Nano Night 2012 Poster Session Highlights and Winners

The Center for Nano- and Molecular Science held its 11^th Annual Nano Night Poster Session on Thursday, April 12, in the Larry R. Faulkner Nanoscience and Technology Building. Thirty-five graduate students, including students enrolled in the CNM’s Doctoral Portfolio Program in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, postdoctoral fellows and undergraduate students presented their research findings in the areas of nano-related science and engineering. Nano Night brought together students and postdoctoral fellows from a spectrum of academic backgrounds including biomedical, chemical, computer and electrical engineering, chemistry, physics and materials science.  Participants fielded questions from fellow researchers, faculty members and industry representatives throughout the two hour long poster session.

The event concluded with CNM Director Dr. Keith Stevenson announcing this year’s winners for the categories of “Best Undergraduate Poster,” “Best Postdoctoral Poster,” “First Place Graduate Poster,” “Second Place Graduate Poster,” “Third Place Graduate Poster,” “Most Innovative Experiment” and “Best Use of CNM Equipment.” The event was enjoyed by all, and the CNM looks forward to continuing this yearly tradition of highlighting nanoscience research at the University of Texas at Austin.

Special thanks to this year’s sponsors and judges:

Dr. Jennifer Lyon, CNM Associate Director

Drs. Damon Smith and Josh Bolinger, CNM Research Scientists

Drs. Paul McClure and Vladimir Mancevski, Xidex Corporation

Dr. Cindy Walker-Peach, Austin Tech Incubator

National Instruments

FEI

Fischer Scientific

Hitachi

Praxair

A list of award winners is provided below:

Undergraduate Award – $50.00

Magnetic Nanoparticles for Improved Sub-Surface Imaging
Victoria Cheng
Research Advisor: Prof. Keith Johnston

Graduate Award – First Place, $250.00

Broad band circular polarizers using plasmonic metasurfaces
Yang Zhao
Research Advisor: Prof  Andrea Alu

Graduate Award – Second Place, $100.00

Low temperature, Microwave-assisted Deposition of Nanostructured Titanium Dioxide Networks for Flexible Thin Film Devices
B. Reeja Jayan
Research Advisor: Prof. Arumugam Manthiram

Graduate Award – Third Place, $50.00

Fabrication of ultrasmooth cantilevered micromirrors
Chris Mann
Research Advisor: Prof. Chih-Kang (Ken) Shih

Postdoctoral Fellow Award – $50.00

Unit Cell Orientation through Polarized Raman Microscopy
John Heckel
Research Advisor: Prof. Katherine Willets

Best Use of CNM Equipment – Hitachi Cordless Drill

Silicon-Containing Block Copolymers for Sub-10 nm Patterning
Julie Cushen
Research Advisor: Prof. Christopher Ellison

Praxair Sponsored Most Innovative Research Award – Visa $100.00 Gift Card

Design, synthesis and imaging of signal enhanced photoacoustic molecular probes
Yun-Sheng Chen
Research Advisor: Prof. Stanislav Emelianov