Justus Ndukaife

On October 1, 2024, the VINSE Fall Faculty Celebration took place to honor and celebrate the remarkable achievements of our community. This annual event not only highlighted individual accomplishments but also fostered a sense of camaraderie among colleagues. WELCOME TO VINSE Daniel Gonzales | Janell Lees… Read More

At the recent School of Engineering End of the Year Social, Dean Krish Roy presented several awards. Four faculty members from the Vanderbilt Institute for Nanoscale Science and Engineering (VINSE) were honored for their outstanding contributions to research. Rising Star Research Award: Marjan Rafat Marjan Rafat, Assistant Professor of… Read More

Sen Yang is a fifth-year graduate student pursuing a Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Materials Science under the direction of Dr. Justus Ndukaife. Ndukaife’s group focuses on multidisciplinary research including plasmonic and resonant dielectric nanostructures for efficient nano-optical trapping, manipulation, enhanced spectroscopy, and sensing of nanoscale objects. Sen’s recent publication… Read More

DISSERTATION DEFENSE Chuchuan Hong, Electrical Engineering *under the direction of Justus Ndukaife “Nanoscale optical trapping and sensing: from plasmons to Mie resonances” 03.08.23  |  10:00am  |  349A Featheringill Hall Optical tweezers use tightly focused laser beam to manipulate microscopic objects. However, the conventional optical tweezers are restricted… Read More

Sen Yang, a 4th years Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Materials Science from Vanderbilt University, was awarded the 2021 Vanderbilt IMS Best Student Paper Award for his work entitled “Nanoparticle Trapping in a Quasi-BIC System”.  The award comes with a $500 prize and a corresponding plaque. This work was completed under… Read More

Justus C. Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, has received a prestigious NSF CAREER Award for foundational research in cell-to-cell communication. His CAREER project, “Resonant Dielectric Optical Metasurfaces for Single-Cell Extracellular Vesicles Analysis,” will enable Ndukaife to associate the properties of extracellular vesicles directly to their cell sources—up to the resolution… Read More

About the author: Sen Yang is currently a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Materials Science Program under the direction of Dr. Justus Ndukaife. Sen studies dielectric nanotweezers for nanoscale particles trapping and dielectric nanoantennas for biomaterial sensing applications. In recently published work, he proposed an all-dielectric nanotweezer based on… Read More

Congratulations to Chuchuan Hong recipient of the 2021 VINSE Best Graduate Student Publication award. In addition to a cash prize, Chuchuan was selected to give the graduate student presentation at the 21st annual Nanoscience & Nanotechnology Forum. Chuchuan’s recent paper on optical nanotweezers demonstrated a novel approach called opto-thermo-… Read More

Chancellor Daniel Diermeier, Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Cybele Raver and Faculty Senate Chair Mark Magnuson, Louise B. McGavock Professor of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics, presented awards to 13 faculty members during the Fall Faculty Assembly… Read More

Justus Ndukaife, assistant professor of electrical engineering, spent 20 minutes describing his optical nanotweezers to a panel of five distinguished professors from the United States, Australia, and China during a live online competition—Rising Stars of Light—that has drawn 260,000 viewers worldwide. After two sessions in which 10 finalists presented their… Read More