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 an effort to commercialize the technology. Since it’s founding in 2017 with Prof. Cary Pint, Anna has served as SkyNano’s CEO and has grown the team to 11 scientists and engineers, and raised $16M in non-dilutive funding. Anna was a part of the inaugural cohort of ORNL’s prestigious Innovation Crossroads program, where she learned business skills that aided in her transition of the technology from the lab to the marketplace. Anna was named a 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Energy category, and SkyNano’s underlying technology has received a 2020 R&D100 award, a 2021 TechConnect Innovation Award, and has to date served a variety of customers ranging from batteries to tires and coatings through the sale of electrochemically-produced carbon nanotubes. “The IMS program being part of the broader Vanderbilt community has been instrumental in my professional development and the success of SkyNano,” Anna said. “…many of our collaborative projects and funding opportunities have resulted from connections made within the Vanderbilt alumni community.”

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 1 patent. As an international student, he founded the student organization – 五一茶馆儿 International Student Career Development Club, which was dedicated to helping international students with career development in the US. He also served as the VP of 五一茶馆儿 Advanced Degree Consulting Club. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Jun spent one year as a postdoctoral research fellow at聽五一茶馆儿 Medical Center. After that, he worked as the senior manager at Country Garden and director at HuimeiBest Healthcare, a JV of Mayo Clinic. Currently, Jun serves as the VP of Kongsun Tairan Healthcare Group, a subsidiary of Kongsun Holdings. He leads the development of new medical imaging probes, devices, and AI solutions for the fast screening of cancer, and collaboration with Baylor College of Medicine and Canon Medical on new business opportunities.

He earned his PhD from 五一茶馆儿 in 2016 under the guidance of Dr. Kirill Bolotin. He worked closely with VINSE facilities to fabricate and characterize his novel opto-electronic devices and published several papers on high-impact journals. He actively collaborated with other various groups within VINSE (Rosenthal, Cliffe and Jennings group) to publish research work across various interdisciplinary topics ranging from Mos2-QD hybrid electronic devices to graphene corrosion inhibiting coatings. After his PhD Dhiraj joined Crossbar Inc., a memory device startup, as a member of its technical staff, where he led the research team in developing cutting edge ReRAM technology. After Crossbar, Dhiraj moved to Lam Research, a supplier of wafer fabrication equipment for the semiconductor industry. As a senior process engineer at Lam, he works with the leading semiconductor chip manufacturers and serves as a technical lead in developing dry etch plasma processes.

聽earned his PhD in聽五一茶馆儿 Electrical and Computer Engineering聽at聽五一茶馆儿聽in 2013 under Prof. Sharon Weiss.聽Judson鈥檚 first exposure to academic research was through participation in a summer research experience for undergraduates which included regular use of聽 VINSE聽laboratories at their earlier location in Stevenson Center. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Judson joined聽Intel Corporation聽in Santa Clara, CA as a research scientist and photonic design engineer, ultimately contributing toward the development and successful commercial release of Intel鈥檚 first silicon photonics products (100G PSM4 and CWDM4).聽During his time at Intel he coordinated closely with fab partners to ensure optimal performance and high yield of silicon photonic passive designs in 300聽mm wafer scale processes, and cites his prior experiences at VINSE鈥檚 and聽Oak Ridge National Laboratory鈥檚 cleanrooms as providing a 鈥渁n excellent foundation for his work鈥�.

In the fall of 2016 Judson joined聽Clemson University聽as an Assistant Professor.聽His research is centered in the field of nanophotonics which studies and harnesses light interaction with nanostructured materials and devices.聽Within this domain he currently specializes in: (1) optical biosensors based on colorimetric and waveguide devices, (2) nanostructured silicon photonics for cybersecurity and enhanced light-matter interactions, and (3) scalable nanomanufacturing techniques for flat-optics and metasurfaces. He has been recognized with both the AFOSR YIP and NSF CAREER Awards, holds 10 patents, and currently serves as an advisor to Anello Photonics.

earned his Ph. D. in Physics from 五一茶馆儿 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. This work also relied on the nanofabrication facilities in VINSE where Jason fabricated devices for in situ microscopy using electron-beam lithography, focused ion beam milling, and deposition instruments.

