Materials Science

Wednesday saw the completion of yet another successful TechVenture Challenge. After six years, we are still encouraged that each year the presentations continue to improve and be of higher quality. This can be attributed not only to the student teams and their hard work, but also to the student organizers… Read More

Topics ranged from giving nanoparticles the aquatic skills of an Olympic swimmer so they can deliver anti-cancer drugs more effectively…to using game theory to help Sri Lankan farmers decide what crops to plant…to developing an ultrasonic Trojan horse to destroy tumors…to using blue light as an alternative to antibiotics in… Read More

If you add quantum dots – nanocrystals 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair – to a smartphone battery it will charge in 30 seconds, but the effect only lasts for a few recharge cycles. However, a group of researchers at Vanderbilt University … Read More

A Vanderbilt PhD student in interdisciplinary materials science took home a first-place poster award at August’s Microscopy & Microanalysis conference, held last month in Portland, Oregon. Jake Benzing, whose adviser is Associate Professor of Materials Science and Engineering James Wittig, presented a research poster and abstract titled “Fe-25Mn-3Al-3Si TWIP-TRIP Steel… Read More

Kelsey Beavers, a Vanderbilt University Ph.D. candidate in interdisciplinary materials science, is exploring how inserting engineering into biological processes can lead to a healthier society. (Susan Urmy/Vanderbilt University) Behind the pathology for a variety of painful and deadly diseases lie genes that aren’t doing their jobs. They… Read More

KEVIN MILLER Kevin Miller reflected in his optoelectronic device. With a slight turn of the tweezers holding it, an inch-long, mirrored chip reflects the face of its creator. Less obvious than Kevin Miller’s smile are tiny filters on the chip’s surface that he hopes will one day… Read More

Solar cells that produce electricity 24/7, not just when the sun is shining. Mobile phones with built-in power cells that recharge in seconds and work for weeks between charges. These are just two of the possibilities raised by a novel supercapacitor design invented by material scientists at Vanderbilt University that… Read More

Vanderbilt is on track this year to become the number one producer of minority Ph.D. recipients in physics, astronomy and materials science, an area where minorities are grossly underrepresented. Watch the emotional journey of the latest doctoral graduates from the Fisk-Vanderbilt-Master’s-to-Ph.D. Bridge Program. https://news.vanderbilt.edu/2012/06/08/vucast-extra-bridge-program/  … Read More