00a04, 2022:<\/em>\u00a0Simon and KP present their work at the 1st Annual Vanderbilt Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Day. KP wins 1st place for his poster “Realizing Subwavelength Featured Photonic Crystals: Tailoring to Specific Applications and Foundry Scale Processing”.<\/p>\n March 31, 2022:<\/em> Rabeb is awarded the Lehman Prize for the best talk at the Porous Semiconductors \u2013 Science and Technology (PSST) 2022 Conference.<\/p>\n January 24, 2022:<\/em>\u00a0Special congratulations to Dr. Weiss on being elected\u00a0a 2021 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)!<\/p>\n January 23, 2022:<\/em> Simon presents his work at SPIE Photonics West, \u201cAnalysis of machine learning techniques for capture agent free biosensing with porous silicon arrays\u201d (paper 11979-13).<\/p>\n January 14, 2022<\/i>:<\/em> Sam successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Halimi!<\/p>\n Aug 10 – 12, 2021:<\/em>\u00a0KP selected for a Best Student Presentation Award at the virtual 2021 Joint Nanoscience and Neutron Scattering User Meeting at Oak Ridge National Laboratory.<\/p>\n May 24, 2021:<\/em> Landen successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Ryder!<\/p>\n April 12, 2021:<\/em> Tengfei successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Cao!<\/p>\n March 6 – 11, 2021:<\/em> Simon presents his work at Photonics West (online), \u201cReducing detection limits of optical thin film sensors using signal processing\u201d (paper 11662-17).<\/p>\n February 10, 2021:<\/em> Former Weiss Lab member Dr. Judson Ryckman wins an NSF CAREER award, \u201cCAREER: Multi-chrome metasurfaces for dynamic structural color and naked eye diagnostics.\u201d<\/p>\n September 8, 2020:<\/em> Francis successfully defends his PhD dissertation. Congrats Dr. Afzal!<\/p>\n August 10, 2020:<\/em> Josh A. presents his work “Inverse Design of Bowtie Photonic Crystal to Achieve Increased Light-Matter Interaction” at the CNMS User Meeting, winning the “Best Student Presentation” award.<\/p>\n August\u00a07, 2020:<\/em>\u00a0Rabeb presents her work at the VINSE Summer Nanoseminar Series.<\/p>\n July 28, 2020:<\/em>\u00a0Landen passes his Qualifying Examination!<\/p>\n May 11 & 13, 2020:<\/em> Francis presents his work on two projects, “Monolithically Fabricated Subwavelength Grating Filters for O-band MUX\/DEMUX Applications” and “Camera-Based Modal Fingerprinting of Cavity Resonances in a Photonic Crystal Nanobeam” at CLEO.<\/p>\n May 11, 2020: <\/em>Prof. Weiss gives an invited talk on “Control of Light through the Addition of Deep Subwavelength Features in Photonic Crystals” at\u00a0the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO).<\/p>\n May 8, 2020:<\/em> Rabeb won the VU Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering department award for “Best Research Paper by a 3rd Year (and Up).”<\/p>\n May 8, 2020:<\/em> Sam passes his Qualifying Examination!<\/p>\n December, 2019:\u00a0<\/em>Rabeb was requested to give an invited talk at the\u00a0PSST2020 International Conference in Tuscany, Italy in March!<\/p>\n August 28, 2019:<\/em> Rabeb presents her work “Thermally carbonized porous silicon for robust label-free DNA optical sensing” at the ACS National Meeting in San Diego, CA.<\/p>\n August 27, 2019:<\/em> Tengfei\u00a0passes his Qualifying Examination!<\/p>\n August 8, 2019:<\/em> Landen presents his Master’s thesis.<\/p>\n July 12, 2019:<\/em> Sam presents his work at the VINSE Summer Nanoseminar Series.<\/p>\n July 9, 2019:<\/em>\u00a0Landen presents his work “Polarization Dependence of Pulsed Laser\u2011Induced SEEs in SOI FinFETs” at the IEEE Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conference (NSREC) in San Antonio, TX.<\/p>\n May 6, 2019:<\/em> Sam presents his and Zhongyuan’s work “Photonic crystal design with mix and match unit cells for mode manipulation” at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, CA.<\/p>\n April 15, 2019:<\/em> Francis starts his internship at GlobalFoundries.<\/p>\n February 1, 2019<\/i>:<\/em>\u00a0Josh Fain successfully defends his PhD dissertation!