David Cliffel

About the author: Marc Nabhan, a 2023 PhD graduate from the Department of Chemical Engineering, successfully defended his dissertation under the guidance of Dr. Kane Jennings. Currently serving as the co-founder and CEO of Optomar Technologies, Marc leads the development of a metabolic rate sensor designed for precise calorie… Read More

Joshua Passantino is a 2022 PhD graduate from the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering under the direction of Drs. Kane Jennings and David Cliffel. He is currently the Lead Electrochemist at Nth Cycle, an electrochemically focused green metals processing technology company based in Boston, Ma. His… Read More

DISSERTATION DEFENSE Nicholas Hortance, Interdisciplinary Materials Science *under the direction of Dr. David Cliffel & Dr. Kelsey Hatzell “Investigating Solid Electrolytes and Catalysts for Electrochemical Ammonia Synthesis” 07.14.22 | 10:00am CST | 5502 Stevenson Center | Zoom Ammonia (NH3) is a vital chemical to the agricultural and explosives… Read More

Gabriel LeBlanc earned his PhD. from Vanderbilt University in 2010 under the direction of Dr. 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 Vanderbilt Institute of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) to publish over 10 peer-reviewed articles as a co-author. Read More

Sara Winn, Ph.D. (Melow) received her Ph.D. in Chemistry from Vanderbilt University in June of 2021 under the supervision of Dr. 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. Read More

“Photosystem I Enhances the Efficiency of a Natural, Gel-Based Dye-Sensitized Solar Cell” published in ACS Applied Bio Materials has been selected as a VINSE spotlight publication. About the author: Joshua Passantino is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Chemical & Biomolecular Engineering under the direction of Dr. Kane Jennings and… Read More

Congratulations to IMS graduate student John Williams II. John was promoted from Major to Lt. Colonel in the United States Army. Originally from Orlando, FL, John earned his BS in Chemistry & Life Science with a Nuclear Engineering Minor from the United States Military Academy, West Point,… Read More

Episode 26 of the VINSE Spotlight Podcast Chris Stachurski tells Alice Leach about carbon dots – tiny luminescent particles of carbon. Chris’s paper ” Optical and electrochemical tuning of hydrothermally synthesized nitrogen-doped carbon dots” was published in Nanoscale Advances. Chris is a 5th year chemistry graduate student in… Read More

In the podcast, we interview the author of a VINSE Spotlight publication. We find out what their paper is about, the science behind it and how their nano research fits into the bigger picture. This week Alice Leach talks to Kody Wolfe (from the labs of David Cliffel and Kane… Read More

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… Read More