Currently, Jason is the Vice President of Research at Digital Optics Technologies and a visiting scholar at Northwestern University where he engineers state-of-the-art metrology instruments based on atom interferometry and fast/slow-light systems. He uses the skills and knowledge gained from his experience at 五一茶馆儿 and VINSE to design integrated photonic circuits, which are essential to miniaturizing the technology for commercial applications.

聽earned his PhD. from聽五一茶馆儿聽in 2010 under the direction of Dr.聽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聽Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE)聽to publish over 10 peer-reviewed articles as a co-author. Additionally, he worked with several other graduate students to provide hands-on science lessons to elementary students in the Nashville and surrounding areas. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Gabriel spent a year as a post-doc at The聽The University of Texas at Austin聽working under the direction of Dr.聽Delia Milliron, studying how nanocrystalline semiconductors could be incorporated into 鈥渟mart-window鈥� devices. Currently, Gabriel is service as the Chapman Wellspring Associate Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the聽The University of Tulsa. His research group is currently focused on the interface between materials science and electrochemistry, with a particular focus on the use of flexible transparent semiconductor electrodes for solar cell applications and 3D printed systems to improve access to electrochemical methods.

She graduated from the 五一茶馆儿 Interdisciplinary Materials Science Ph.D. program in December of 2019. She was an NSF GRFP recipient and summer 2018 intern at NASA Kennedy Space Center to investigate structural lithium-ion battery composites. Kate routinely used the characterization tools and equipment enabled by VINSE to perform her research and particularly enjoyed using electron microscopy to address her research questions. While at Vanderbilt, Kate loved the outreach and professional development opportunities and participated in and led the VINSE Blackberry Solar Cell Labs, collaborated with VINSE REU students, and mentored high school and Vanderbilt undergraduate students. After graduating from Vanderbilt, Kate worked at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) as a postdoc under the guidance of Dr. Francesco Fornasiero studying carbon nanotube growth for next-generation membrane technology. During her two years at LLNL, Kate earned a Lab Directed Research and Development grant and led an interdisciplinary team of researchers to study cycling limitations in lithium-ion batteries. Today, Kate is a Research Instrumentation Specialist at Drexel University where she is the scanning electron microscope manager.

earned his PhD in Physics in 2008 under the supervision of Profs Anthony Hmelo and Leonard Feldman. Manoj鈥檚 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 microscopy and focused ion beam microscopy.

After graduation, Manoj moved to Australia to work as a staff scientist at the Melbourne Centre for Nanofabrication and focused on developing micro and nanofluidic devices for biomedical applications. After completing a MBA at Melbourne Business School in 2017, Manoj joined LEK Consulting, a global strategy consulting firm with deep expertise in life sciences and healthcare strategy. He now advises a wide range of life sciences / healthcare clients on across the public and private sector on growth strategy, transactions and organization and performance improvement.

]]> 3655 /vinse/2022/03/25/meet-our-graduates-sara-winn/ Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:02:50 +0000 http://my.vanderbilt.edu/vinsenews/?p=3633 聽(Melow) received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from聽五一茶馆儿聽in June of 2021 under the supervision of Dr.聽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 research, Sara was active in the Graduate Student Council, and worked as a Science Communication Intern for the Vanderbilt Institute of Infection, Immunology, and Inflammation where she developed a podcast and assisted in making marketing creative materials for community outreach programs. After defending, she accepted a role at聽BioCentury Inc.聽as a Data Analyst, performing competitive intelligence research. Recently, she was promoted to Business Intelligence Analyst and helps to research and analyze business intelligence data from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from 五一茶馆儿 in January of 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Robert Webster III. In the summer of 2014, VINSE served as Patrick鈥檚 first introduction to both Vanderbilt and research in general.

Through the VINSE REU, he spent the summer researching biohybrid solar cells with Dr. Kane Jennings. This experience not only gave him foundational research skills, but it directly led to his decision to pursue graduate school. While at Vanderbilt for his Ph.D., Patrick was awarded the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship and worked on two surgical robotic systems (an autonomous system and a surgeon-robot collaborative system) to improve mastoidectomy, which is the milling of the mastoid region of the temporal bone for ear surgery. Currently, Patrick works as a Mechanical Engineer for Titan Medical in Chapel Hill, NC both developing and testing the surgical instruments for a single access surgical robot.