<\/p>\n August 31, 2018:<\/em>\u00a0Dr. Shuren Hu’s paper in Science Advances, “Experimental realization of deep-subwavelength confinement in dielectric optical resonators,” was the subject of a Nature Research Highlight. (link)<\/a><\/p>\n July 30, 2018:<\/em> Dr. Kevin Miller’s recently published paper, “Optical phase change materials in integrated silicon photonic devices: review,” has been highlighted as an Editor’s Pick\u00a0in Optical Materials Express. (link)<\/a><\/p>\n May 17, 2018<\/i>:<\/em> Francis presents his work “High-Contrast Resonance Excitation in Photonic Crystal Nanobeams via Side-Coupling and Wave-Vector Matching” at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, CA. (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 19, 2018<\/i>:<\/em> Kevin successfully defends his PhD dissertation!<\/p>\n January 11, 2018<\/i>:<\/em> Congratulations to Dr. Weiss for being selected as a 2018 fellow of both\u00a0SPIE<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0OSA<\/a>!<\/p>\n October 17, 2017<\/i>: Kevin’s work “Silicon waveguide optical switch with embedded phase change material” is published in Optics Express!\u00a0(link)<\/a><\/p>\n August 6-10, 2017<\/i>: Francis and Kevin presented their work “Slotted photonic crystal nanobeams for enhanced light-matter interaction and optical forces”\u00a0(link)<\/a>\u00a0and “Optical modulation in silicon-vanadium dioxide photonic structures”\u00a0(link)<\/a>\u00a0at the SPIE Optics & Photonics Conference in San Diego, CA.<\/p>\n May 13-18, 2017<\/i>: Shuren and Kevin presented their work “Bowtie Photonic Crystal with Deep Subwavelength Mode Confinement in a Dielectric Material”\u00a0(link)<\/a>\u00a0and “Silicon Waveguide Modulator with In-Line Phase Change Material”\u00a0(link)<\/a>\u00a0at the Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO) in San Jose, CA.<\/p>\n May 2, 2017<\/i>: A special congratulations to Dr. Weiss on being awarded a Cornelius Vanderbilt Chair! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 22, 2017<\/i>: Yiliang successfully defends her dissertation. Congrats Dr. Zhao!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n November 15, 2016<\/i>: Shuren successfully defends! Congrats to the real Dr. Hu!<\/p>\n October 19, 2016<\/i>: Yiliangs’s work “Flow-through porous silicon membranes for real-time label-free biosensing” is published in Analytical Chemistry! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n September 13, 2016<\/i>: Yiliangs’s work “Comparative Kinetic Analysis of Closed-Ended and Open-Ended Porous Sensors” is published in Nanoscale Research Letters! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n August 25, 2016<\/i>: Shuren’s work “Design of Photonic Crystal Cavities for Extreme Light Concentration” is published in ACS Photonics! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n August 05, 2016<\/i>: Yasmin Graham, a visiting summer undergraduate researcher, wins “Best Poster” at the VINSE REU poster session!<\/p>\n July 29, 2016<\/i>: Kelsey successfully defends! Congrats Kelsey!<\/p>\n July 6, 2016<\/i>: Kelsey’s work “Porous Silicon and Polymer Nanocomposites for Delivery of Peptide Nucleic Acids as Anti-MicroRNA Therapies” is published in Advanced Matierials! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n July 1, 2016<\/i>: On the same day, Dr. Weiss is selected as a 2016-2017 IEEE Photonics Society Distinguished Lecturer (link)<\/a> and is promoted to full professor! Congrats Dr. Weiss!<\/p>\n May 10, 2016<\/i>: Dr. Weiss receives the Vanderbilt School of Engineering Award for Excellence in Teaching! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 29, 2016<\/i>: Francis receives the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship!<\/p>\n March 24, 2016<\/i>: Gilbert defends his dissertation! Congrats Dr. Rodriguez!<\/p>\n March 6-11, 2016<\/i>: Half of the Weiss group attends the 10th Porous Semiconductors – Science and Technology Conference in Tarragona, Spain! Kelsey and Yiliang win talk of the day awards for their presentations “Smart Porous Silicon Nanocomposites for Improved Peptide Nucleic Acid Delivery and Micro-RNA Inhibition in Vivo” and “Flow Through Porous Silicon Membranes for Rapid Label-Free Biosensing.” Josh’s poster entitled “Scalable Fabrication of Shape-Engineered Porous Silicon Nanoparticles by Direct Imprintation” also won a poster of the day award!<\/p>\n February 25, 2016<\/i>: Girija’s work “Influence of Ionizing Radiation and the Role of Thiol Ligands on the Reversible Photodarkening of CdTe\/CdS Quantum Dots” is published in ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n February 15, 2016<\/i>: Kun’s work “Slow Light Mach-Zehnder Interferometer for Optical Label-free Biosensing” is published in Optics Letters! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n February 15, 2016<\/i>: Kevin presents his and Petr’s work “Hybrid silicon-vanadium dioxide electro-optic modulators” at Photonics West in San Francisco! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n October 21, 2015<\/i>: Congrats to Yiliang on passing her Qualifying Exam!<\/p>\n September 21, 2015<\/i>: Girija successfully defends! Congrats Dr. Gaur!<\/p>\n August 13, 2015<\/i>: Girija’s work “Influence of interfacial oxide on the optical properties of single layer CdTe\/CdS quantum dots in porous silicon scaffolds” is published in Applied Physics Letters! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n August 7, 2015<\/i>: Josh’s work “Size-Controlled Nickel Oxide Nanoparticle Synthesis using Mesoporous Silicon Thin Films” is published in the Journal of Nanoparticle Research! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n July 24, 2015<\/i>: Petr’s work “Optically Monitored Electrical Switching in VO2” is published in ACS Photonics! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 27, 2015<\/i>: Congratulations to Kelsey on winning first place in the campus-wide “Three Minute Thesis” competition in addition to tieing for the People’s Choice Award! Check out her video here! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 18, 2015<\/i>: Shweta and Petr are now officially Dr. Bhandaru and Dr. Markov, successfully defending their dissertations on the same day!<\/p>\n March 12, 2015<\/i>: Gilbert’s work “Porous silicon ring resonator for compact, high sensitivity biosensing applications” is published in Optics Express! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n March 5, 2015<\/i>: Petr’s work “Hybrid Si-VO2-Au Optical Modulator Based on Near-Field Plasmonic Coupling” is published in Optics Express! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n February 12, 2015<\/i>: Dr. Weiss is selected as a member of the inaugural class of Vanderbilt’s Chancellor Faculty Fellows program! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n January 28, 2015<\/i>: Shweta’s work “Total Ionizing Dose Effects of Silicon Ring Resonators” is published in IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n December 12, 2014<\/i>: Shweta’s work “Ultra-thin oxide growth on silicon during 10 keV x-ray irradiation” is published in Surface Science! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n December 5, 2014<\/i>: Kevin passes his Preliminary Examination!<\/p>\n December 1-5, 2014<\/i>: Gilbert and Josh present their work “Optical Microring Resonator Biosensors Based on Porous Silicon” (Gilbert) and “Nickel Oxide Nanoparticle Size Tunability through Mesoporous Silicon Template Hybridization” (Josh) at the 2014 MRS Fall Meeting & Exhibit in Boston.<\/p>\n November 19, 2014<\/i>: Kelsey passes her Qualifying Examination!<\/p>\n November 12, 2014<\/i>: Suruj wins third place for his “Memristance Phenomenon in Titanium Dioxide-Porous Silicon Nanocomposites” poster at the 15th Annual VINSE Nanoday!<\/p>\n September 4, 2014<\/i>: Gilbert passes his Qualifying Examination!<\/p>\n August 7, 2014<\/i>: Gilbert’s work “Porous silicon Bloch surface and sub-surface wave structure for simultaneous detection of small and large molecules” is published in Nanoscale Research Letters! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n July 16, 2014<\/i>: Kelsey’s work “In Situ Synthesis of Peptide Nucleic Acids in Porous Silicon for Drug Delivery and Biosensing” is published in Bioconjugate Chemistry! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n July 16, 2014<\/i>: Shuren’s work “Enhancing the Sensitivity of Label-Free Silicon Photonic Biosensors through Increased Probe Molecule Density” is published in ACS Photonics! (link)<\/a><\/p>\n May 9, 2014<\/i>: Kun receives his Masters!<\/p>\n April 1, 2014<\/i>: Josh receives the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship!<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.vanderbilt.edu\/t2-my\/my-prd\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2865\/2025\/08\/Sebastian-poster-scaled.jpeg\")
Congrats Sebastian! Best Layout Award for his poster at VINSE 14th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium<\/h3>\n2024<\/h2>\n
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January 23, 2020:<\/em> Rabeb passes her Qualifying Examination!<\/div>\n2019<\/h2>\n
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